Business performance and staff morale are entwined and are dramatically impacted when things are tough for your business. When there is a necessity to make staff redundant, reduce incentives, freeze salaries, freeze hiring and require staff to work longer hours, employees lose confidence. This is highly detrimental to business performance. It‘s important to know what can drive positive results and change to help your business thrive.
By Michael Derin CEO, The Azure Group
STRUGGLING BUSINESS OWNER? YOU'RE NOT ALONE
In a tough economy, many business owners struggle with just managing to keep their businesses afloat, while cutting costs, working with limited resources, working with an "all hands on deck" attitude to get the job done, and low staff morale.
As a struggling business owner, opposing forces dramatically affect both the morale of your teams and of the business itself, while you work to maintain the profitability and sustainability of your business.
Most business owners misguidedly work to shelter their teams from their business worries, and this creates an unsettled team that don't know whether they are safe or not, or whether the business is even going to make it through the tough times.
Often, by holding this card close to your chest, you are creating low morale in your business. This doesn't foster a positive culture, which is so desperately needed when things are tough in the business to drive change and improvement.
TRANSPARENCY IS PARAMOUNT
If you’re a business owner who is struggling in the short term, you need to instil your long term vision to the team. Even when business is difficult, you can still create an environment where your team feel important, are delivering on your goals and are engaged in the long term success of your business.
Surround yourself with people that have a medium- to long-term vision of their future in the organisation and get them to focus on the next three years. Have productive weekly or monthly staff meetings and engage your staff in understanding exactly what’s going on in the business, good and bad, so they’re more aware of what’s going on around them.
Engage the management level of your organisation in decision-making, so they can talk to their teams and reinforce your message to motivate staff. Get your team involved in KPI and strategic plans, so they’re engaged in the business’ long-term success.
If you’re transparent about what’s going well and what needs improvement, and ask your team for ideas, they’ll feel involved and want to offer suggestions about how to improve efficiencies within the business.
Involve them in determining which ideas get implemented, tracked and measured for success. When you sincerely ask for suggestions with the intent of using their input to improve the work environment, it’s amazing the positive feedback you’ll receive from the staff.
YOUR TEAM WILL MAKE THE DIFFERENCE
Motivating staff in tough times is always really difficult. Whenever bad news is delivered, you have to deal with disgruntled staff, gossiping, uncertainty and insecurity.
It’s just not possible to motivate every single person because each individual is going to have their own objectives.
However, during these times, it is important to:
Not blame your team for business underperformance if they can’t control external factors – in fact, thank them for their commitment.
Be honest with your team when making tough decisions. You want them to understand why the decision was made and how it will benefit them in the long run.
Reiterate the long-term goals of the business – if they know the company can grow and be successful, they’ll remain committed.
Be prepared to reward staff who are integral to the business’ success – even if this eats into your business profits. You need team members, who are integral to the success of your long-term goals, to stay and motivate others. It may even be worth incentivising these staff.
- Take the time to sit down one-on-one with your team members and management team to help them understand why certain decisions are being made, and gain a better understanding of how they feel within their own roles.
Looking for more information on codes of practice and resources? My Business Workplace has a library of over 200 documents to ensure you’re compliant with workplace legislation.
Michael Derin CEO, The Azure Group
Michael has over 25 years experience as a qualified Chartered Accountant within the business and commercial sectors. Michael works across our Technology, Corporate Advisory and CFO operations, managing highly complex projects to success.
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