Now is the time to invest in your staff

The new Employee Outlook from the CIPD is out and, not surprisingly, it makes for very gloomy reading.

Press coverage picked up on the warnings it contains for employers that only a third of employees trust or have confidence in their senior managers, and only a quarter of staff are consulted about decisions that affect them.

However, that was not the only bad news. The survey reports job dissatisfaction on the rise, together with fear of unemployment, and accompanying rises in bullying, stress and and conflict. What the survey doesn't ask is: what drives this behaviour?

Many readers will have had conversations with friends recently where the usual "how's work going?" question will be answered with a grimace and an answer something along the lines of "but at least I've got a job." People seem naturally to retreat into a defensive posture in times of uncertainty, re-inforcing silos, and generally building fear and mistrust in the workplace.

And yet, in times of recession, spending on supporting staff through training, development or other services is usually one of the first items of expenditure to be cut, although this is the very time that staff need more and not less support. A simple example: if workloads are growing, don't staff need more support on how to prioritise their time, and on how to manage increased pressure?

The CIPD report recognises this in recommending that employers track job satistfaction and engagement and improve consultation. It also recommends that employers should help their staff cope with stress and, as living standards stagnate at best, provide financial advice.

At Worklife Support, this has long been our view. The Well-Being programme helps deliver organic organisational change while Worklife Support for you, the employee assistance programme, offers individual support, both emotional and practical, including financial guidance. Our Enhanced Well-Being programme, where both services operate in tandem, is proving increasingly popular.

Investing in your staff and promoting whatever support services that you do make available should be seen as central to your continued effectiveness and success. Simple knee-jerk reactions to the current climate of uncertainty does no-one any good, and may end up actually costing organisations more than they may save. A strategic investment in a programme such as the Well-Being programme proactively supporting both organisational effectiveness and individual support should be seen as a key opportunity to demonstrate to your staff a real committment to employees.