Managing Change in a High Cost, High Inflation Environment
Right now, it seems that everywhere we turn everything is costing more!
And from a business perspective, it’s no different – supplies, rents, utilities, logistics and the rest – each business cost seems to be spiralling upwards.
If you are a business owner almost everything is being driven by cost efficiencies right now. And with that scenario comes the need for change. Not always something welcomed by your people, who are already having to make unwelcome changes in their lives from the cost-of-living crisis.
Many businesses have overcome the Covid challenges of the last 3+ years, survived and their staff remain loyal. But many business owners may have taken on further debt, seen some of their customers depart, or indeed not have survived themselves. And some were in the right place when Covid struck and were able to pivot during the pandemic.
As a business leader, no matter what impact Covid had on your business, you are probably focused on how to deliver greater results with less proportional cost…MORE FOR LESS to ride out the storm for the foreseeable future.
But you also know that it continues to be a very candidate driven market and there’s no let-up in the war for talent. This is being pushed even harder as people look for new opportunities where they can reduce the cost of their commute or secure a higher salary to pay for their ever-increasing cost of living.
How do you achieve change, whether that is upsizing, rightsizing, or diversifying your business effectively and efficiently and ensure everyone within your team continue to pull in the best direction for the organisation?
The short answer? Get your employees involved.
With all the flux and instability right now, your people are going to be reluctant to embrace change, in fact are probably very against any more change. So, striking a balance between what your business needs and what employees now want and expect will be the key to engaging and retaining your people and introducing change in such a way as to create a healthy and productive workplace culture.
And a clear winner when it comes to getting your employees engaged with any change and committed to staying with you, is to consult them, ask for their opinion and ideas and act on them (or at least some of them!). This will enable you and your management to create stronger change programmes and approaches and policies that resonate with the elements each individual employee cares about the most.
By bridging the gap between your management and your employees, implementing change can be a more inclusive experience for all. You and your management can then better help every individual within each department and team to progress through change, with their full understanding and input.
Empowering and involving your employees in making change a reality can bring teams together, gives individuals a sense of ownership, improves overall employee engagement, and will deliver improvements that are important to both the company and its people.
ProAction HR are an HR transformation company that actions people change. We work with CEOs, MDs, FDs, HRD’s and COOs of mid-sized businesses and advise, manage, and resource the strategies that will change how people work for your organisation.
Whatever the reason for the change, our expertise can devise and implement a change programme for the most favourable outcome. This enables you as a business leader to maximise new products, marketing opportunities or ways of working – whether that’s driven by legislation, new market opportunities, employee feedback or simply a new business strategy.