A thought often overlooked as a key resource for companies
in crisis is their employees. Companies
with a track record of positive employee engagement can draw on that investment
to help navigate turbulence when it surfaces.
Every company will face the storm clouds of crisis at some point in time. Be it workplace violence, natural disaster,
loss of a large client, or more commonly, a blow to leadership confidence and
competence. Widely publicized integrity
issues within several large corporations recently are not isolated
incidences. These types of crises happen
all the time. How leadership handles
these situations determines how much or little damage is done and how long it
takes to recover. Engaging the workforce
should be a key component in every turn-around strategy and if well executed, often
actually accelerates recovery.
The natural tendency for management teams in crisis is to be
insular. This is precisely the wrong
tactic. While highly sensitive or
confidential information should be wisely protected, complete silence indirectly
raises employee and public suspicion. Depending
on the severity of the crisis, companies frequently find themselves dealing with
an exodus of talent. In turn, those leaving
the company are the very people the company can ill-afford to lose. When things turn sour, the best talent moves
on because they can, leaving a company holding the bag. Transparency and honesty go a long way to
assuring people that there is a recovery path and give employees a reason to
stay. The ideal alternative is to
empower your employees to be part of the solution.
Companies with an established employee engagement culture
are far better equipped to handle any crisis.
These companies have proven to their workforce that their voice matters,
management takes action, and employees are valued, visible, and vital. Companies without an established engagement
framework can still benefit from getting employees engaged in crisis response
and recovery if properly guided and equipped.
A crucial first step in the response phase is communication. Employees need necessary facts unfiltered by
politics or spin. Of important note and
what most managers do not realize until too late is that in the absence of
facts, employees create them. Frequently,
the facts employees create are often far worse than reality. You want your employees to be part of the
solution, therefore by all means trust them enough with the right
information. For example, if a company
needs to make a potentially damaging disclosure to the SEC or investors, proactively
inform your employees on the issues at hand and don’t let them read about it on
the Web or in the paper or worse yet, from a family member! At a minimum, inform the workforce in parallel
and be honest. If the company is about
to report a substantial problem, make sure employees hear it from management
and at the same time ask for their assistance in the recovery. This principle holds true regardless of the
type or source of the crisis.
The second step is engaging employees to gain insight and
ideas in how to respond appropriately and then more important, how to move into
and through recovery – as fast as possible.
Small tiger teams, focus groups, brainstorming, and other forms of
engagement get the conversation moving.
Employees involved in the conversation will feel a greater sense of ownership
tied to the outcome and are less likely to feel de-valued or forgotten in the
midst of the storm. Implement an
approach or process to triage ideas and move them through the communications
stream as quickly as possible. As
employees see management leaning into the storm and actively interacting with
the workforce, more ideas will surface.
Don’t be surprised in the beginning if the ideas that come forward seem
somewhat pedestrian especially if your organization hasn’t established an
engagement culture as its norm. However,
the longer and more consistent management is in drawing forth and critically
evaluating input, the better the ideas will become.
Lastly, provide regular feedback throughout the process and
recognize employee contributions including those you choose not to use. As employees realize that every idea and
initiative to move through the crisis is valued and carefully considered, they
will be more inclined to stay in the fight with management.
Additional insight into key attributes of employee
engagement are available in a previously published article titled: “V” is for
Employee Engagement at http://connect2action.blogspot.com/2012/10/v-is-for-employee-engagement.html
Duane Grove is founder of Connect2Action, a strategy
execution specialist at the intersection of employee engagement and executive
leadership, igniting innovation as a lever to accelerate your growth. Follow Duane on Twitter @connect2action and
connect with him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+. Learn more by visiting
www.connect2action.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment