When employers and their employees are weathering rough seas together it is more critical than ever to stay connected and keep spirits high. Encouragement during difficult times is fundamental.

The timing on the return to better days for business may today seem somewhat uncertain. Pondering on those better days, results may have then come about without extraordinary measures. Conversely, surviving hard times requires particularly tactful efforts and,  possibly, going back full circle to the fundamental principles of business, some of which may even need to be revisited given changing circumstances.

One can logically argue that tough times call for tough measures. As companies currently face a unique situation and are evaluating their operations, possibly even balancing profits with acceptable levels of loss and trying to make up for the economic disruptions, the first thought tends to be “how can we cut costs”.

However, cutting costs or reviewing financial planning and projections cannot be addressed in isolation. Companies also need to exert all the leverage possible to motivate and mobilise a key resource, their employees.

The importance of effective intra-company communication is crucial, giving employees that much-needed guidance and direction. While employers need to show empathy and offer support, the same applies to employees. Attaining a ‘we are in this together’ mindset should be the ultimate objective to ensure the right synergies to effectively address and better manage the turbulence.

In times like these, transparency and communication are particularly needed to establish a collaborative environment which encourages high levels of creativity and flexibility. This, calling for a decentralised line of communication which is not only top-down directed but also bottom-up, to ensure a two way reach without overlooking any potential voids due to departmental vacuums or silos within the company.  Lack of communication fuels speculation, which is certainly not conducive to the desired levels of cooperation. Hence, the need to ensure a communication plan which clearly relates priorities and outcomes to all employees, keeping them fully engaged. Establishing a good level of dialogue to better understand and mitigate the risks, along with their consequences, and an overall ability to respond always remains an important prerequisite.  

Lack of communication fuels speculation

Both sides need to connect to the company vision, thereby setting the ground for collective efforts and identifying the respective contributing roles to be able to focus and build on those areas which should essentially be of common interest.

In difficult moments like these, employers and employees alike need to remain hopeful because hope is what will enable them to see that there is light at the end of the tunnel, thereby promoting the notion that bad days can help build and better prepare businesses for better days.

We are experiencing accelerated changing circumstances where some companies may be struggling to reach out and extend their focus from being customer centric to now also needing to be employee centric. This needs to be considered within a scenario of potentially-declining job security along with the introduction of virtual workplaces resulting in a growing remote and digital workforce.

Employers are having to reinvent certain jobs and tasks, some of which also needing to be based more on trust. This bringing along challenges of re-dimensioned distance performance management, along with workforce adjustments requiring different tools and skills not only to deal with present circumstances but, possibly, also beyond.

This shift needs to be attained while ensuring that the corporate culture, objectives and values remain aligned with that of its employees. Hence, the importance of matching company with employee expectations.

To overcome highly complex and rapidly changing times, employers need to exercise great care and good judgement in determining the direction and action to be taken, ensuring this is well encapsulated within a good overall strategy. The learnings from this difficult period will place employers in good stead to tackle the challenges they will face in the future.

In spite of these changes and significant hurdles, both employers and employees are broadly repositioning themselves to be better placed to respond and rise to the occasion. In the process they are becoming more and more digitalised and making greater use of technology combined with new ways of working to better underpin the new socio-economic and environmental realities within the market and their respective companies.  

In hard times, looking beyond the familiar boundaries of one’s operations is good business. Indeed, just as much as we are living challenging moments, we likewise need to recognise that these can also lead to innovative and empowering opportunities. Opportunities for employers to rewrite their style of leadership, ways of management, lines of communication and levels of employee engagement. This stems from the need to see opportunity in every scenario. Let us never lose track of the fact that bad times do not last forever.

Norman Aquilina, Group CEO, Simonds Farsons Cisk