An economic crisis is never easy to deal with. They are called a crisis for a reason. An economic crisis is marked by the recession in the country. It has adverse impacts on the stock market, banks, inflation, and government stability. It results in the reduced income of an individual. Companies are at risk of slow-growth and bankruptcy if the demand for their goods and services is reduced due to the low performance of the economy. The faltering economy can induce anxiety and fear in the employees. They worry about reduced income, low retirement funds, inflation, and getting laid off. They may feel constant pressure to perform so that they don’t lose their jobs. This stress can take a heavy toll on their mental health and their efficiency at work that can affect a company’s performance. You can notice whether your employees are stressed or not based on the symptoms. Symptoms of stress that the employees may experience are:
1. Feeling irritated, nervous, angry, confused, or anxious.
2. Lack of motivation at work
3. feeling tired or depressed
4. Burned out
5. Trouble having a good sleep
Therefore, it becomes important for the company to look for #employee stress management steps. Here are the methods to achieve it.
Communication: It is the best practice to communicate with your employees regarding every situation. Inform them about the happenings of the company and its performance. It is good to hold regular meetings with top employers to clear their doubts. It can reduce rumors and gossip around them. The company can also send a newsletter to the employees assuring the concerns in the economic crisis.
Maintain employee benefits: The benefits that an employee has from the company such as health insurance, sick leave, vacation pay, incentives on performance should not be removed during the financial crisis. It can make employees more stressed with low productivity at work.
Offer counselling and assistance programs: The counseling programs are helpful to deal with mental health issues. They should be encouraged to attend counselling to address their issues of stress management. The assistance program can focus on educating them about finances and recession-related topics. They should be made aware of how they can invest, make a budget, and tackle retirement income concerns.
Being honest: If you're planning to lay off a few staff, it is good to be straightforward with it. If the company is not performing well, be open about it. The employees can have trust issues if the company makes it appear good on the face but struggling inside.
Let us have a look at how companies have managed to perform well during the economic crisis due to an employee-friendly environment. In the year 2008, India was facing slow economic growth with high inflation, record-high current account deficit, and rupee at its lowest record in the market. This drop-down affected companies’ growth and resulted in a slowdown. HUL was one of the crisis-hit companies. It faced pricing issues. To survive the crisis, Nitin Paranjape, CEO & Managing Director of HUL responded with great speed. The company focused on consumer, investment, #technology, controlled cost, and #skill enhancement for employees. The company surveyed to find out the methods to bring out the best in each contributor, regardless of what they do. It focused on employee retention and integration making workplace experience smooth and rewarding for their performance. It boosted the employees and led to better performance. They also implemented connections to reach employees regarding their concerns. Various other solutions included employee integration and retention platforms that focused on transforming the company's resources into more valuable products. It indeed made employees enthusiastic and excited about their work even when the recession period was overwhelming.
It is evident from the case study that stress management during an economic crisis is a challenging situation. Even though it appears difficult, it is the crucial step that decides the company’s future as the company is built on its employees. Investing the resources for employees will always be beneficial for the company in the long run because of the increased productivity and efficiency.