Tradie HR director Leigh Olsen advises company owners not to panic or make uninformed decisions if and when workflows start drying up.
The phone isn’t ringing as often. Quotes aren’t turning into jobs as quickly, and you’re wondering how you’re going to get through the next few months. When these are the thoughts going through your head on a daily basis, it’s hard not to worry.
Even though you think you may be good at keeping these worries to yourself, there’s a good chance your team has noticed too. They’ve seen the work board isn’t as full, or that there’s not another job lined up straight away.
When people don’t know what’s happening, they tend to fill in the gaps themselves. A conversation in the smoko room about things being a bit quiet can very quickly move from “there’s no work coming in” to “I reckon someone’s going to lose their job”.
So what can you do to keep everyone on track when work slows down?
Talk to your people
One of the worst things you can do when business slows down is go quiet. Talk to your people.
This doesn’t mean getting everyone into a meeting and showing them the company bank balance, but if things are noticeably quieter, pretending otherwise probably isn’t going to work either. Sometimes it’s as simple as saying, “Things are a bit quieter than we would like at the moment. We’ve got quotes out there and we’re working hard to bring more work in.”
Be honest without creating panic. Sometimes simply acknowledging what everyone can already see will stop some of the gossip and give people some reassurance that you are aware of the situation and doing something about it.
One company recently invited all their staff to a compulsory strategic planning meeting and then put up slides showing proposed cuts to people’s jobs. This is wrong on so many levels, and employees were understandably stunned.
The invitation made no mention of a restructure and, only a short time earlier, the company had held a three-day national conference where nothing had been said about financial concerns.
There are proper processes to follow when proposing changes to people’s jobs. Finding out by surprise at a strategic planning meeting certainly isn’t one of them.
You set the tone
Your team will also be taking their cues from you. When you own a business, you carry pressures your employees probably never see. That pressure is very real, but how you carry it around your team does matter.
If you spend every morning telling everyone how dead things are or snapping at people because you’re stressed, don’t be surprised if morale starts heading south. Be mindful about the tone you’re setting.
I had a situation where an owner kept telling his staff how much he was spending on their wages, and that he hadn’t had a pay increase himself for years. He then upgraded his vehicle and renovated his office.
The staff were confused and uncomfortable having their wages blamed for things the owner couldn’t afford. Employees shouldn’t be made to feel personally responsible for the financial pressures that come with owning and running a business.
Morale doesn’t necessarily cost money. When I ask employees in staff surveys what they value at work, recognition and feeling appreciated regularly come through in their comments. It doesn’t always have to be a pay rise, bonus or expensive staff event. Sometimes people simply want to know that the work they are doing is noticed and appreciated.
Make the quieter times count
If you do have some spare capacity, think about all those things you say you’ll get around to “when we’re not so busy”. This could be a good time for training or upskilling, updating licences or certifications, or sorting out vehicles, tools, health and safety systems, stock, or processes.
It can also be a good opportunity to sit down with your employees and find out how things are going. Ask what is working well, what is making their job harder than it needs to be, or whether there is something they would like to learn or get more experience in.
Avoid knee-jerk decisions
This is also the time when I get calls from worried business owners who want to immediately reduce someone’s hours, send people home without pay, change working arrangements or start talking about redundancies. This is where you need to be careful.
Being quieter does not automatically mean you can simply change an employee’s agreed hours or stop paying their guaranteed hours. Employment agreements are legally binding, and if you are genuinely considering changes that could affect someone’s employment, there may be a proper consultation process that needs to be followed.
Before making a decision because you’re worried about what might happen, take a good look at what is actually happening. Is this a short-term gap between jobs or something more significant? What does your forward work look like, and are there other ways to manage the quieter period?
Last year a client rang me in a panic wanting to restructure because his forecast was not looking great. We explored other options as redundancies should generally be a last resort. However, he remained adamant this was the only option.
We went through the restructure and guess what? Three weeks later, work picked up and went through the roof, but he no longer had enough staff to take it on. He ended up having to rehire some of the people — and pay higher rates to get them back. Others had already found jobs and weren’t coming back.
Sometimes the numbers do tell you that something genuinely needs to change. If that is the case, get advice, understand your employment obligations, and work through the appropriate process before making decisions about people’s employment.
But a quieter patch doesn’t always mean you need to panic or start making big changes. Keep talking to your team, look at your options, and make sure you know what is actually happening before making any big decisions.
So when work slows down, make sure your team doesn’t go with it.
• Note: This article is not intended to be a replacement for legal advice.
