The prevailing mood surrounding the results of the 2016 presidential election is fear. With a Trump presidency starting in just under three months, there is a lot of concern for the future of America.
My company, Quantum Workplace, conducted a survey called Trump vs. Clinton: Why Employees Are Nervous for the 2016 Presidential Election. We found that employees fear another financial crisis and worry that international trade and business will suffer under President-elect Trump. The knee-jerk panic in global markets initially supported these concerns.
What’s more, 48.8 percent of employees fear that Trump will have a negative impact on their employment. How do employers address this uncertainty in the workplace?
Know Your Team
Before you can help restore morale in the office, you need to know what ails your staff. You need a true snapshot of your employees in real-time. Otherwise, you may be wasting time and energy trying to address a concern that doesn’t actually exist. Employees want to be heard so their worries can be abated. And surveys are the best way to get to know your team.
Conduct surveys on a regular basis to keep your fingers on the pulse of your culture. Since they are confidential, they provide employers with an accurate picture of what employees’ main issues are. From there, you can start taking steps to approach prevailing fears.
Look to the Future
There’s always a rush of panic during major political changes. People tend to overreact and fill in their future with the worst case scenarios. Employers need to proactively address their concerns now to get ahead of the panic.
It’s best to emphasize the company’s plan to push forward no matter who takes office. Re-engage your employees with the company’s mission, vision, and values. They need to be reminded of the fact that they indeed fit into the plans of growth.
Show them how the long-term organizational goals are still achievable. Help them visualize the steps being taken by cascading these goals down to each level of the organization. Illustrate how their individual efforts contribute to these goals and how they align with the larger vision.
Embrace Transparency
Make open discussion the norm by creating a transparent culture. Encourage your employees to voice their concerns and ask questions they want to ask. This way, they don’t feel left in the dark and start to gossip about lies and misconceptions.
When major changes like presidential elections occur, consider hosting open discussion meetings where you can openly talk about anything related to the future of the company and how the changes affect your staff. Emphasize that leadership is always available for one-on-one meetings to clear up any unanswered questions.
It’s also important to be proactive about announcing any major changes to the company. For example, if you’re expanding a department or acquiring another company, announce it before the rumor mill becomes overactive.
Additionally, consider engaging your employees in an internal social network. Give employees access to an online message board or social feed where everyone can post and converse about upcoming changes and developments.
Another major concern on employees’ minds may be the financial health of the organization. Sometimes, it’s best to share financial information with employees. This can help minimize any specific concerns about how the company is performing and give them a deeper understanding about how the business operates.
Keep Them Engaged
Fears can cause disengagement and kill morale. When engagement suffers, the whole company suffers. To negate these fears, you need to consistently measure and track employee engagement using analytics.
You can pull reports to find strengths and weaknesses in your engagement. This way, you know where to focus your efforts. When you can boost engagement, the advantages are endless. Quantum Workplace’s 2016 Employee Engagement Trends survey found that engaged employees are more productive, more profitable, more customer-focused, and more likely to stay.
The best solution to keeping employees engaged and helping them manage their fears is through open communication. When you create a transparent culture, emphasize the vision of the organization, and stay informed on employee engagement, you can help employees cope with their fears and stay focused on their productivity and growth.
How are you addressing workplace fears of a Trump presidency?
Greg Harris is the president and CEO of Quantum Workplace, a company dedicated to providing every organization with quality engagement tools that guide their next step in making work better every day. You can connect with Greg and the Quantum Workplace team on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.