Dwayne J. Clark is the founder, CEO and chairman of Aegis Living, a best-selling author and longevity expert.
Threats to business can be like a revolving door: when one shuts down, another brews. In the past, we, as leaders, may have been brave enough to feel we had mastered this balancing act when one or even two things were thrown at us at once. After enduring a global health pandemic for nearly three years while also facing economic uncertainty and severe workforce challenges, business leaders have endured unprecedented conditions even compared to the Great Depression and Great Recession. Now we are left with the important questions: what have we learned and what now?
The silver lining is that the moments that challenge us the most also force us to rethink everything we do and often end up yielding some of the best lessons we can learn. As we move through this next season of economic challenges and beyond, we better embrace the uncertainty, remain curious and open to the major pivots needed with new energy and perspective.
Where do we go from here?
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Invest in your people.
Staff participation remains below pre-pandemic levels. While things may seem like things are starting to change, the staffing challenges remain, and no matter how hard we work, we don’t always see immediate results. That’s why it’s important for leaders to keep communicating with your teams and feel more comfortable being transparent about pitfalls, such as less progress than you hoped for or when new hires don’t work.
Many employees still feel overburdened – at work and at home – and leaders and managers need to continue to practice more empathy. Show up with great intent and care and be a partner to help employees in everything they face. Loyalty is often built on this foundation of trust and mutual support.
With hiring, many companies have explored creative recruiting, offering flexible schedules and offering higher benefits. But even with offering more benefits and paying, many companies still are failing to find quality talent as employment rates remain below pre-pandemic levels.
I think this means we need to invest further in human resources. For example, at my company, Aegis Living, we doubled our efforts and significantly increased our number of recruiters. We focus on data and feedback from two annual surveys, and our HR team meets regularly to discuss how to handle compensation, benefits and culture. When inflation (we’ll get to that later) skyrockets the cost of living, it’s critical that companies follow suit to take care of their people.
Most importantly, as you try to provide more tangible support, do your best not to lose the fun and joy of being together – from celebrating employee of the month, birthdays and anniversaries to just getting together. An employee engagement or fun commission can be well worth the investment in the short and long term.
Be prepared for inflation, layoffs and economic challenges.
Costs remain high today—eggs are up 60%, electricity, 15%. As business leaders, we have kept up with these changes or have fallen behind. In my company, we keep a record of all the items and services that have increased. As a leadership team, we pay extra attention to money going out the door and every expense we have, especially anything over $10,000. We adapt everything we can without compromising on quality. It’s annoying, but this is our reality.
To make things easier for yourself and your leadership team, consider creating a spending board to monitor these areas, suggest new ideas, and stay as flexible as possible. Every day I think about how we can reduce expenses and new end-to-end systems that can be created to support our bottom line.
Mass layoffs are taking place in all sectors. While some of us like to think we don’t have to, it’s a reality of our times that needs to be reckoned with. Nothing is certain, so stay vigilant about your budgeting and spending, and strive to stay one step ahead.
Make health and safety a priority.
What customers value in a company will certainly vary, but we know from Covid-19 that safety and health are the foundation decisive. Since the Covid-19 pandemic has subsided, we’ve seen flu, RSV and other viruses make a comeback with unusual patterns and outbreaks. Chronic diseases also continue to rise steadily, with six out of ten adults living in the US with a .
Because of this reality, it’s important for companies to remain transparent and proactive with medical policies and preventive measures, employee wellness programs, health requirements and more. For example, in my industry of senior living, we continue to do everything we can to prevent hospitalization of our elderly residents; we don’t want to run out of personal protective equipment, and we want to prevent new viruses from affecting our residents. Every company has to do what it has to do to make it clear to its audience that it will stay ahead even as times change. This also lets them know that when the next public health issue comes up, you know you’ll be prepared.
In times of transition like these, business leaders can open our eyes to see both careful planning and flexibility for the benefit of our employees and our customers. And we can commit to never stop growing as new lessons or opportunities come our way, even if another threat comes our way. If we have overcome what we have been through in recent years, I believe we can handle anything that comes our way.
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