People Dynamics Newsletter - People Matters
Issue 45, November 2008 | Back to Newsletters Index
PD News
We hope you had a nice Cup weekend for those of you in Victoria! We are progressing well and have been busy, despite the huge upheaval in the economy. In this issue we talk about some strategies businesses can adopt to cope with the current situation and take a look at generations in the work place with the new Generation Z.
Economic Situation
The last month has seen a huge upheaval in the world economy and we have seen clients and affiliates affected by the downturn, particularly in their overseas operations. Although some businesses are already laying off staff and cutting costs that way, a number of business advisors are advocating that this is not the time to be making staff redundant.
The latter is also our advice. Your people are your most important asset, particularly in these times. What is important now is to build on the strengths of your current staff, and further develop and up-skill them, so that when the economic situation does improve, (as it has always done historically) you will be better placed than your competitors.
Recruiting and retaining staff is difficult at the best of times and you don't want to be in a situation where you are vying for those people when the economy is once again thriving. Watch your competition closely at this time. Cut costs smartly—be strategic in the way you approach this rather than what can be a knee jerk reaction to the situation. Review your expenses and see how these can be tightened, particularly in the areas of taxation. Look at new market segments and how these can be targeted. Review the Christmas Party expenditure for the end of the year, get staff involved and gain their feedback on what could be another option. Some businesses such as Citigroup are not even having a Christmas Party this year. Assess what works best for you and your business.
Generation C for “Crappy”?
Some of us are still getting our heads around the phenomenon that is Generation Y. Now coming of age and gaining a lot of media attention, we now also need to be aware of the ‘Next Generation’ (1995 onwards) who are called everything from Generation Z, to the Google Generation, to Generation C (standing for ‘crappy’ or ‘connect’ or ‘community’) to the Facebook Generation. Generation Z are seen to be amazing networkers who have the ability to stay connected to people like never before, who are also active consumers and have enormous influence over the purchasing decisions of their parents.
Legal Update
Be aware of the way you handle sick leave investigations. A recent case found that although a company had the right to dismiss an employee after he was found to have misled his employer about sick leave (he competed in a surfing competition when he was meant to be taking sick leave!), he was still entitled to be paid for his notice period. His employer originally conducted only a brief investigation before summarily dismissing him. The court found that summarily dismissing the employee was unwarranted as he wasn't given an appropriate opportunity to respond to the allegations.