Keep Employees in the Loop

In difficult economic times, the news an organization has to communicate to its employees is often negative – “profits are down,” “orders have not met targets,” “redundancies may be required.” Unwilling to disappoint people or unable to provide the answer to these problems, the owner often fails to communicate with their staff, and engagement activities are seen as an easy way to cut costs.

Inevitably, employees fill the resulting communication vacuum with rumor. Frustration builds as employees suspect that management are having conversations amongst themselves and not telling the wider workforce what is going on. As management begins to lose control of the organization’s rumor mill, employees disengage, resulting in a drop in customer service, increased stress and ill health in the workplace, and a delay in the implementation of efficiency and cost cutting measures.

Frequent, high quality employee engagement is one of the critical activities that will help the organization to steer more smoothly through an uncertain climate.


Put engagement on the to-do list
 A difficult economy often prompts small business owners to dig deep and focus on financial measures. As they try to keep the company afloat and improve cash flow, they inevitably tend to focus on keeping customer contracts, finding new sales and introducing cost-cutting measures.

Often this leaves little time or energy for direct employee engagement and communication. Top leaders make hopeful assumptions that managers or foremen will cascade information to their teams, but often those managers are ill-equipped to do the job, unclear about the key messages they should be communicating and wary of scaring off staff with negative news.

Then, employees get frustrated all over again as they suspect management is not telling the wider workforce what is going on.

An all too predictable situation can arise in which messages have been poorly communicated – or misinterpreted – and have resulted in a worsening of the organization’s situation. Employees become concerned about the rumors they have heard from inside and outside the organization, and as a result are doing their best to ensure they keep their jobs.

Owners don’t consider or address the key questions in people’s minds: “Will I lose my job?” and “What should I be doing differently when talking to my customers or my employees?”
Here’s what owners can do differently to effectively communicate with their teams:

Help managers think like employees
When faced with a difficult situation, sales people often focus on what they know best – sales volume and financial targets. People engagement is normally not a strength, and sales people aren’t aware of its importance.

The landscape business owner could support this sales person in a number of key ways:

• Develop a set of consistent communication messages to combat rumor and confusion.
• Draw up an engagement plan including face-to-face team briefings and question-and-answer sessions. 
• Work with managers to help them engage their staff in revenue improvement or cost-cutting measures.
• Map informal relationships within the company, identify opinion builders and ensure these people are also included in the official information flow.

Don’t keep people in the dark. When leaders focus on financial targets, they can lose sight of communication and employee engagement. However, in difficult times – when employees are often concerned about their future and what they could be doing differently to support the organization – there is a need for more communication, not less.

An information vacuum coupled with fear often has far worse consequences than spending valuable time and energy on getting the engagement right.