“To Furlough or Not To Furlough” was one of last year’s themes and here we go again: Our third lockdown. One more opportunity to show how we can juggle ever-changing priorities, budgets, business demands, and workforce needs whilst many of us also engage in our children’s education far more than we may be comfortable with.
Will some of what we’ve learnt in 2020 help us deal better with what we are facing now?
At the mental level it will continue to be tough, perhaps tougher. Going through a full lockdown in the deep, dark winter will require higher levels of personal resilience. On the other side, our minds are better prepared. We know what a lockdown feels like. We know we have done it before. Systems are set up; processes are agreed upon. We can build on our experience and decisions made at the time.
The turn of the year is always a good moment to take stock, re-evaluate and realign with our values. Saffron, Barbara and Janine had a final online session in 2020 wondering how businesses would assess how they weathered the storms of the past year. Which companies are confident they made the right decisions? Which ones would do things differently if they had their time again? What were the most effective leadership qualities?
Would you do things differently; act quicker, wait it out a little longer?
Following our discussion, we agreed that engrained company values can speed up decisions and make all the difference when the going gets tough.
Here an extract from our conversation:
“Did you know there is a film called Furlough?”
“No, I had actually never heard the word before this all started.”
“Yes, it is a comedy with Whoopi Goldberg and Tessa Thompson.”
“Maybe we should watch it – I am almost through the Netflix catalogue…twice.”
“I had a look at the trailer. It does not seem to have anything to do with the furlough we are dealing with.”
“I can imagine there will be a few films made when this is all over but as we speak, I guess, most of the film production industry is still furloughed.”
“I am sure. The current crisis offers so much material: personal struggle, hardship but also stories of resilience, incredible resourcefulness and community spirit. Everything a good film needs, the heroes and the villains.”
“Of course, we have those in business, too. It was fascinating to see how well-known brands all reacted differently as the crisis first hit. Particularly as it relates to the furlough scheme. Some lost a lot of respect by taking full advantage of government funds, especially those usually avoiding paying taxes in whatever way possible.”
“Yes, I was also struck by the headlines of ‘British Billionaires’ being linked to rush reactions, some forced to make U-turns because they had not considered the commercial impact of public opinion, let alone spent one moment thinking: What is the Right Thing to do here?”
“Some of the football clubs gave a devastating performance, furloughing their low earning staff and thus cutting their income by 20% whilst they continued to pay full packages to their players – sums unimaginable to most people at the best of times.”
“Yes, and then some wheeled out their top names 10 weeks into the crisis to advertise food bank deliveries as a PR exercise.”
“We are lucky that we are working with clients who have all gone about these challenges in a very considered way, whatever their position.”
“Agree, and a lot of them are medium-sized companies. They are operating away from the public eye and could have taken advantage.”
“I was most impressed by John who owns his engineering company. He decided to forego all profit for this year right at the beginning of lockdown and refused to furlough anyone, even the 70-year-old who he had to send home on day one. He decided he would use the extra capacity to invest in future-oriented product and website development and rethink the sales set-up post-Covid. His business covered the significant cost of express shipments to ensure customers would continue to receive deliveries in promised time frames. Now that he looks back over the year, he closes with sales slightly up, the reduction of profits only being a fraction of what he had expected and the order book for the first quarter going through the roof. You can imagine how good it must feel to work for a company like his. I am sure anxiety levels amongst his team were significantly lower than in most other businesses in 2020 and I am very happy for John personally. It is great to see his tough decisions being rewarded.”
“That’s a wonderful example but, of course, not everyone has the choices you have when you own your company and your cash position is strong. Some of the leadership teams have demonstrated real strength of character and immediately cut their own salaries by 25% without much discussion before asking their teams to go onto a 4-day week to keep everybody on. Some have even taken cuts without asking their teams to give up anything at all. It gives them a very strong position should other difficult decisions become unavoidable at some stage.”
“Yes, and all of this whilst each of them is probably working harder than ever. Having to make decisions facing this level of uncertainty is a tough place to be for any executive. What it has shown is how well embedded values provide the compass to make those decisions at speed when it matters.”
“So true. When difficult decisions are grounded in your values you do not feel the need to go back on them later. Even when it is not clear which option is the right decision, if you ask yourself what you, your organisation and your brand stand for, it will give you a clear indication which route is the right one for you.”
This begs the question: If you were reviewing the movie of your company’s approach to furlough since March 2020, and its continued approach now, how would your review read? What would the viewers say? What lessons have you learnt that will support you to write the ‘Here we go again’ sequel?
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