Let’s be very honest about this. And it may not come as a huge surprise. It hasn’t been the greatest of summers. There have been few comparisons with 1976. No one has mentioned the term ‘barbeque summer’ for some time. And those posters advocating staycations are looking both increasingly hopeful and increasingly hopeless at the same time. Sporting events have been decimated and the levels of flooding across certain areas have been truly awful. One bad week follows another and this weekend managed to achieve some sort of nadir, when, after more biblical downpours, it was suggested that we have another thirty soggy days of this to come. And, short of emigrating, there appears little we can do about this.
Which is pretty much how many employee groups will be feeling today. The last four years haven’t exactly been stellar for the employee experience. For those not in possession of their P45, they have witnessed redundancies, cost cutting, salary freezes or even reductions and a brake on both training and career progression. Added to this, inflation has remained stubbornly high, so reducing further spending power and disposable income.
But, much like the weather, this week suggested that great economic challenges are with us for the foreseeable. According to that reliable barometer, the REC/KPMG Report on Jobs, permanent placements across the UK economy slumped for the first time in six months and at its quickest rate since 2009. This was backed up by Deloitte’s survey of CFOs, which suggested that confidence levels had dipped for only the third time in five years and at its sharpest rate since 2007. And it doesn’t stop there – consumer group Springboard pointed to statistics demonstrating a 5.5% decline in footfall on the UK high street in June (the UK high street being underwater in several places may well have contributed to this). These are generic examples and certain sectors will have received even more of a confidence body-blow. If the term ‘banker bashing’ was contemplating a quiet and comfortable retirement, the reputational own goals netted by both NatWest/RBS and Barclays over the last ten days, have further downgraded the standing of bankers for both the general public, as well, critically, as those people still working within the sector.
So if we can do little about the UK weather, there must be a similar sense of impotent fatalism about the UK economy and the job market. And this is when both employee engagement and employer branding become more rather than less important. There will undoubtedly be pressure put on budgets from senior management – ‘why do we have to spend so much on branding and engagement when unemployment is so high and likely to rise?’ You’re unlikely to hear TMP making a case against recruitment and, to be fair, in a cautious marketplace, candidates are more likely to stay put unless presented with a great brand making an aspirational career case. However, far more pressing is that of employee engagement. The engagement and motivation levels of many employee groups will not be high. And whilst they may have been picking slowly up from the low points of 2008-09, a return to double dip and the further restriction in opportunities caused by a shrinking jobs market will have seen them crashing down again.
But not in all cases. Having been involved in a substantial amount of employee research over the last month, I have come across employees with little or no motivation and little or no inclination to deliver much in the way of customer service. And at the same time, I have also encountered very similar groups who are fired up, feeling recognised, valued, inspired and fulfilled. Why such stark differences? Great companies are allowing great managers to deliver great recognition and great acknowledgement. And guess what sort of service their people are delivering? People, wherever they work, understand financial pressures, they know bonuses won’t be perhaps what they were, but that doesn’t mean they are undervaluing their own contribution and nor should great employers. When the customer, within financial services or any other industry, is feeling the pinch and thinking twice about discretional spending, confronting them with inspired, engaged employees is more vital than perhaps ever before. Whatever the weather.
Getting to the heart of your employee mindset 