I've Been Thinking...

About ways to recession-proof your business. Call it a slowdown or a recession, the impact is nearly the same - our businesses are challenged and we have become desperate to find ways to respond. We feel the urge to cut expenses, eliminate programs, benefits, and put customer and employee development on hold. Our knee-jerk reaction to this slowdown pressure encourages us to do all of the wrong things.

True, we must eliminate wasteful spending; it should never take a recession to drive this thinking. We must always assess the impact of our spending on performance to determine its return and effectiveness. However, in today's intellectual environment, this review process is not strictly empirical. Today, we must also assess how recession decisions affect employee morale, engagement and performance. Sure, cutting a percentage of the 401k match or deleting a holiday gift program may cut expenses from the bottom line but they may also have a more significant, longer term impact on profitability as employees disconnect from the organization - both mentally and ultimately, physically.

Loyalty is the key to success in any type of economy - employee loyalty and customer loyalty. Employees must be loyal to create loyal customers so as recession-inspired actions cross your desk, be sure to evaluate them not only for their bottom line impact today, but also know their impact on your employees and their engagement level for tomorrow.

We are in an intellectual economy; the industrial age is all but over in the US as much of manufacturing moved offshore. We are left with the intellectual or service economy. The success of this economy now rests in the minds and hearts of our employees - those employees who choose to build strong relationships with customers, or not. Our success rests with those employees who are matched to their roles so that they are excited and engaged about making a difference in their work, or not. Our success rests with those employees who actively and innovatively think to drive new services, responses and opportunities for the business, or not. Value in our workplace is in the connectedness and performance of the employee; this value does not respond well to industrial age expense cutting as the solution to a recession or slowdown.

Today, the employee chooses his degree of commitment based on the things he experiences in the workplace. In an effort to cut expenses, be aware of the impact on the employee, his attitude and therefore his engagement. A couple of dollar savings today may significantly affect the employee engagement and quality of workers in the future.

To recession-proof your company in an "intellectual age," consider this "cut (the waste) and build (the value)" strategy:

Review all employee-related expenses and assess those that do not make a significant difference to the employee; survey employees to determine the benefits that have greatest value. Cut those that do not add value; build value by adding small high-impact benefits at a time when the rest of the business world is cutting. The positive emotional response to an "addition" at the time of cuts cannot be underestimated.
Senior management should feel the effects of the first cuts. In an intellectual age, employee loyalty is critical. If employees see that all cuts are at their level and not first with those who are more significantly paid, they will not buy into the changes. Cut senior manager perks and compensation; build rapport by sharing this first round of changes with all employees. Employees' support will be significantly improved as they see that all levels of the organization will need to change to respond to the challenges in the economy.
Cut wasteful perks such as company meetings with no real agenda, or golf or social outings with limited (business) purpose. Instead, build by hosting a sales or company meeting with a clearly defined profit purpose; use a powerful performance speaker and create specific individual performance requirements from the meeting. Follow up with employees and work to implement changes. Cut the bar bill and the fancy meals; build performance by spending on speakers, coaches and tools to build performance, then hold employees accountable for using what they learn to invent new ways to drive results.
Be honest with employees about difficult times; share the numbers so that employees understand the critical financial picture. Many times employees are willing to make cuts and changes when they see the reasons and are given the facts. Cut limited and hearsay communications by not being proactive or honest; build rapport by being honest with employees and sharing the facts. Also, send a letter to employees' homes to be sure accurate information is shared with families as well. Employee loyalty is affected by what spouses and partners feel about the organization as well.

The most significant way to recession-proof your business is to change your understanding of the roles of employees. As author Tom Peters says about today's economy, "We are in a brawl without rules." So cut the old definition of an employee that requires them to just show up and do what they are told. Instead, build a powerful recession-proof workplace by allowing employees to own a larger portion of the results, ideas, policies and services. Offer education, skill development and learning to expand employees' perspectives and invite opportunity thinking. Encourage employees to take performance risks to win customers, invent efficiencies and see possibilities instead of limitations. Get more from each employee by igniting his performance by spending in areas that drive engagement.

Take Action

Sometimes a recession is a good thing. It forces us to look deeper at what we do and how we do it. So this month, we focus our Take Action section on the recession and how to use the event to better understand who we are, what we do...and do it better than anyone else.

Go to our Resources section and see our Recession-Proof Your Business Ideas. Send in yours - we'll post them and add to the list so we do more than survive in this recession.

Use this time to regroup with employees; refocus on your mission, cost, differentiation and value advantages. Know your core competencies -the things you are great at - and refocus on these.
Change the rules with your employees; activate them to own the solutions that will drive success in the recession. This is a thinking economy; have employees start to propose ideas, invent, review and assess every aspect of the business for change, cuts and improvements.
Host company or department "state of the business" meetings to share accurate information with all employees. Answer questions honestly and be available to discuss things one-on-one.
Start "Urgent!" or "Hot" company or department programs to address critical areas and to combat the effect of the recession. Build a program to rally employees and the company around a current issue. Consider "Keep'em all" - a program that has the goal of not losing any customer or employee during the recession. Or, "Perfect in Imperfect Times" - a program to insure that service or products are 100% perfect at delivery - no excuses. Invent yours. For inspiration, buy The Pursuit of Wow by Tom Peters. No one presents "blow up thinking" like Tom Peters. And in a recession, we must be ready to blow things up and reinvent.

It's All New

New programs, new articles, new links...we blew up our site and our programs and reinvented everything. Check out our new programs:

Fire Up Your Employees and Smoke Your Competition - a program that introduces the process of millennial management and how to Invite, Incite and Ignite employee performance.

Sending Service Into Orbit - a program that introduces the customer Loyalty Formula and how to use it to create consistently memorable and "STAND OUT" service.

Show Up, Step Up ...STAND OUT! - a program that introduces how to live and work without limits...to learn how to make the biggest dent in the universe and grab the greatest slice of life possible by a creative reconnection to your talents and the things you love to do. Own your life; own your work. Learn how.

Cross the Testosterone Barrier - a program that helps women maximize their great verbal, communication and nurturing talents to excel in today's management roles. The shift from the industrial to intellectual age economy now more favors the feminine brain of engaging and inspiring than the male brain of competition and domination. Women now have a managerial advantage; now is the time for women to ascend into greater management roles.

Your Tools

Humanetrics wants you to think your way to success. To help you with this we introduce BLOGucation (Daily Power Learning), our Success Formula process and worksheet, our programs and our keynotes. Remember that you can also find great resources, articles and links to some of today's best thinking and sites. Use the sources, review the articles... get smart. And when you need some help to raise your performance to a power, contact us and let's get started together. Until then, use what you find on the site to be your best; your employees and your customers need you to be great.

The Humanetrics Mission

We offer practical, dynamic, innovative and customized education and consulting to significantly advance our clients' personal and professional performance.