By Vanessa Wilson,Vitil People Solutions
In the wake of the global Coronavirus Pandemic, business leaders are struggling to cope with the speed of change and make decisions they have never been faced with before. Some of those crisis decisions are around the operational needs of their business and whether they can keep their staffing at the same level.
We want to provide some advice to SMEs across Perth on how to manage communication with your team and provide some options on how to handle the situation.
There are many options open to SMEs to reduce their staffing levels:
Communicating with your team in uncertain times is a potentially sensitive situation and needs to be handled carefully to ensure that team morale is not impacted negatively, as this could easily generate further adverse impact on your business.
The importance of communication in line with the values of your organization is pivotal at a time like this. Being open and honest, as
transparent as possible, is essential and shows strong leadership.
We highly recommend an open communication strategy, including clearly explaining the unprecedented circumstances that we have all been
faced with.
When communicating change it is essential that a ‘consultation process’ be entered into. That is where:
Keep in mind that you are required to use similar processes of documentation, communication and agreement when returning employees to increased hours.
When planning to increase hours again, you should also be conscious that employees might need to negotiate new circumstances. For example, if an employee has taken on other commitments or has reduced childcare arrangements in response to reduced hours, they may not be able to adapt to this change easily and return to longer hours immediately.
We are in interesting times and we encourage you to be proactive, don’t panic and plan to thrive in the ‘new normal’.
Great leaders sacrifice their own comfort – even their own survival – for the good of those in their care.
Simon Sinek
Western Australian selects leading growth companies to become Members.
Phone 0423 674 157
Email nm@waleaders.com.au
Website:www.nm.waleaders.com.au
Osborne Park WA