Organisations are squeezed to cut costs in present economic times, and yet meet their targets. How do you do this, and still maintain staff morale? Here are some quick tips of how do so without alienating staff or over-stressing them.
1) Spend Lavishly, Save Ruthlessly:
Your total expenditure on matters relating to benefits and staff welfare can be reduced. Look at the big picture and see which areas will deliver the most return on expenditure. Spend lavishly (within your constraints) on areas that will make the biggest difference to morale, and be niggardly on those areas that may have skipped in terms of creating an impact, but is still on your expense list because “we’ve always had this”
2) Be a Communication Czar:
One of the biggest failings of organizations is their inability to manage expectations. You can put your team through hell and high water if only you had communicated what was required of them to succeed or to achieve a specific goals. Trying to do so once you are in mid-stream is often disastrous and creates resentment and loss of morale. Talk to your people – and I mean, “talk”, not email, memos et al.
3) Use Positive Language Patterns
The trick is not just about thinking positively, but using language that works. Language shapes and creates our reality. Someone recently described taking multiple calls from telemarketers as an ‘ ordeal’. When we magnify, distort, and exaggerate things using our language, we *do* create a reality which is far less appealing and pleasant.
4) Smile More, Laugh More
Tell jokes to each other on a daily basis. We need to get some less-humorous stuff done each day, so why not make life more fun by oiling the works with some humour.
5) This Thing Shall Pass:
Paul Stoltz’s studies confirmed that at least one of several factors to help people face adversity well is the perspective people place on hardships. People who think a hardship is never-ending will fare less well in staying resilient and happy. Tough times don’t last, but tough people do. Get a good perspective on your challenges
6) Selective People Development:
Don’t send all your people for training. The reality is that when faced with lower budgets, the best way is to focus resources on people who are going to best utilise them for the company’s benefit and survival. Equip those most effective with the most of your resources. Then measure the results. One Singapore government organisation I know, when asked how they measure the benefits of teambuilding expenditure told me: ” We’re not good at doing that”, while another said ” Every year, we get the budget, then we spend it.” What is wrong with this picture? Training for training’s sake is a waste of resources. Refuse to spend upskilling your people unless the difference makes a difference to the customer, or to the organisation, and try, for goodness sake, to measure it.