Human Resources Q & A
By Tim Rutledge
January 12, 2009
The question:
I'm the executive director of a government-funded agency. Nothing is official, but word has it that we should expect reduced funding next year. The economic downturn is cutting into government revenues. My employees talk about little else among themselves. All this negative thinking can't be helping with service delivery. Is there anything I can do to manage this situation until our funding is clarified?
Tim's Response:
When issues arise because "word has it...", you know you're in the presence of a hyperactive grapevine. Grapevines are at their rampant worst when there's a build-up of negative news paired with an absence of countervailing information. And our reader is right to suspect that the free-floating rumours make a negative contribution to the workplace.
After the news of the severe downturn struck the United States, surveys of workplaces there showed that employee engagement levels took a hit across the board. Why would feelings of engagement go down when economic news is bad? One reason is that employees may feel that their ability to influence their futures is diminished. They still have jobs, but they worry that they may be stuck, unable to move to a different workplace if that's what they want to do. This feeling of loss of control over their careers reduces their feelings of engagement.
A danger that arises when there's a lack of official information but a surplus of rumours is that employees may be tempted more than usual to see the workplace as a 'we/they' place, where 'they' (management) are hiding bad news, when the reality is that there's no news.
To manage through this situation, leaders need to communicate information that allows employees to view the grapevine more suspiciously. Here are some steps that leaders can take:
- Put the outlines of an employee communication program together and get it onto the next board meeting agenda. Go by the principle that there really is no such thing as over-communication. Ask your board members for suggestions to see what their limits are around disclosure.
- Tell employees everything you know about the current situation that isn't confidential. (Be sure to distinguish between "confidential" and "secretive". We hold information in confidence because disclosure could expose the organization to harm. We keep information a secret because we don't trust people with it.) People often just need to know that you can't see into the future but that you're actively exploiting all your channels. Tell them that you have no plans to eliminate jobs (unless that's not true).
- Ask your employees what their concerns are. Just airing them can be very helpful. Ask them for suggestions on what to do in case there are reductions in funding. (Make notes of these suggestions. You'll want to use them if you need to adapt your organization to reduced funding.) And don't tell people not to worry. Being concerned about the future during difficult economic times is just normal.
- Remember that the worst thing to do is to say nothing while you wait for official communications. Silence from leadership at times like these merely feeds the grapevine. Silence reinforces the likelihood that the rumours are true, when in fact they may not be true at all.
- Acknowledge, however, that the possibility of cuts can't be discounted, but that for now at least there are no announcements on this. Promise that you'll pass information along as soon as it becomes available.
- Ask employees to check rumours out with you if they want. Even if all you can say is that there is no information that supports the rumour, that at least confirms to the employees that the rumours are just hearsay and guesswork, not facts.
The grapevine will be active in member-funded organizations, too. People may worry that organizations won't renew their memberships as a way to reduce their costs. To counter this, check back to see what your experience has been in earlier downturns. You'll probably be able to point out that tough economic times in the past resulted in no, or negligible, membership erosion.
You can engage employees in this issue by reminding them that organizations are unlikely to cancel, or not renew, memberships if they believe that they get good benefits from their memberships. If you're not already doing so, ask them for suggestions on how to increase the benefits of membership in ways that are visible to members.
When the future is threatening and uncertain, leaders need their people to follow them into the unknown; not cowering in the corner waiting for the future to arrive, but actively contributing to the arrival of the future that the organization needs. To do that, employees need information that they can trust from the person they want to trust: their leader. That trust is the light that will get everybody through the darkness of uncertainty.
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Tim Rutledge, Ph.D., is a veteran human resources consultant and publisher of Mattanie Press. You can contact
him at tim_rutledge@sympatico.ca or visit www.gettingengaged.ca.
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