I have recently read a number of articles and have
received many emails to attend seminars and webinars on
the general topic of “How to manage employees in a
turbulent economy.”

HR CONTRARIAN POINTER: Well, I hate to be the one to break
the bad news to all the gurus that are making money
peddling this bull, but there is no difference in managing
employees in good times and in bad times.

If you are a good manager, you will keep doing what you
have always done.  It doesn’t need to change if the
economy temporarily heads south.  There are no special
techniques for boom and bust cycles.

I am always curious about what makes otherwise intelligent
business executives think that the basics of good employee
relations change simply because there are issues in the
economy?  Managers need to stop following fads and get
back to the fundamentals of why people work and what makes
them proud to work for a viable organization.

In the Oct 29 – Nov 11, 2008 issue of Knowledge at Wharton 
there was an article titled, “Opportunities and Obstacles
for the B2B Market in Tough Economic Times.”

The article focused on changes to the marketing mix of a
business by asking the question, “Should firms increase
spending during a recession?” 

One of the contributors to the article, Gary Lilien,
provided a very articulate answer to this question when he
said, “It depends.”  Lilien went on to say that it depends
if the firm has “the skill, the will, and the till.”

“The skill” refers to the management and marketing
expertise.  “The will” refers to the organizational
culture to go against the herd mentality in an uncertain
economy.  And “the till” refers to the financial resources
to implement strategies that will have an impact 12 to 18
months from now.

HR CONTRARIAN POINTER: If I were allowed to make one
modification to this Wharton article, I would also
emphasize the importance of employees to Lilien’s strategy
and change his phrase to, “the skill, the will, the till,
and the people.” 

It doesn’t rhyme, but the truth is that employees are the
infrastructure to financial success.  If you don’t have
the systems in place to engage your employees, then you
are missing a major opportunity.

Check out the robust process that I have outlined for
engaging employees that I call Employment Branding (click
on the link below for a description)
http://www.hrcontrarian.com/philosophy/

If you would like to read the Wharton article, click on
the link below:
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/category.cfm?cid=4