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From Resource, July 2006
Copyright by LOMA
Dealing with
Employment Instability
Companies need to realize that changes in their workforce will severely
impact their competitive advantage, according to a consultant.
Managers of life insurance
companies who want their institutions to succeed in the current business
environment will need to nurture their people, even as they face the need for
reductions in their workforces, according to Pam Butterfield, president of
Business Success Tools. “No matter
whether it’s a life insurance company or a manufacturer of heavy machine
parts, managers need to realize that changes in their workforce will severely
impact their competitive advantage,” says Butterfield. She
outlines eight trends that insurance executives need to keep in mind in the face
of upcoming employment instability:
Look
Out For The Talent Glut
There will be an excess of
people looking for work. “There is going to be a lot of ‘talent’ looking
for employment,” she says, “Remember that every one of them won’t be right
for you. Just because they are available doesn’t mean you should hire them.
Companies need to look for employees who are a cultural match for their
organizations, those who can actually do the work that needs to be done, and
those who will ultimately make their organizations more productive.”
She urges executives to avoid any well-intentioned urge to hire an
unemployed friend or family member out of the goodness of their hearts if that
person does not have the qualifications necessary to contribute to the
organization’s success. “Creating a company that will be successful in the
coming years means hiring people who are going to keep your company on the
competitive edge for future success,” she cautions.
Help
Those Left Behind
Remember
to tend to the needs of the people who are left behind after a layoff.
“Successful leaders will be responsible for the job of healing those left
behind after layoffs and helping them focus strategically on what needs to be
done to move forward,” says Butterfield.
She
points out that once a company downsizes, its employees become focused on
themselves, fueled by the loss of their peers and the fear of what’s going to
happen to them personally. “Leaders will need to help people prepare before,
during and after layoffs so employees can continue to focus on what’s best for
the customers,” she says.
After
a downsizing, managers can expect their people to feel like they can’t trust
them and/or that they aren’t safe in their jobs. “Managers need to face this
and expect to see people exhibit certain non-productive behaviors,”
Butterfield points out. She lists seven of these behaviors: 1) Not speaking up;
2) Not wanting to stretch themselves or take risks; 3) Being disinterested in
searching for alternatives and options; 4) Not wanting to think outside the box;
5) Lashing out and being surly while under-performing; 6) Not expecting to be
treated fairly; and, 7) Assuming something negative will happen if they do speak
up. “As a leader in this situation, managers will have to learn how to earn
trust and keep it, even when the going gets tough,” she adds.
She
reminds companies to have a change management process in place before a lay-off
so they are able to weather the transition. “This is a process that provides
ways for the remaining employees’ time to be used and helps them set new and
different priorities,” she says. “Being able to rebuild the remaining team
to focus on what needs to be done to adapt to the new order will be the key to
success for downsized companies. That will mean dealing with the human issues in
a timely manner. If those issues are ignored, employers will have tremendous
difficulty getting productivity out of their workforce. Managers who react to
downsizing by telling their team members, ‘Get back to work and stop your
moaning and groaning’ or ‘You’re lucky to have a job’ will find their
remaining workers afraid and non-productive.”
View
Feedback as a Good Thing
“Many people in middle and
upper management positions in insurance companies don’t know what to
say or how to say it when difficult news needs to be delivered,” points out
Butterfield. “They are ‘conflict averse’ and are unable to provide
feedback in ways that can be heard and acted upon. The difficulty is not with
the feedback itself. Rather, it is how people view feedback. Most
people actually want to know. Yet, more often than not, they get no
feedback or it is poorly delivered. Feedback in the workplace is
fundamental for helping those who wish to improve their performance or reach an
important objective. Butterfield warns, “Giving, as well as receiving feedback
is an essential skill that managers need to learn if you want to build and
maintain strong working relationships.”
Put
The Right People on the Bus, Especially if it’s Small
If your company or agency is
small, you will have to do more with less. That means having the right people on
the bus and sitting in the right seats. “Small companies, especially, will
have to learn how to develop leaders from within and groom internal talent in
order to grow. They will need to learn how to tap into people’s individual
strengths and talents if they want to be competitive with less overhead and get
a larger piece of the pie,” she forecasts.
Another
mark of tomorrow’s successful smaller company will be the ability to nurture
employees’ right brains, where creativity resides, because the repetitive rote
tasks will continue to be automated or outsourced. “Hiring the talent that’s
creative and innovative will require skill,” she advises. “During the hiring
process, companies will need to weed out candidates whose attitudes tell them
they haven’t learned anything new in awhile. These are the kind of candidates
who won’t contribute to a creative workplace. Smaller companies, especially,
need to look for lifetime learners who will further the goals of these smaller,
smarter-working companies.
Attract
and Keep Employees with Quality of Life Benefits
The war for good talent is
going to intensify. Insurance companies are going to have to find additional
ways to attract and retain the best talent. “Good benefits are not always
about the dollars. Quality of life is a huge issue, especially for Generation X.
Look for creative options for pensions and health insurance. If the economics of
these benefits limit your ability to offer them,” Butterfield adds, “Find
alternative benefits that address employees’ needs to improve their quality of
life. Quality of life benefits help people improve and better manage their own
lives. These might include helping employees learn new things that interest
them, especially since many life insurance companies already have these experts
in-house. Consider using those resources to help employees make better choices
about retirement, learn how to deal with change, make better money decisions,
even figure out what their next careers will be (especially valuable in
today’s environment where the promise of lifetime employment is a thing of the
past).
Develop
Leaders Who Can Simultaneously Maintain Stability and Promote Change
“Twenty years ago, leaders didn’t need to cultivate their ability to deal
with change. Leaders promoted stability and kept up with market demand. Their
jobs were to keep everything comfortable,” Butterfield observes. “Today,
leaders have to keep up with both. They need to foster stability to deliver
financial products and services, keep the company successful today while also
promoting the changes necessary to support the company’s viability in the
future.”
Become
a Coach-Like Leader
There will be an increased need
for managers to be coach-like. “Coaches don’t throw the ball themselves,”
she points out, “They work with others to help them do it better than they
ever thought they could. Coach-like leaders encourage their ‘players’ to be
adaptable, flexible and creative in how they are doing their work.”
Coach-like
leaders work at building winning teams. They know that one size doesn’t fit
all when it comes to bringing out the best in individual team members. “Watch
a good coach, like Geno Auriemma, the coach of the
University
of
Connecticut
’s Women’s Basketball team. He’ll scream at one player to bring out her
best and with others, he’ll talk with them quietly,” she points out.
“Coach-like leaders have an adaptable, flexible way of working with each
person to prepare them to do their best.”
Today’s
leaders have to be agile so they can coach a variety of people. And, like any
good coach, they have to be open to learn from their employees. “Those who
think ‘This employee is 22 years old and fresh out of school so what could she
possibly teach me?’ won’t last long in the contemporary business
environment,” comments Butterfield. “These leaders won’t be open to the
variety of experiences and different kinds of people they’ll need to succeed
in the 2006 (and beyond) workplace.”
Cultivating
Your Own Ability to Remain Employable
Unlike past generations where
those working in insurance companies could expect to remain employed, this
generation will learn that they can’t rely on those institutions for life-long
jobs. “Even small insurance agencies where they create a family type
environment and stress two-way loyalty won’t be able to avoid laying people
off,” forecasts Butterfield.
Those
who face these realities will take responsibility for managing their own
careers. They must learn to identify their own strengths, talents and
transferable skills. “Successful careers will be built when people learn to be
portable and adaptable,” she says. “The future will mean a lot of job
changes. These might be lateral moves or even stepping backwards to learn a new
career. Those with egos that say to themselves ‘I’m not going back and
become the novice and have to learn a new career from scratch’ won’t be able
to adapt to this environment. The whole idea of remaining employable— not just
employed—is going to become a lifetime skill.” Continuing education is
important to keep skills current.
“Only
a small percentage of people will grasp this,” she says. “A lot of people
will continue to be so sucked into the day-to-day that they either won’t make
the time or have the interest to pick their heads up and take action before they
become unemployable.”
In general, Ms. Butterfield
expects the trends that shape business to revolve around one word: change.
“Change will be the only constant in the workplace for long time to come,”
she says. “Those who develop the necessary leadership styles and adaptability
will enjoy the rollercoaster ride provided to businesses today and tomorrow.”
EDITOR’S
NOTE: Pam Butterfield is the president of Business Success Tools LLC, which
offers organizations such as insurance companies the resources they need to
energize business growth and improve profits. Located in
Manchester
,
CT
, the firm can be found at www.BusinessSuccessTools.Biz or 860-643-4744.
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