7 Ways To Manage HR Through A Crisis

7 Ways To Manage HR Through A Crisis

Page 2

Here are recommendations on how you can reassure your employees and foster employee loyalty by doing so:

1). Hold a "town hall" meeting with employees and your senior management team. Your CEO can talk about the key challenges the company is facing, how it will directly impact employees, and what he needs now from employees to help the company continue to move forward to meet its goals. In the same meeting, have your CFO give a brief overview of how your company is doing financially. Use bullet points to emphasize key lessons you want your employees to take away from the meeting.

Open up the meeting to employee questions from the CEO and members of senior management. Hold it after regular business hours for 90 minutes and of course, you'll need to pay your non-exempt employees overtime pay to attend (in the state of California; check your state's overtime laws). Oh, and don't forget to feed your employees during this meeting. It doesn't have to be expensive or extravagant. It will make the meeting more festive (and popular) by ordering pizza and drinks, or cookies, fruit and coffee, something simple.

2). Hold "town hall" meetings at least once each quarter to keep employees informed and up to date on company performance and related issues. In the interim, each department head can hold staff meetings on a regular basis to keep employees informed.

3). Revisit your fiduciary responsibility in your employee's retirement plan investment options. Your Investment Committee (usually the VP of HR and the CFO, CEO and other senior management members) needs to review the mix and performance of selected investment options to make sure you're providing the safe, sound investing opportunities for your employees. You can hire an outside consulting firm to conduct this review for your company to provide one additional level of protection for your Investment Committee members.

4). Schedule your 401K carrier to come onsite to conduct numerous employee meetings. This recommendation is critical; if you haven't already scheduled these visits call your 401K carrier today! The meetings can be held in a group format, with additional one-on-one meetings to be held between investment representatives and soon-to-retire employees scheduled to depart within the next 6-12 months.

5). Publish a company newsletter on a regular schedule. Make it available where employees will read it whether it's online or on the back of a bathroom stall door!

6). Conduct informal online surveys on employee issues. As an example, prior to open enrollment you can survey your employees on what's working, what's not working, and how to improve the overall benefits package at work.

7). Have fun! Kick off the holiday season with a Halloween costume contest complete with bobbing for apples! Create a contest between departments to dress up with themes and decorate their office. Serve pumpkin pie, root beer floats, or Halloween candy. Have fun prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners such as haunted house tickets. Try to create a little levity at work and give your people a chance to relax, have fun, and forget about these trying times, if only for an afternoon!

Return to Page 1

Becky Regan, M.A., CCP began her own consulting practice in 1995, Regan HR, Inc. to provide human resources consulting services to businesses in California. She has been successful in growing her business through reputation and client referrals. Her work as a consultant includes the full spectrum of HR technical expertise, including C-level recruitment, compensation studies (design, market and executive pay studies, sales compensation plans), training & teaching, interim assignments as a HR Director for organizations, and employee relations, including workplace investigations and written responses to formal complaints. For more HR tips and to receive my FREE "The Top 5 Secrets to Building a Better Organization that Every HR Pro Must Know" go to www.ReganHR.com.