Modern Mentor

How to care for your employee experience in a recession

Episode Summary

With the threat of layoffs or hiring freezes looming, hey no one’s gonna leave in this economy, right? Um, that is false.

Episode Notes

Layoffs are swirling in the ether these days and teams are feeling anxious. That anxiety is holding back their work and employee experience. Here’s how to manage through this season of uncertainty.

Modern Mentor is hosted by Rachel Cooke. A transcript is available at Simplecast.

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Episode Transcription

Hey, it’s Rachel Cooke, your Modern Mentor. I’m the founder of Lead Above Noise—a firm specializing in helping companies retain, engage, and develop talent through crafting employee experiences and delivering leadership development programs.

And today, I wanna talk to you about your employee experience. Not the kind with Capital “E’s” that we think we need anonymous surveys to measure and analyze. I mean the kind with the little “e’s”; as in—if you’re an employee you are having an experience. And even if the economy is feeling just a little bit recessiony (hey—I’m no economist so I can say that) that is not permission granted to lose our focus here.

I’m seeing companies—and leaders—leaning on a false sense of security. With the threat of layoffs or hiring freezes looming, hey no one’s gonna leave in this economy, right? Um, that is false.

And here’s where I get real unapologetic. Because in recessiony times, the employee matters more than ever! Because in seasons of recession…

• Anxiety, worry, and stress are draining our energy stores, our creative sources.
• We feel pressure to get more done with fewer resources.
• We need to be serving customers whose expectations are higher than ever—because their dollars need to stretch further.

And all this means that:

• We’re starting to feel the creep of burnout… which is good for no one’s health and well-being.
• We need to be working more collaboratively, more efficiently, more creatively.
• Our talent may be sticking around out of fear… but doing so from a place of disengagement. And disengaged talent can be costly!

Now for those who still believe the employee experience is code for team yoga sessions and free-lunch Fridays, you’d be right to wonder how the employee experience is relevant here.

But my definition of the employee experience is the degree to which every member of a team or organization is able to do four things:

1. Deliver their best work, and best ideas with clear expectations and minimal obstruction or bureaucracy getting in the way.
2. Develop new skills and capabilities through challenge, opportunity, and space to experiment
3. Connect with colleagues, with leaders, and with a sense of purpose that infuses meaning into their work
4. Thrive to feel well, whole, balanced, and recognized for their great work.

Can you see how these things matter—now more than in robust economic times?

If you’re bought in—and I hope you’re bought in—let’s talk about some of strategies I’ve been advising my clients to try. And how you can leverage these whether or not you’re in a leadership role. This is a joint effort—we all have a job to do.

First—let’s start with Deliver. Like, what are the simplest actions we can all take to ensure that everyone is at their max levels of input and impact?

For me—in these recessiony times—it comes down to three big ones. Goals, processes, and decision-making.

• Goals need to be crystal-clear, simple, achievable, and aligned. Leaders—if you have 5 different team members working on totally disconnected goals, hit pause. Realign. And people—if you have any questions about what success will look like—ask. Loudly and on repeat until every question’s been answered.
• Process. Let’s strip out the clunk. Where is there a single extra layer of approval? Or data that’s hard to find or access? Or a mandatory meeting that’s just a time suck? What can we strip out? Let’s all decide together and then just rip that Band-Aid off.
• Decisions. Leaders. What can you empower your teams to just run with? Whether it’s a purchasing choice, a hiring choice, a visual choice in a presentation—where is your seal of approval not adding value? Let. It. Go.

Next up, Develop. In “recessiony” times we may not have space or budgets for full-blown development programs. But our minds still crave challenge and growth. No sweat. There are so many ways to achieve this without formal learning.

• Peer coaching circles. You’ve heard me say it before. They’re free, they’re empowering, they’re amazing. And leaders or team members can DIY this at any level. Set one up for yourself or some employees. Visit the resources page on my website—I’ll throw a link in the shownotes—to grab a guide. But however you go, the point is to find colleagues both wanting to learn and willing to be vulnerable. Share your challenges and support each other in defining action plans.
• Stretch opportunities. Recessions are hard. But the upside is all the opportunities they present. Leaders—you need junior people playing bigger right now. So give them a shot. Put them on a stretch project and see what they can do.

OK. Let’s talk Connect. Because this one’s huge in a season where we need people doing more collaborating, more innovating, and feeling more engaged in a shared purpose.

So how do we bring these to life through small actions? Here’s some of what I’m seeing.

• Use “together time” wisely. Do as much planning and updating as you can via email or Slack... And really dial up the dialoguing and debating and ideating when you’re all physically together—remotely or in-person.
• Connect activity to purpose. Leaders, there’s a huge opportunity to make sure every member of your team sees the link between [insert menial task] and an outcome that matters. Remind them that hours in spreadsheets ladder up to pricing strategies that keep your product in customer hands (for example).
• Dial up inclusion. Whether it’s inviting team members to share their personal stories or giving space for every voice (even the typically quiet ones) to speak up in meetings, go all out in making everyone feel truly part of your team.

And we close with Thrive. This one can be so simple and so powerful if you use your power for good.

Keeping everyone balanced and well and feeling appreciated? This will earn you gobs of engagement and trust.

• Demonstrate regular recognition and appreciation—doesn’t have to be about money. Just really appreciate people - out loud - for showing up, taking risks, supporting each other.
• Role model boundary-setting and honoring—leaders need to set the example here. And team members need to follow.
• Do more check-ins and fewer parties. I just heard about a company that laid off 8% of its workforce, and then had a pizza party the next day for everyone remaining. Wrong move. Less dairy, more how-you-doing would have been the smart move.

These are just a few representative practices my clients are finding luck with these days. I’d love to come talk to your leadership team about how to make this happen in your workplace. Connect with me at leadabovenoise.com.

Join me next week for another great episode. You can follow Modern Mentor on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Find and follow me on LinkedIn. Thanks so much for listening and have a successful week.