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…

And all this means that:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.