You may not think an insurance company, auto distributor, consulting firm and a law firm would have much in common. Or, that your company has much in common with any of them. But, you'd be wrong.
The recession, it seems, has been the great equalizer among employers, with many companies - regardless of size or industry - enduring many of the same challenges: maintaining financial survival, stabilizing employee morale and productivity and fighting to keep top talent.
At the final general session at EBN's Benefits Forum & Expo, HR/benefits professionals from four companies named to this year's 100 Best Companies to Work For list - Aflac, auto distributor JM Family Enterprises, consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers and law firm Alston + Bird - spoke candidly about how being named to the prestigious list doesn't insulate an employer from tough economic times.
However, the high level of employee trust and strong culture needed to make the list seemed to help the companies survive and look toward the future with optimism.
The 'CALM' after the storm
In evaluating companies for the Best Companies to Work For lists, the Great Places to Work Institute puts heavy emphasis on the Trust Index Employee Survey and Culture Audit.
The employee survey consists of 58 statements that address credibility, respect, fairness, pride and camaraderie - areas that may be a bit frayed in the midst of a recession. The panelists discussed their efforts and successes in maintaining employee trust during a time of extreme uncertainty in most workplaces.
"When the economy started spiraling out of control, I believed our role was to exhibit CALM: Communicate, Accessibility, Leaders lead and Manage the business," said Janet Baker, SVP and director of human resources at Aflac. Allowing employees to hear from the company's senior leaders frequently during the economic crisis was crucial, she said. "When waters are calm, anyone can steer the ship; when waters are rocky, people want to see their captain."
Communication also was of utmost importance at PricewaterhouseCoopers, concurred Anne Donovan, the consulting firm's U.S. human capital transformation leader.
"We're a company of 30,000 employees; it's hard to make 30,000 people feel cozy and calm," she said. In addition, "60% of our employees are age 32 and under. They've never been through something like this. So, we overcommunicated, early and often, to help keep people calm about what was going on," she said.
Keeping communication free from "spin," was the key to keeping JM Family employees on a road toward recovery, even when the auto industry as a whole had fallen into a ditch.
"We treated our folks as adults; these are complicated problems and we needed to explain all of the potential solutions, including the worst case scenario [of layoffs]," said Carmen Johnson, JM Family's general counsel. "We kept it open and honest about our efforts to save every last dollar."
At Alston + Bird, Terry Stevens, the firm's director of benefits and compensation, used the CEO as a human shield for employees' questions, and it worked. "We communicated more than ever. Our CEO visited every office, taking tough, brutal questions," she recalled. "He answered everything, and in the end people felt better that they were getting honest communication."
Dealing with layoffs
Unfortunately, communication can't solve all problems, as the panelists told BFE attendees. Three of the four recounted having to lay off employees over the last year as a way of ensuring company survival.
"The word recession doesn't go far enough to describe what the auto industry went through," said Johnson.
Still, rather than the balance sheet, "[company] culture was the first filter that we used to make decisions to get through this crisis. We did end up having to lay off 11% of our workforce, but what helped is that the culture prevailed. We communicated well with those who stayed, and set up a Website for laid-off workers to get [career] guidance and [job placement] assistance. Those workers also have preferential treatment in being hired back to the company. It was those little touches that helped bring us through a very trying time," she explained.
Layoffs were unchartered territory for Stevens and her team at Alston + Bird. "In our 117-year history, we'd never had a layoff, but in 2008 and 2009 we had to do layoffs," Stevens lamented. "Our CEO spoke personally with every laid-off employee, and we set up a helpline for assistance. We were able to find new job placement for most who were laid off."
Fighting turnover ... or not
Aflac was the only company on the panel that didn't conduct layoffs as a result of the recession. However, Baker said, that didn't mean that employees weren't leaving the company, adding that in certain cases the departures weren't necessarily a bad thing.
"Every organization has its stars, its [rising] stars and ... those other people," Baker noted. "We determined that some of our employees weren't engaged and wanted to be elsewhere. And in some cases, we helped them get elsewhere. Because if you have 12 employees on your team and two problem employees, how many problem employees do you have? Twelve, because those two will bring down the whole team."
For employees who were engaged at Aflac, Baker said the company provided additional education and training to boost productivity and loyalty. In addition, "we simply asked people what they wanted," she said. "I'm too old to start guessing. It's much easier to just ask people to tell you what matters to them," in terms of rewards and recognition.
Indeed, research shows almost a quarter of workers is looking to leave their current job within a year, so employers can't afford to play guessing games about how to keep top talent.
"When people leave, they don't fire the company, they fire their boss," observed Stevens. At Alston + Bird, "we took careful steps to strengthen relationships between employees and direct supervisors," to stave off a talent exodus.
Although Donovan said PwC took similar steps to retain workers, she acknowledged the reality that employees simply move on sometimes. "It's important to me that when people walk out the door - and they will - that they leave as a friend of the firm. My goal is to have happy employees and really happy alumni."
Happiness among both groups means that taking care of people is most important, the panelists agreed. Thinking of the company as a family, Baker said, makes a difference, acknowledging that this is easier to do at Aflac.
"Our company was founded by three brothers, and when you start with family, it connects your whole business because ultimately it's family that you're taking care of," she said.
"When your chairman emeritus, chairman and president/CEO all sit down to Sunday dinner, you're kind of limited as an HR director because rocking Sunday dinners is not something a VP of HR wants to do," joked Baker.
At the end of the day, though, she said, "If you take care of the people, the people will take care of the business." Her fellow panelists nodded in agreement.
