Chris Hopkins Caburn Hope - Employee Communication blog

The so-called ‘downturn dilemma’ is actually a perennial HR headache. How do you boost engagement and
performance levels and get your organization competition fit, when your recruitment, and learning and
development (L&D) budgets are constantly being squeezed?

There’s additional pressure now admittedly. Fast-changing policies from the new coalition government, and
the likelihood of higher costs, further spending reductions and job cuts to come, not to mention the volatile
economic environment, mean UK businesses really are going to have to achieve more with less in the
coming year.  Recent research by training company Thales found that while 79% of businesses sensibly
stated employee engagement is a top priority at board level to get them through the on-going recession,
44% also said cost-cutting would take precedence over investment in L&D. Not surprisingly Thales found that
companies continuing to invest in their people are recovering faster than those who’ve slashed their budgets
to nothing. So how do you fill the gap between cuts and improved performance?

Since the UK finally admitted that it was in the grips of a recession in January this year, your top talent has been battening down the hatches and biding its time... waiting for the moment the market finally starts to show signs of improvement before upping sticks and moving on.

In a recent survey conducted by the CIPD, 34 per cent of respondents admitted that whilst job security concerns are forcing people to stay put at present, they plan to make a move to pastures new in as little as a year’s time.

The recession has been hard on everyone, and whilst a proportion of the workforce have lost their jobs entirely through a rash of redundancy, those left standing are expected to do more work for less money to compensate for their erstwhile colleagues and help the business survive the storm. This has led to a league of incredibly talented, yet incredibly disgruntled, employees who are keen to take their new skills and place them elsewhere at the very first opportunity.

GUEST BLOGGER: CLAIRE BRISCOE, ACCOUNT MANAGER, CABURN HOPE

Your communications strategy is the key to successfully embedding your company mission, philosophy, personality, vision and values – collectively creating your employer brand – and transforming employees into engaged ‘brand champions’. The humble stick of rock is a great analogy for how you need your employee communications strategy to behave to make that work.

Like the writing that runs through rock, it shouldn’t matter where you choose to examine your communications; the brand message must prevail throughout, clearly and consistently.

GUEST BLOGGER: LEE NICHOLLS, ACCOUNT DIRECTOR, CABURN HOPE

It’s not just the advertisers who are willing Christmas to come earlier year after year – your employees become distracted weeks before the big day, and it is imperative that you start to plan now for that final push to achieve end of year results for your business and smooth the way to an efficient New Year.

A 2007 survey* estimated that around one third of employees – that’s approximately 9 million people – start winding down for the holidays from the 14 December, a full week and a half before the festive season officially begins. Productivity plummets, and one in three people state that they will come in late at least once during this period while one in five say they plan to throw at least one sickie.

Whilst there’s plenty of talk of green shoots on the horizon, it is still important to tread cautiously with spend until we can confidently state that we are out of the clutches of this downturn. With research suggesting that it has never been more critical to look after talent, how can companies recognise employees without doing more harm than good?

Banish the cynics

Empowering employees to thank each other directly in an official way is a recognition scheme’s best weapon against cynicism in the workforce. By giving employees and line managers a stake in the process, you will go a long way to banishing rumblings about management favouritism or recognition being dependent on what employees’ futures may be.

E-cards, an intranet Wall of Fame, or simply a sincere letter from a line manager are all excellent low-cost ways to achieve this.

Change the criteria