Keeping your team motivated in times of uncertainty

It’s important to appreciate that what people fear most is the unknown. Consequently, they will not be motivated if they’re feeling scared or suspicious about the current climate and what it could lead to. For this reason, keeping everyone informed is key. Let your staff know what you are doing and what plans you have in place. Discuss your plan B and communicate to your team how that plan will involve making sure everyone is aligned and knows what they’re doing and then engage them by getting their ideas and input. Forward thinking companies will also have plans C and D thought out, so inform everyone that these exist to show that you have planned how you will take more control and carry out damage limitation, should the need arise. Revisit this on a regular basis so that everyone feels reassured that you have everything under control.

It’s the management team’s duty to keep everyone focussed and encourage open communication. Additionally, organisations should be aware that younger members of staff who have joined the workforce since 2003 may not have ever worked through difficult markets and may therefore find themselves in an unfamiliar, and perhaps scary, situation. Mentoring and buddy schemes are a great way of overcoming these issues and can allow employees to share knowledge and experiences to hopefully diffuse any worries that may be present. Combine this with training and coaching to arm your staff with the skills they need to work effectively, if they don’t have the knowledge in place to succeed in their role, their motivation and confidence levels will remain low.

We asked some of our specialist trainers for their top tips too.

A new era: The ‘human age’

Take a look at this really great article by a good friend Krissie Davies – Managing Director of  Manpower Ireland: A new era: The ‘human age’

First Impressions

Once someone has identified you, as the company they would like to work with, they are looking for constant reassurance that they are right!

First impressions are created at the initial point of contact, but they are reinforced every time they experience an interaction with your team. Whether communicating by email, twitter, blog, website, letter, telephone or face to face, your company is sending a message to that individual about who you are and how you value them. If you hold someone in high regard and care how they feel and what they think about you – and   importantly what they will say about you -, then each and every interaction you have with them will be planned and delivered thoughtfully. When people are going through the recruitment     process, they are weighing up all the evidence ‘for and against’ coming on board with you – and the best talent will be doing this with several companies at the same time. They’ll be benchmarking all the companies  they are considering against their ideal and comparing you with your competitors. It doesn’t matter how brilliant your induction process may be, if you lose people during this early part of the process, you’ll never get them there to experience it anyway!

Little things can become big gestures during the first impressions stage. Things like:

Working with Generation Y

 

 In today’s employment market, there are three distinct generations:

1.   Baby Boomers (born 1946-1960) who live to work
2.   Generation X (born 1961-1979) who work to live
3.   Generation Y (born 1980-mid 90’s) who live then work

 

There’s been a lot of talk about Generation Y being known for their sense of entitlement, their outspokenness, their inability to accept criticism and their technological abilities. Whatever your opinion is Generation Y is the new unpredictable talent pool.

The rules of engagement are changing

You may have seen me quoted in Recruiter talking about the key issues that recruiters must focus on for 2010. So here is a run down of those issues and what we need to be doing!

Extreme economic conditions have left recruitment leaders with smaller, stronger teams but anticipated growth, albeit minimal at first, will mean they need to attract the best talent out there to join them.  These new teams will face greater challenges than ever before. So what are the main challenges leaders/managers will face in 2010? How can we help and resource our people as leaders?

This burning issue should be high on the agenda in our boardrooms right now.  Whilst each individual company needs to thrash out the specifics, three overriding themes will be common to us all.