Brexit could bring business opportunity for some with cheaper exports, or create talent shortages for others as we cannot access people with the right skills. The question that we have been pondering here at Actus™ Software today is around the role of HR in a climate of such uncertainty? How can we take a positive lead rather than sit back and watch?
The issue with any change is that it can become a huge distraction. Quite aside from the water cooler chitchat, it is easy for staff to take their eye off the ball (even more likely combined with the Euro Football and Wimbledon about to start!).
Uncertainty can lead to kneejerk decisions and ever changing priorities which is confusing for staff and can lead to de-motivation and underperformance. One thing is certain, if we are to avoid falling back into recession, we must ensure that our businesses continue to perform and succeed in the interim and post Europe phase.
Peter Cheese's email to CIPD members today highlights the challenges for businesses in this area, his email states:
"Among the key challenges facing the UK economy and workplaces remain our poor productivity record and a number of associated skills problems, for example the mismatch between the skills generated by the education and skills system and the skills that employers' need and the poor utilisation of existing skills due to a relatively long tail of poorly managed organisations in the UK"
If we are to thrive in a post Brexit economy, it is very important that we focus on developing productive, high performance cultures, the foundation of which is effective people and performance management. Never has it been more important for managers to be carrying out ongoing performance conversations to keep people focused on delivering their best in turbulent times. We must raise the bar for management standards and provide the development for them to meet these if we are to go it alone successfully.
Our role as HR and L&D professionals must be to lead the way in establishing high performance cultures through embedding the right systems and behaviours to nurture ownership and productivity. In these times of uncertainty we must not sit back and let other reactive business priorities take focus away from people strategies as they are key to delivering us long term consistent results and build a stronger future.
Take a look at your performance management processes – are they up to this latest challenge?
