It's hard enough to crank out the same amount of work with a skeleton staff, but many employees who have managed to survive rounds of layoffs and buyouts have much weightier matters than work projects on their minds. Many are saddled with bills they can't pay, mortgage payments they can't make, dwindling 401(k) balances, and other financial headaches.
So while conventional wisdom suggests that employees check their personal problems at the door, many employees are simply not able to shut off the financial worries when they show up for work in the morning.
And while companies cannot remove anyone's financial fears, there are several things that they can do to help employees cope with the current economic climate.
Companies can start by communicating with employees—regardless of the news, said Susan Heathfield, writer for the
About.com Human Resources Web site and owner of Williamston-based Heathfield Consulting Associates, a management and organization development firm that specializes in HR-related services.
“I am a firm believer that companies should share every bit of financial information,” she said. “The more information [employees] have—good or bad—the more secure they feel. And especially in bad times, companies have a terrible tendency to stop sharing information. What happens is that employees start imagining the worst. Or worse than that, they think everything is find and they are blindsided.”
Of course, how companies handle delivering this news rests largely on the economic circumstances of each organization, she said.
“But employees are looking for one thing right now: they're looking for reassurance. They're looking for reassurance that they have a job, that they have a future, that they have developmental opportunities—the things that they had kind of hoped for in their career are still in existence,” said Heathfield, who also is owner and member of the board of directors for
TechSmith, an Okemos-based company that provides screen capture and recording solutions.
At TechSmith, employees have a meeting every Monday morning with management, she said. And these days, employees' primary question is: “Are we okay?”
Due to planning and conservative financial management over the past two decades, the answer at TechSmith is “yes,” Heathfield said. And the company continues to reassure employees by sharing company fundamentals with them.
But aside from communicating information about a company's financial health, organizations can do other things to help alleviate employees' financial fears. Heathfield; Lenny Sanicola, SPHR, practice leader, professional development at WorldatWork; and Mark Robinson, a Michigan-based certified investment management analyst and accredited investment fiduciary analyst, have a few ideas:
- Offer financial education opportunities. Employers can do a big service to employees by providing brown bag lunches and seminars on a variety of financial topics, Sanicola said. Bringing in service providers, like your company's 401(k) provider, can be a low-cost way to do this. Simply providing employees with links to helpful resources on the company's Web site also can be helpful—sometimes people don't know where to begin looking for information. At TechSmith, employees are treated to a company-provided lunch every Friday—something that the company began providing well before the current economic crisis, Heathfield said. As part of the lunch-and-learn program, the company often brings in service providers to talk about financial topics. Providing employees with education about how to manage credit card debt, how to make and stick to a budget, how to save for kids' college education, and how to make smart 401(k) decisions can go a long way toward helping employees, Sanicola said. There also are two free programs offered through the Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation that employers can bring on site, said Robinson, who helped develop the seminars. The classes—“Investing Fundamentals” and “Principles for Structuring a Portfolio”—can help employees make informed decisions about their 401(k)s and other investments. “You're not necessarily going to assuage that fear or make the fear go away,” he said. “But what we need to keep them from doing is making poor investment decisions out of fear or out of a sense of panic.”
- Help employees lower costs. If your company hasn't already started offering telecommuting opportunities and other flexible work arrangements to employees, now would be a good time to consider that, Sanicola said. These types of arrangements can lower commuting costs and help eliminate some of the stress that goes along with commuting to work every day. TechSmith is allowing an increasing number of employees to telecommute, Heathfield said. The company also has an employee carpooling program, which also helps employees save on commuting costs.
- Provide employee assistance program (EAP) services. If you already provide EAP services, “this is a perfect time to market your employee assistance program, because oftentimes it's not a program that's well advertised,” Sanicola said. Offering a variety of counseling and informational services to employees can help reduce their anxiety over finances and other areas impacted by the current economy.
Written by Jenny Cromie, certified human resources specialist (CHRS)
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