People Matters

How will the present economic crisis impact your talent strategy? 

We see a big talent development opportunity in this tough environment. Despite the overall external challenges, we are on a growth trajectory and recognize the importance of ‘people and capability’ in fuelling growth. We will therefore invest in building and sharpening our people and capability, through training, experiential learning and excellence in execution.

In an environment of gloom, it is but obvious that employee morale and motivation takes a beating; how different will the employee engagement approach be so as to maintain stability and balance?

Increasing employee trust and confidence should be the primary focus of organizations during such tough times. Communication plays a vital role and companies need to reach out to people to understand their apprehensions/ concerns. Equally leaders need to be open and transparent in all round communication. Business leaders need to explain to employees the business realities, external environment, competition, etc. Communication with rationale/ data can help organizations to increase employees trust.

Equally important is employee participation in management processes in difficult times, whether it is a greater emphasis on cost management, productivity enhancement or overall effectiveness of work and how it gets done. Greater employee involvement in choosing and driving initiatives will lead to greater engagement and improved morale across the company
It is also important to ensure that companies never stop investing in people and their competencies during tough times. The belief that people are an investment and not overhead is fundamental to how decisions are made and priorities determined with respect to investment in people. Retaining the right talent should be another focus area to bring stability and continuity and provide leadership in tough times.