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How to manage your way through an Economic Downturn

Written by: Chris Watson

Article Overview: Challenging economic downturns expose floors in most businesses and organisations which will include some of your people, and in turn will have an adverse effect on the overall performance of the company. Staff can become despondent, de-motivated and unsure of their future which will eventually affect customer service, quality, efficiencies and production. To be successful you will need to manage your people better than ever before, retain your top performers and where a vacancy exists utilise only the most robust recruitment processes to identify a candidate that can bring talent and where possible portable assets with them.

How to manage your way through an Economic Downturn

Challenging economic downturns expose floors in most businesses and organisations which will include some of your people, and in turn will have an adverse effect on the overall performance of the company. Staff can become despondent, de-motivated and unsure of their future which will eventually affect customer service, quality, efficiencies and production.

To be successful you will need to manage your people better than ever before, retain your top performers and where a vacancy exists utilise only the most robust recruitment processes to identify a candidate that can bring talent and where possible portable assets with them.

Communication

Effective communication is vital during such difficult times. People who receive little or no information will make it up or guess, creating untrue rumours that can get really out of control and before you know it you are losing good performers.

You need to maintain morale and to do this you will need to communicate regularly and effectively. Decide what information is important and report it weekly in a positive manner, sales may fall below last years figures but your efficiencies may increase. Customer satisfaction ratings can rise and quality can be improved which can have a positive affect on morale. Sharing plans and initiatives to improve the current situation makes your people realise you are not just sitting back and waiting for the climate to change, you are trying to change it.

Performance Management

If you have a performance management system in place review it now, is it working? If you do not currently have a performance management system in place then make it a priority today. You will have to step up a gear to survive the current market conditions and that will mean ensuring that every person in the business delivers what is expected of them every day. Do your people know exactly what is expected of them every day? Do they know what good looks like? The key to successful performance management systems is to keep them simple and not to be afraid of differences in format between different levels of your team. A shop floor worker will require a different format to a senior executive, but this does not change the performance management system.

If you are reviewing your current system then look at the simplicity of it, the management time taken with it and what improvements have been achieved by it that are absolutely measurable. Take expert advice if necessary it will pay dividends.

If you have no performance management system in place at the moment, make it your number one priority. You can design it, have input from your current management team and train the managers how to use it effectively. This is an ideal stage to be at but take some specialist assistance.

All businesses and organisations will have to measure and drive for continuous improvement through these tough and challenging times to succeed.


Training & Development

In difficult and challenging times so many businesses and organisations look to cut cost out and unfortunately it has to be done at times, but remember there is good and bad cost in most companies. Do not take out the good costs. Continuing to train and develop your people will place you firmly ahead of your competition in skills and knowledge that could make all the difference. Your people will still feel valued and not so vulnerable which will motivate and increase morale. Just make sure the training delivers its purpose and that you are not paying over the odds or including travel and accommodation charges unnecessarily. Bring the training to you.

Recruitment

With more and more people entering the job market each day your opportunity to fill vacancies with quality talented people has increased immensely. That being said if your recruitment process does not have the ability to find only the best you may be no better off. Take the time to review your current recruitment process in detail and create a robust process that will deliver results. Now is the time to pick out some very talented people for your business. Utilise skills testing, personality profiling, scoring mechanisms and aptitude testing. Gain employment references for all possible candidates. Just relying on an interview will not guarantee true talented performers that can deliver.

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  How to Hire the Right Person During an Economic Downturn

Article Tags: adverse effect, assets, climate, company staff, current market, current situation, customer satisfaction ratings, customer service quality, difficult times, economic downturns, effective communication, efficiencies, initiatives, organisations, performance management system, performance management systems, recruitment processes, rumours, top performers, vacancy



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