How to motivate and retain talents in times of crisis

Confusion: In the financial turmoil, many enterprises naturally think of layoffs because of reduced orders. The decrease of business volume and capital in real estate, manufacturing, financial services and other industries will inevitably lead to the decline of demand in IT, decoration, construction, reinforced concrete manufacturers, mortgage companies, logistics companies, primary semi-finished products manufacturers and other related industries. Employees in more industries, like grasshoppers tied to these industries, will have to face the crisis of reducing production, production, staff and wages. But is layoffs really the most effective cost-saving measure? American economist Schultz once estimated that the material input increased by 4.5 times and the profit increased by 3.5 times. The manpower input will increase by 3.5 times, and the profit will increase by 17.5 times. In other words, people are the most active and creative factors in various production factors, especially high-quality core employees. The ultimate goal of human resource management is to attract, retain and motivate talents and build the core competitiveness of enterprises. However, managers often make mistakes in tools and rationality-they often spend a lot of energy pursuing perfect management processes, IT systems, tools and methods, but when they need to save costs, they first think of measures such as layoffs and salary reduction. It seems that managers generally think that employee turnover doesn't matter, as long as factories, equipment and funds are still there and business is good, they can recruit employees again. As everyone knows, this not only increases the cost of employee turnover and the start-up cost of recruitment, but also intensifies the crisis of employees' trust in the company. If an enterprise can survive, it is best not to take layoffs, because employees are the company's greatest wealth and capital. Retaining the company's core talents is the most cost-saving measure for enterprises. The challenge of retaining talents Employee management is the top priority of enterprises. Only by retaining core talents can we maintain the core competitiveness of the company. However, during the economic boom, many enterprises have a single means to motivate and retain talents, and most of them take "money incentive" as the main incentive means. Now in the financial crisis, most enterprises have encountered unprecedented challenges in encouraging and retaining talents. The internal and external environment-"chaotic" global economic recession has shown its influence on China's economic development. Affected by the financial crisis, every enterprise is facing multiple pressures. Externally, the business volume of many industries has shrunk collectively and the market is weak, such as real estate and automobile industries. The depression of the whole industry has made many enterprises face enormous market pressure and financial pressure. On the other hand, there are also various difficulties within the enterprise: as the business volume decreases, the output will also decrease. Improper implementation of "leave without pay" and "reducing staff and increasing efficiency" will lead to many negative reactions and even labor disputes. In this case of internal troubles and foreign invasion, how to properly handle various problems and always adhere to "encouraging and retaining core talents" is itself a challenge. The survey of employees' trust-"low" shows that during the financial crisis, employees' attitude towards salary has become more and more realistic, and they deeply feel that enterprises are taking saving expenses and reducing human resources expenses as their strategic focus. The past practice of "asking for a raise" as one's own value is gone forever. However, on the other hand, the news of layoffs of enterprises in the same industry or region continues, the company's development prospects and business priorities are not clear, and the job requirements are vague. At this time, employees are most concerned about whether the company will lay off employees, and the trust between the company and employees has also dropped to the lowest level in history. In this environment, how to ensure that employees feel cared for again in the company, ensure mutual trust and cooperation among employees, and devote themselves to high-quality work is a problem that needs to be paid close attention to. Only by regaining employees' trust in the company can employees wholeheartedly accept all the measures to encourage and retain talents introduced by the company, instead of thinking that this is just a "form" and "going through the motions" of the enterprise. Non-monetary incentives-"Less" As mentioned above, many enterprises, especially those in China, have a single means to motivate and retain talents, mainly relying on "exciting salary growth plans, rising welfare policies and endless promotion opportunities". These incentives based on "money" can make the working atmosphere hot when the situation is good. However, under the current financial crisis, many companies are unable to provide financial incentives, and these "beautiful bubbles" have burst one after another. Instead, anxious, dignified managers, freezing salaries and promotion plans, shrinking options, and even layoffs. Many enterprises have been trying to attract and retain talents, but now they are helpless about how to effectively motivate employees and lack corresponding measures and methods. Improving employee participation is the key. The so-called dedication refers to the input or efforts of employees to their work. It is found that whether employees are dedicated or not affects the profitability of enterprises by 35%. Moreover, compared with enterprises with general employee engagement management (less than 20%), enterprises with better employee engagement management (more than 35%) have the following three advantages: 45% employees think their work is challenging and can give full play to their talents and advantages (only 27% employees in general enterprises think so); 62% employees think that the organization is orderly and efficient (only 37% employees in general enterprises think so); 58% employees think they know the performance expectations and job requirements of the organization (only 32% in general enterprises). "How to make employees willing and willing to make extra efforts" is a matter with low cost and controlled by enterprises themselves, which can improve the profitability of enterprises. In a special period, enterprises need to strengthen the incentive and retention of core talents, improve employee engagement and improve team cohesion. Enterprises that innovatively apply non-monetary incentives should not only rely on "monetary" incentives, but also pay attention to "non-monetary" incentives. First of all, we can consider other ways to widely apply human resource management, such as succession planning, career planning, job design, training and consulting. For example, in terms of training, according to research, in most enterprises in China, only one in three employees gets training and development opportunities. In other words, there is still a lot of room for enterprises to take development measures such as training as a tool to retain talents. It is a win-win process for enterprises and employees to make training development plans in time according to personal characteristics and stick to them. On the other hand, more non-cash incentives such as praise and recognition are used. Such measures do not necessarily require capital investment, but mainly require patience in daily work. It is very effective to give appropriate praise and recognition to employees' work performance and actively provide employees with the resources they need to complete their tasks. As long as these praises and recognition are closely related to the organization's performance goals, vision and values, employees' sense of identity with corporate culture can be fully stimulated and their work enthusiasm can be improved. There are three main purposes to strengthen communication with employees in special periods: first, to understand the satisfaction of employees and prevent the sudden occurrence of specific events (brain drain, employee strikes, etc.). Identifying employees' dissatisfaction can not only provide direction for continuous improvement of management, but also accurately predict the resistance to the implementation of new reform measures. Second, a deep understanding of employees' personality, motivation, thinking, personality characteristics, self-image, social roles or values will help to put the right people in the right positions, so that every employee can give full play to his own advantages and make the greatest contribution to the organization. Third, strengthening communication can ensure that employees clearly know the relationship between job performance and company incentive policies. According to the survey, less than 30% employees can clearly see the relationship between their performance and career development. Therefore, only by letting employees fully understand the relationship between their duties and tasks and the company's development strategy and their own career development can they fully mobilize their enthusiasm. Therefore, when working hours permit, we must first create opportunities to communicate with employees. Communication can be formal or informal, during work breaks, morning meetings and month-end performance interviews. By listening to employees' ideas, we can understand the current situation of employee satisfaction. On the other hand, in communication, employees should fully understand the relationship between their duties and tasks and the company's development strategy, and understand the current direction of the company's incentive policies, so as to clarify the employees' work objectives and let employees feel respect and care in the company. Create a fair and just high-performance working environment. The quality of the working environment directly affects the employee's engagement. It is directly related to the management level of managers and the methods of motivating employees, and it directly affects the performance of the company. In a good working environment, employees will generally try their best to achieve their goals, improve sales performance or customer satisfaction, and do not hesitate to make extra sacrifices. Bad working environment will lead to absenteeism, rising dissatisfaction or declining work efficiency. Therefore, it is particularly important for enterprises to carefully examine some current policies, systems and work processes. For example, in many enterprises, there are some bureaucratic work procedures, repeated job settings, and unfair policies in salary and welfare. These policies or working procedures are not only useless, but also will greatly dampen the enthusiasm of employees. Only by ensuring the fairness and justice of enterprise policies and systems can we effectively motivate high-performance employees, maximize their morale and fully mobilize their enthusiasm and initiative. In this critical period, enterprises need to think creatively about their strategies of employing people and motivating talents: how to motivate employees to make them make extra efforts voluntarily, even if more employees are dedicated. For enterprises, it is necessary to learn to practice internal strength in the "winter period".