Formula for Tough Times: Four Ideas to Maintain Morale and Productivity

Guest post by: Richard Lepsinger
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The Truth About Performance Management: Four Insights on Making Your System Work - By Richard Lepsinger

It's tough out there and companies are looking for ways to maintain employee morale and productivity. I was looking for practical suggestions that work in the real world, particularly in today's environment. So I went directly to managers and HR professionals to find out what they were doing to keep people engaged and focused on results and I found four best practices that were consistent across the interviews.

Increase disclosure. Employees are always interested in the company's financial health and leadership's view of industry and competitive conditions but tough times heighten the need for timely information. The majority of companies I spoke with are increasing the frequency, detail, and amount of information they are providing.

Dust off recognition programs. Although many companies have recognition programs in place they are often not being used effectively. A quick win for many companies is to ensure managers use available recognition programs. These range from an e-card/thank you note to monetary rewards.

Find alternatives to lay-offs. In addition to the pain lay-offs cause individuals, many companies also suffer when the inevitable turn around comes and they discover they don't have the right people in place. To reduce costs yet avoid this problem organizations are experimenting with unpaid furloughs, salary freezes or cuts, four-day work weeks, and reducing contributions to retirement and health plans. These actions are still painful but they are seen as the lesser evil and better in the long-term for both employees and the company.

Involve employees. Encouraging employees to contribute ideas for cost savings and process improvement accomplishes two important objectives. Not only do some of the best ideas come from the employee population but involving people in decisions that affect them decreases the feeling of uncertainty.

It's easier to keep employees motivated when times are good. Exceptional leaders and organizations use a combination of traditional and innovative ideas to maintain high levels of morale and productivity in a challenging business environment.

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The Truth About Performance Management: Four Insights on Making Your System Work - By Richard Lepsinger

About the Author: Richard Lepsinger

RSS for Richard's articles - Visit Richard's website

Rick is President of OnPoint Consulting and has a twenty year track record of success as a human resource consultant and executive. He was a Founder and Managing Partner of Manus, a human capital consulting firm, which he sold to Right Management Consultants in 1998. At Right, Rick was the Managing Vice President of the Northeast Consulting Practice where he was responsible to 55 professionals and grew revenue from $7 million to $20 million.

The focus of Rick's work has been on helping organizations close the gap between strategy and execution. He has served as a consultant to leaders and management teams at the Astra-Zeneca, Bayer Pharmaceuticals, Citibank, Coca-Cola Company, ConocoPhilipps, Eisai Inc., Goldman Sachs, Johnson & Johnson, KPMG, Merck & Co., the NYSE Euronext, Northwestern Mutual Life, Pfizer Inc., Pitney Bowes, Prudential, Siemens Medical Systems, and Subaru of America among others.

Rick has extensive experience in formulating and implementing strategic plans, managing change, and talent management. He has addressed executive conferences and made presentations to leadership teams on leader effectiveness, strategy execution, performance management, 360ï¿½ feedback and its uses, and developing and using competency models.

Rick has authored or co-authored five books on leadership including Closing the Execution Gap: How Great Leaders and Their Companies Get Results published by Jossey-Bass/Wiley, Flexible Leadership: Creating Value by Balancing Multiple Challenges and Choices, (co-author with Dr. Gary Yukl) published by Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, The Art and Science of 360º Feedback, (co-author with Toni Lucia) published by Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, and The Art and Science of Competency Models, (co-author with Toni Lucia) of published by Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer. His newest book is Virtual Team Success: A Practical Guide to Working and Leading From a Distance published by Jossey-Bass/Wiley.

Click here to visit Richard's website.

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