Cost of living pressures, inflation and high interest rates will be affecting you, your business and your staff. It’s tough for many. As a manager, these tough economic times could create 2 key areas of concern which you need to be aware of. They are:
- Staff behaviour & performance
- Work, health & safety compliance
Here’s why.
- Staff behaviour & performance
Stress affects individuals differently and you need to be on the lookout for signs like:
- Sudden bursts of anger or frustration
- Any staff members who seem withdrawn (or for quieter personalities, more withdrawn than usual)
- Loss of productivity
- Poor concentration
- Elevated sick leave
- Arriving late or leaving work early
- Any signs of increased alcohol consumption or other sings of substance abuse
If you believe you are seeing signs of any staff member struggling, you need to talk to them about how they are feeling. You may even be struggling with similar issues yourself which, in turn, may provide you with an opportunity to show great compassion. Conversations like this will also help you identify how best you can support your staff.
If you don’t feel equipped to have this type of conversation, get in touch with us for assistance.
- Work, health & safety compliance
Stress can make it difficult for people to fall asleep and stay asleep. We also know many Australians now have a second job to help make ends meet. In fact, ABS has reported an estimated 867,000 Australians have more than one job. This is the highest level ever since they began measuring this statistic in 1994.
The impact for you, as a business owner, is that tired workers have accidents and make mistakes. This impacts your work, health and safety obligations as well as creating productivity issues.
You can’t stop staff from working multiple jobs. But you can educate them on the importance of having a full 8 hour break between jobs to prevent accidents and workers comp claims. After all, going on workers comp will completely derail any financial gains they are currently obtaining by working multiple jobs. You can also put policies in place that support minimum break requirements and the need to notify you if they take up additional employment. We can help you with this.
Another option is to upskill staff to perform higher level jobs so you can pay them accordingly. Of course this option will depend on how your business is weathering the current economic challenges.
Do you have a staffing issue that’s causing concern?
The team at End2end Business Solutions are here to help you with all your people management issues. You are welcome to engage us for a specific staffing issue or you can appoint us as your outsourced HR department to advise your management team on an ongoing basis. The choice is yours and starts with a conversation. So call us on 02 8977 4002 to discuss your particular staffing issues.