I wasn't surprised by the results. During stagflation times, when there is no growth but rising inflation, people are most worried about meeting their food, fuel and heating bills and about keeping their jobs. The last thing the majority of employees will be concerned about are their staff benefits. This is sad because if you consider ‘flexible working arrangements' as a kind of benefit, I suspect in this recession we will find fewer people taking up these options because of fears this might signal to their employer they are less committed. During this period, job insecurity is the major driver, and any actions taken to reassure people and make them feel slightly more secure will be the benefits most would want.
Within the next couple of months we will move to a full-blown recession but with inflation declining as the price of oil, gas and food begin to fall more dramatically. In the scenario of negative growth, but when substantial labour costs have already been taken out, we in the HR community will face a real challenge in incentivising and motivating our employees to go the extra mile, to work harder, to team build and engage in those activities that will make a business difference.
The benefits on offer over the past five years will not be the drivers in this scenario - finding other motivators will be our challenge. We will need to draw on the instinctive ‘Battle of Britain' mentality of our workforce to turn around these very difficult market conditions. This might be the right time to consider more employee share ownership schemes or other incentives that make individuals feel part of the business and give them some sense of ownership for the extra efforts they will be expected to make over the coming months and years.
Yes, people will want to retain their job, but fear of job loss is not a great motivator in the medium to long term. HR has real challenges now in finding the right psychological buttons to press in motivating and engaging their employees. As the social reformer John Ruskin suggested in 1851: "In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: they must be fit for it, they must not do too much of it, and they must have a sense of success in it."
Cary Cooper is professor of organisational psychology and health at Lancaster University Management School and chair of The Sunningdale Institute in the National School of Government.
