About two months ago, I was invited to attend a corporate share holders meeting of an employee owned company. I listened to the president of the company assure the employees, that in this climate of economic downturns, his company will be be moving ever forward and layoffs and terminations were not to be considered. After this declaration, the room, consisting of 275 employees, swelled in applause and a standing ovation.
Well, that was two months ago. I recently decided to pay this company a visit. Terminations are now happening on a daily basis. Project Managers, whose responsibility it is to schedule service personnel, are not being informed by management that service techs are being terminated. And, you can imagine the current condition of the morale in this company.
I have owned businesses long enough to understand that during a recession, yes I said the 'R' word, it is necessary for the survival of the company to trim costs. But how you go about it is the difference between a company that retains the loyalty of their employees and a company that will forever be considered untrustworthy.
The point to all this:
Be credible - In a world of politicians and false promises, in a world that looks at corporations as evil entities, it is so important that you do what you say and say what you mean.
Being honest with your employees will only make you stronger and encourage your employees to work even harder to help your company. It is their job security that is the incentive to do so.
But, if you make false promises and create an atmosphere of fear, the fear of who is going to lose their job today, your employees will never trust you again.
Treat your employees with the same amount of respect as you do your customers.
You are building a community built on trust. Trust in you, trust in your ability to lead the company, trust in your service, trust in your product, and trust from your employees.
Treat your employees with the same amount of respect as you do your customers. Yours is the job security that depends on doing so...