What Your Employees Need Most From You Right Now

Experts talk of a global recession in 2023. Compassion will play a big role in supporting your teams. Here’s how leaders can manage thriving teams.

Whether you’re an employee or an employer, everyone is feeling the pressure right now. Employees are increasingly fearful of losing their jobs—especially after the latest round of tech layoffs—while employers are concerned about how to generate revenue during continued economic upheaval, inadvertently resulting in low team morale and less-than-stellar business performance.

When employees are uninspired, unengaged, and anxious, they simply do not bring their A-game to work. Who could blame them? They are distracted by the much bigger problems on the horizon, like record-high inflation still plaguing many Americans and diminished dreams of homeownership with the latest fed hike. But dedicated, forward-thinking leaders can leverage unfortunate current events to reimagine the way they show up and lead in Corporate America today.

If it feels like the hits just keep on coming, don’t worry—there is a silver lining for any leader who is willing to build their legacy with the bricks of adversity and the unique challenges we face in the workplace today. Recession-proofing your company and your team may be more attainable than you think, and it begins with leaders understanding what their employees need most from them during stressful, uncertain times.

Do These 3 Things to Help Your Team Thrive During a Recession

1. Make every employee feel like a valued member of the team. During the pandemic, it was not uncommon for teams to band together to ensure business as usual by going the extra mile, performing additional tasks, working longer hours, and taking on responsibilities that were not part of their job description to keep the company afloat. On the flip side, this may also have contributed to skyrocketing employee burnout. Find the balance between “doing less with more,” as is a common directive during seasons of financial hardships, and keep your hardworking employees who are putting in the extra hours motivated and appreciated. A team member who feels empowered, valued, and receives recognition for their contributions will always do more than is expected of them, even during challenging seasons. Do this: Implement a listening tool, or a way to solicit honest feedback from your team, to gauge employee experience. This could be a feedback form, an employee survey, a chat tool, or even an old-school suggestion box. Employers who take employee feedback seriously reduce turnover rates and make team members feel like a valued part of the team.
   

2. Build connections with your team members. Leaders with an “I’m-only-here-to-work” mentality do themselves and their teams a great disservice. For top-performing employees, work is not just work—it’s personal. After all, most of us spend more time at work with our fellow employees than we do at home with our family. So building meaningful relationships at work is key to employee satisfaction and engagement. In fact, employees who have a close work friend, according to one study, boosts employee satisfaction by 50%! This means employees who feel connected with their leaders perform better and are happier at work. Building meaningful connections can be relatively simple: Show genuine interest in their lives even when you don’t need something from them at work, listen when they talk, and find commonalities to bond over, and, this might be a big ask, don’t be afraid to show a little vulnerability along the way. Do this: Make it a priority to spend time with or engage with your team outside of formal meetings. Consider taking team members to lunch, out for coffee, or organizing a team-building event. While the budget may not always allow for employee-sponsored happy hours, especially during a recession, showing up authentically and connecting with your team can be free, only costing you a little extra time, creativity, and effort.
   

3. Use compassion as your leadership superpower. Because your staff is your most valuable asset, it will become increasingly important to proactively mitigate recession-related impacts and disruptions to your team. More than ever, your team will look to you as their advocate and may require some extra support as their needs change. Harnessing your compassion to soften any recession-related disruptions or misfortunes will set you apart as a leader and ensure your team continues to perform at their best. This means being unafraid to have difficult conversations and showing empathy when your team members are affected or struggling more than normal. Do this: When an employee shares with you that they are struggling, try to avoid immediately solving the problem. Instead, listen attentively and just let them know you are there for them. Sometimes, just being seen, heard, understood, and valued is enough—and not only will they remember it for a long time, but it will build a meaningful connection and help your team thrive.

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