What HR Pros Can Learn From The Gov. Shutdown

Some proven strategies to consider

The longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history froze workers’ paychecks and created bureaucratic headaches, but the 35-day budget deadlock in Washington failed to spawn complete chaos.
 
Between halted flights, desecrated national parks, and an estimated $10 billion loss to the country’s overall economy, the shutdown wasn’t a blip. But despite going without pay, the majority of the 420,000 federal employees considered essential showed up for work to keep their respective agencies running as smoothly as possible. At the Transportation Security Administration, which employs 51,000 employees affected by the shutdown, 90 percent still reported for duty.
 

It is astounding that the consequences to the shutdown were not more dire. While private sector HR leaders will likely never have to keep employees motivated without a paycheck, the HR team and all senior business leaders can learn important lessons about what keeps workers from calling it quits in an extreme situation. The most recent shutdown presented a tangible example of such public sector loyalty, jeopardizing an estimated $200 million weekly that should have been paid out to employees of contractors.
 
An empowered work culture is essential, especially when a business finds itself unable to offer salary or benefit improvements. Ultimately, building an environment where employees feel a sense of duty and pride in their work creates the loyalty it takes to keep them around. By providing engagement opportunities like ongoing training, cross-company collaboration and mentorship, HR leaders can create a type of insurance policy to motivate and drive loyalty among workers, even during challenging times.
 
HR professionals looking to create a level of loyalty and motivation that can withstand difficult circumstances should consider some proven strategies. 

A mere 34 percent of the global workforce are fully engaged with their current company, according to Gallup. Disengaged employees are less productive, and more likely to seek opportunities elsewhere. But when employees are truly engaged, performance skyrockets, and everyone from vendors all the way up to board members reap the benefits.
 
One way to boost employee engagement is by improving knowledge sharing and collaboration among employees — but it’s a complicated task for HR pros when the right tools and resources aren’t in place. According to a McKinsey report, workers spend 20 percent of their week tracking down internal information, and data from Igloo’s research shows 32 percent of employees have avoided sharing an internal document because it was too difficult to locate. In this workplace environment, teams find themselves disengaged and siloed when tasks as basic as locating and sharing information across teams are painstaking and fruitless. After all, how likely are you to want to work with a department that frequently gives up helping you find a document you need to complete a task?
 
To reduce the unnecessary document scavenger hunts, creating a digital destination or hub for your employees where they can easily locate documents, resources and gain access to communication apps is a great first step. This single destination can be tailored to meet your organization’s employee engagement goals, including functionality to foster discussions, mentorship, training and advancement opportunities, as well as keeping employees connected to leadership and fellow workers. 

Employees vote with their feet, and when they find rigid expectations about when and where they work, they look for an exit. Seventy percent of millennials say they have considered leaving a job for a role with a company that offers more flexible hours and remote work policies. This presents a huge opportunity for HR professionals. If federal workers can weather a shutdown without pay in agencies that often have extremely strict hours and work-from-home rules, creating a far more flexible work culture should be a loyalty no-brainer for HR leadership.
 
But creating a more flexible work culture requires change, and it’s hardly an effort that HR can lead on its own. A digital workplace that connects people to people, people to information, and people to processes provides the essential foundation for improving communication and collaboration and is a must if remote workers are to function as well as those in the office. Even deskless workers, who may not leverage the digital workplace as a key component to completing their work still need easy and real-time access to company communications, policies, training resources and to connect with their colleagues.
 
Digital workplace solutions also allow hours to be far more flexible. Companies that move away from a traditional 9 to 5 schedule are more accommodating of employees’ diverse lifestyles. Enabling a better work/life balance can lower attrition rates and improve productivity, as long as employees are provided the right tools. Additionally, offering this flexibility signals something even more important to employees: Leadership genuinely cares about their well-being. When employees feel a sincere emotional connection to their company, they are more loyal and willing to go the extra mile.
 
The most recent government shutdown may have been the longest, but if history is any indication, it is highly unlikely it will be the last. HR leaders should engage with the C-suite and take this opportunity to reflect on what keeps their own employees loyal and happy, and make sure that if difficult circumstances arise, there are strategies in place to help employees weather the storm.