Six Years Ago and One Big Mistake – You’re Just Lucky to Have a Job

Now that certain industries are seeing some recovery from the economic downturn, from a human resource perspective (and therefore a business perspective…I’ll get to that in a minute) there is one big mistake that is proving to be a key differentiating factor between a successful recovery and continued struggle. Let’s go back six years. What happened to your organization? What did it do? How did it respond? The companies that are now showing strong signs of recovery are those that figured out how to deal with the difficult problems head on, but with transparency, kindness, openness and fairness. These organizations didn’t hide their problems. They were honest and candid with employees. They were also confident when that was in short supply. They involved employees and didn’t leave them in the dark. These organizations didn’t treat their employees like they should just feel lucky to even have a job.

Even when they had to make difficult changes like reducing staff, closing plants, or ending programs or services their employees were more resilient because their organizations understood you can’t solve a business problem without understanding and solving the people problems. Someone (I’d like to give credit, but I don’t remember who it was) at a human resource conference once said, “If you’ve got a business problem, you have a human resources problem.” Behind every problem is a person or people who made it so somewhere along the way. The same should be said for solutions to business problems.

The organizations in the “lucky to have a job” category have a new challenge. The marketplace is much brighter. There is more opportunity and their employees are voluntarily leaving. Sometimes they leave even when they don’t have another job. It’s much harder to recover in the current environment when your talent has more confidence in what’s out there than in where they are. That talent hung on because maybe they had to. Maybe now they don’t. And more and more won’t. That’s a scary thought considering the talent you’ve most likely retained is your top talent. They’re likely the ones with the most experience, productivity, job knowledge, and knowledge of your business overall.

So here we are. Six years later. I’m quite busy with organizations that understood and prioritized the “people problems.” They’ve recovered more quickly and are tackling new projects and initiatives. They’re operating more efficiently. They’ve found new solutions to old problems. They’re frequently experiencing growth or at least operating in a more healthy way. Sometimes they’re adding new staff, but they’re more selective now. It’s not that they didn’t get punched in the gut along with a lot of other organizations. They did and it hurt, but they persevered anyways.

I also work with a lot of employers who, for a variety of reasons, are on the other end of the spectrum. The economy is recovering, but they’re not. I hear, “I wish we would have….” But they didn’t. Their recovery will be a little more prolonged and their strategy will be different, but that’s their reality. It’s often a hard look back, but it’s necessary. It’s necessary to acknowledge what went wrong, why it went wrong and how to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

The economy will tank again someday (hopefully not soon), so remember a few really big things:

• Be transparent, even when it’s hard and messy;
• Communicate openly and honestly, but be appropriately gentle;
• Genuinely invite your employees to engage and participate, even when you know they’re frustrated (That’s actually a good problem to have. I’d prefer they be concerned and interested in the future of the organization than passive and dismissive);
• Have the courage to be confident even in the face of change and adversity.

Learn it. Live it. Everyday.