Snohomish County execs on how to keep staffers informed, motivated through tough times

Published 11:58 am Wednesday, April 14, 2010

When business is bad, meetings come with an ominous sense of foreboding.

It starts with an email bearing the subject line “staff meeting.” Then it grows with speculation. Cutbacks? Layoffs? Closure?

Even so, some company heads made an effort to meet with employees more frequently during the recession. Now that a recovery looks imminent, many are keeping up with the practice.

As the job market slowly improves and recession-battered employees start flexing their knees and preparing to leap to other companies, some business leaders are hoping some face-to-face time will give them pause.

What’s more, they’re preparing for a sluggish economic recovery that means revenue — along with employee perks — might be slow to return.

“My advice to managers is to be completely transparent as far as the company stability (and) outlook is concerned,” said Rem Malloy, present of Travel 4 Real in Everett.

The small travel company struggled to find funding last year, and Malloy said he changed the way he runs the company in light of that uncertainty and a tight budget.

Staff meetings went from once a week to three times a week. Malloy and his business partner were up-front with their employees about the company’s finances and tried to emphasize getting through the downturn and growing sales in new markets.

And Malloy researched what comparable jobs in the region paid so he could provide context for his small staff.

“This gave them a real sense that they have a good position with a good company; especially since the travel industry was so hard hit in the U.S. market,” he said.

Many companies have plans to reinstate lost perks and do away with mandatory furloughs, according to employment research firms. A study from the Profit Sharing/401k Council of America reports that 15 percent of companies suspended or shrunk matching plans in 1009. It also reported that just under half — 46 percent — plan to restore those plans in the first six months of 2010.

Elsewhere, recession troubles remain. And for many managers and CEOs, that means dealing with employee anxiety along with revenue woes.

Pat Fahey, CEO for Everett-based Frontier Bank, credits his employees with ensuring deposit stability while he hunts for an investor to inject capital into the ailing institution. Hard hit by bad real estate loans, Frontier faces a federal order to increase capital or sell itself to the highest bidder.

When Fahey fired bank President John Dickson earlier this month over a vacation dispute, he called a staff-wide conference to explain the decision.

He said he was candid with staff members about the reason for Dickson’s dismissal: that he wanted to take vacation time despite the bank’s crisis.

Fahey called the staff’s response overwhelming and described employees as understanding.

“I have a very strong philosophy that a leader doesn’t leave the battlefield and abandon the troops when they’re under fire, when they’re under stress,” he said at the time.

Malloy said that goes both ways.

“In hard times, you will have two types of employees — those who jump ship hoping to find another opportunity or those who are committed to the industry, company and spirit that small business is all about,” he said. “And those are the keepers which will work to bring the company back to black.”

Read Amy Rolph’s small-business blog at cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/heraldnet/TheStorefront. Contact her at 425-339-3029 or arolph@heraldnet.com.