You’re asking so much from your employees lately, aren’t you?

You want (need!) them to take on additional job duties for little or no extra pay. Maybe you’re even cutting their compensation as you simultaneously demand more from them.

You want (need!) them to accept a less appealing career path and aspire to less, not more, because growth opportunities are limited by the current troubled economy. You can’t dangle those juicy promotions like you used to.

What’s worse, spending cuts are making everyday life in your workplace harder. Fewer perks and privileges. No lavish morale boosters. Lots of scraping by—hardly an environment that motivates triumphant top producers to push even harder to excel.

Given the grim reality, how can you instill loyalty? Here are three ideas:

1) Suffer along with the troops. Make the same sacrifices you ask of them. Accept extra work without complaint. Volunteer to take some unpaid furlough days if it’ll free up payroll to fund others’ jobs. Roll up your sleeves and do mundane work that you’d normally delegate.

2) Demystify the numbers. Open the books and share your budgetary dilemmas with your employees. Welcome their input on how to cut costs. Make sure those workers who are most impacted by new cuts aren’t blindsided by them.

3) Celebrate in small ways. I have a friend who manages technicians at an auto parts maker that’s on shaky financial ground. Every month, he throws a “We’re Still Here!” party where employees gather on Friday afternoons for a $10 pizza and some soda pop. He admits it’s a strange theme for a party. But people love it—and it’s practically free.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!

Tags: managing employees