The Human Element
Your employees and your customers are the key to your survival. The skillful management of staff and customer relationships should be the basis of both your short- and long-term turnaround strategies. With that principle in mind, the following are key areas to explore: Staff Absenteeism and Team Cohesion
A political crisis may affect your staff in multiple ways. For example, there may be an increase in staff absenteeism because of transportation difficulties or crisis-related family concerns.
In addition, the business may face a breakdown in staff cohesion because of staff members’ involvement in external political activities, which may affect the internal team mind-set.
Team cohesion will depend in large part on the established company culture and the relationship between owners/operators and the employees. A crisis is a tremendous opportunity to gel an otherwise broken team. In fact, a deciding factor in the success of your turnaround strategies is staff buy-in of short- and long-term solutions.
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In the immediate wake of the initial crisis phase, group and one-on-one staff meetings are critical for understanding their concerns and sharing necessary information about the status of the business.
These meetings foster a culture of communication and give staff a sense of ownership of the issues. In addition, it also provides management an opportunity to emphasise that outside political involvement will have no place within the confines of the business.
Forming action teams to solve issues and provide solutions across the business will also provide a good starting point to move your business forward. Actively seeking staff input on where to cut costs and how to improve service will further enhance their buy-in.
Another measure is to ensure sharing of responsibilities across departments. Not only are you cross-training your staff to perform multiple roles, you are also ensuring that staff absenteeism because of political instability and related transportation issues is not endangering your business.
There also may be an opportunity to downsize employee numbers, or to utilise paid or unpaid leave to cut costs; an added benefit to allowing limited leave is that it provides staff with an opportunity to take time off as needed to deal with personal, crisis-related matters.
Naturally, the need for compassion in a crisis will have to be balanced with your business’ needs.
Customer Service and Loyalty
Despite the business slowdown, the following measures will work to ensure long-term loyalty from your customers who are continuing to patronise your services.
Most importantly, keep the channels of communication open. In other words, through the use of social media, email, text, or word-of-mouth, inform your customers of daily changes.
By staying open, you promote a feeling of loyalty as your customers may view you as a social hub during periods of instability. People need a sense of normality and routine during crises, and if there is an atmosphere of teamwork and enthusiasm amongst the staff, it will transfer to your customers.
Separately, your local national customers will respect that you are willing to stay open while competitors may have closed, which will have a longer-term impact on the turnaround of your business.
Given the importance of relationships and trust in conducting business in the Middle East, the steps above will contribute to the survival of your business. The human element cannot be underestimated.
Undertaking the above financial, operational and human element considerations in the short-term will form a solid basis for the long-term strategies you adopt for full recovery once stability returns.
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