A Neat Selection of 22 Insightful Recommendations from 8 Business Leaders on Retaining Your Super-Heroes and Planning a 'Bounce Back Workforce'.

Over the past two weeks I’ve chatted to business leaders and probed their thoughts and interrogated them on how they think companies should be behaving as employers during this unforgettable time. We agreed that NOW is the time to review, prioritise, strengthen and flex.

When the tide turns, there will be a race to secure the best people available on the market who have the powers and skill to ensure companies survive. And that race might also involve retaining current super heroes that have remarkably kept companies in business so far. Read the list of 22 recommendations that we identified below and then the full comments from all the business leaders.

Thank you to

Robert Ordever, MD at O.C Tanner

Kevin McCoy at Next Jump UK

Debbie Ghillino at The Incentive Company Mark Boyce, MD at Motivates Inc

Nikki Wood, MD at Employee Company Benefits Ltd

Ben Chesser, CEO at Coniq

Andy Caldicott, MD at People Value

Colin Munro, Miconex

??Don’t assume silence means people are OK. Talk to your teams. Lead.

??Clearly communicate the business strategy and goals to your employees so everyone is aligned & focused on your short- and medium-term goals.  

??Buddy furloughed people up with non-furloughed team members for informal check-ins

??Strengthen your Employer Brand - does it reflect the type of employer you were / are/ want to be? Do something about it now if it doesn't do any of these. (This was one of my own tips)

??Avoid the DEFENCE instinct in this crisis. Play 80% OFFENCE and 20% DEFENCE.

??Move in one direction quickly allowing you and your team to gather and find new data points that might bring surprises

??Home working has forced businesses to focus on ensuring delivery of critical activities for customers. With this in mind review your internal processes, try and simplify, identify non value adding activities you have been working on and redesign things so you are more efficient moving forwards. 

??Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

??Your top priority before anything else is your existing workforce - communicate daily. Recognise and Reward everyone. ALL. THE. TIME. ( Another one of mine)

??Leaders need to be transparent, authentic and show humility. There needs to be a significant shift in the attributes of leaders.

??For a bounce back with momentum, you will require great people and a great culture.

??Leaders behaviour has become more high profile, and this had and will have huge implications for public image. Check yours is in the right direction.

??Keep calm and remove the fear amongst employees. That is a leader’s job.

??Hold your nerve – but make short time painful decisions for a small number of employees to protect the majority.

??Allow a more flexible approach to work location. You will see a higher engagement level and increased retention in teams post-crisis.

??Sharpen up your Recruitment Strategy to reduce cost and increase speed of success rate and give yourself more time to spend on profitable business activities. DON'T LEAVE IT TO THE LAST MINUTE. ( The last suggestion from me)

??Re-evaluate priorities now. Don’t drag them into your ‘new normal’.

??Plan how to accumulate and look after your cash so when needed & conditions are right you have funding to launch your business plans & activities. These may include a marketing relaunch, perhaps an acquisition to enable fast growth, reward & incentive schemes for employees and a robust recruitment process. 

??Avoid getting paralysed with trying to find the "right" solution.

??Avoid knee-jerk reactions.

??If your business is strong then it is a great time to be hiring ready to leave the starting blocks when this is all over

??Wait for Mark Boyce from Motivates to come and rescue you ??

Watch the full interview with Robert Ordever, MD of O.C Tanner - the workplace culture specialists:

At Next Jump, the Changing Workplace Culture Professionals, Kevin McCoy ( Co- Managing Director )says we have an expression:

"Get Oars in the Water".

COVID has made all of our lives crazy, ambiguous, and uncertain - I think our main instinct is to play DEFENCE in these times - to "make it through" ....

It may sound counter-intuitive, but now is the time to play OFFENCE as well. 

Most people coming out of this time will either be a disruptor or be disrupted. To be the disruptor, you need to avoid getting paralyzed with trying to find the "right" solution. We have learned that getting oars in the water, picking a direction, and rowing like crazy as a team is the best way to start. Moving in one direction quickly allows you and your team to gather and find new datapoints. Those datapoints bring surprises - either positive or negative - they give you new options and choices that likely could not have been predicted or evaluated before taking action. This process leads to innovation and business results.

Nikki Wood, Managing Director, County Employee Benefits, UK asks...

My top tip?  Keep talking, don't be afraid to ask for help. Right now it is easy to feel isolated and forget that there are good people out there that will be happy to help you. 

"Acknowledging the good that is already in your life is the foundation for all abundance" Eckhart Tolle

Mark Boyce, Managing Director, Motivates, UK has some thoughts...

Companies often fail to show they care and this is a time for when we can actually show we really care. I’ve realised that we have 40 mouths to feed and their families which is a huge responsibility. Keeping calm and removing the fear is paramount. Companies shouldn’t react in a knee-jerk way. Now is time to show warmth to suppliers, partners, staff. I’ve spent 6 to 7 hours a week calling my team and my partners – just staying in communication feels us with hope and removes the fear.

I miss the pub, not because of the beer but the camaraderie and socialism. We need that.

If we get to the other side of this first, we will be coming back to get everyone else.

Ben Chesser, CEO, Coniq ( Loyalty Marketing for Shopping Centres and Retailers), UK has these tips:

During lock-down it is easy to stop noticing and communicating with the more quiet members of your team- especially if they are on furlough. I think the whole company needs to make an effort to keep contact with everyone- so don’t assume silence means people are OK.

One idea we use at Coniq is to buddy furloughed people up with non-furloughed team members for informal check-ins

There is a lot of market disruption right now and some great people will be looking around for new opportunities.

If your business is strong then it’s a great time to be hiring ready to leave the starting blocks when this is all over

Debbie Ghillino, Founder and Managing Director of The Incentive Company, Johannesburg remarks:

I think that the Covid situation has shown companies that they are able to trust and empower their employees, by allowing WFH protocols and a more flexible approach to the work life balance. 73% of employees in South Africa have said that they are happier and more productive working from home in recent weeks as lockdown has come into effect.

So as a powerful retention and engagement tool post Covid, I believe that if companies allow

a more flexible approach to work location, they will see a higher engagement level and increased retention in their teams.

I believe that lots of people will be re-evaluating their priorities after this, and I think that giving people (especially the working mom) an option to get a better work/life balance, they will have a happier set of employees. Of course, ensuring that teams are still in touch requires a separate set of interventions. 

Andy Caldicot, MD at People Value - The Employee Engagement Company has 4 strong recommendations:

1. Clearly communicate the business strategy and goals to your employees so everyone is aligned & focused on your short- and medium-term goals. 
2. Plan how to accumulate and look after your cash so when needed & conditions are right you have funding to launch your business plans & activities. These may include a marketing relaunch, perhaps an acquisition to enable fast growth, reward & incentive schemes for employees etc.
3. Home working has forced businesses to focus on ensuring delivery of critical activities for customers.
4. Make sure you are engaging your employees fully now - its proven to impact business performance. Be honest and open about the business landscape, ensure managers and team leaders are regularly in touch with their teams, use simple surveys and polls to check in with employees. Ensure you are looking after their well-being and recognise achievements.

With this in mind review your internal processes, try and simplify, identify non value adding activities you have been working on and redesign things so you are more efficient moving forwards.

Colin Munro, MD at Miconex, payment-linked loyalty solutions for towns and cities has a simple response:

As an employer it's important to support colleagues as they adapt to radically different personal and professional circumstances.  Being flexible in terms of supporting different ways of working is key now and I think will be increasingly important in the future.

For any support on workforce planning, incentive or motivation solutions, rewards & loyalty, internal recruitment process or talent acquisition please contact me on [email protected] and I can point you in the right direction.

Happy to help during this mayhem. ??