According to the research, employees that are fearing loss of their job have become more risk averse, think short term , do what they need to do and stop being as proactive or innovative.
Lyndsey Simpson, Co-owner of The Curve Group comments on the findings; This move to survival mode is a known shift coming out of a recession but it does have major repercussions for organisations including lower levels of performance, especially from survivors of a redundancy process and managers using a short-term, reactive management style.
Employers are looking at this worrying trend though with 42% citing employee engagement as its number one people challenge and 75% of companies have conducted a recent survey and know the opinions of their staff. Practices taken on by employers who are looking at employee engagement have included:
- Re-invigorating talent management programmes
- Running climate surveys to temperature check employees current feelings and views
- Providing coaching and training support to line managers on how to adapt their management style to a more longer-term leadership approach
- Changing performance management systems to include behavioural objectives and a two-way feedback approach
- Creating schemes for making employees feel valued
- Improving internal communications and providing clarity around employees and line manager roles and how they contribute to the organisations success
The remaining 25% of companies surveyed said that they would be looking into employee engagement in the next 6-12 months.
