MBA Geek

I came across a great article today that talks about how to stop Survivor Guilt from affecting your business. Survivor Guilt is defined at the psychological impact that your employees are subject to in view of layouts happening to friends and co-workers around them. The current economic climate means that companies are downsizing in order to cope with it’s effects, and everyone is being impacted by the measures organisations are taking to keep themselves viable.

The problem with survivor guilt is that it carries a risk of turning to resentment: resentment that their circle of friends and influence is being reduced, resentment that their workload has increased, resentment that others in the company have been treated unfairly. This can have a negative impact on their attitude towards management with a knock on decrease in output and effectiveness.

So what can be done to mitigate against the effect of Survivor Guilt? Here are a few measures that can be taken:

• Reach Out: Maintain a relationship with the laid-off employees. Ensure they know you will be looking to them again when you can and encourage them to keep in touch with their friends. You haven’t just told them to pack their luggage and leave; you want to keep in touch. Don’t hide this; make sure the remaining employees know you are looking out for their ex-colleagues. Show them you care.
• Manage Increased Workloads: Be aware of the extra work people now have to do. Offer them support and help them make themselves more effective. Listen to them and give them the tools they need.
• Put Yourself on the Line: Show your employees that the lay-offs have been hard on you too. Share your feelings with them and let them know of any measures you are taking to ensure the company’s continued success.

The advice above is not complex, but it’s easy to forget in times of recession when companies are struggling for survival. It’s easy to get defensive, hide behind your fight gear and attack anyone who comes your way, but this is not constructive. Show your team that you care about that, show them your human side, show them you are compassionate. And above all, give them hope for the future.

It’s interesting to watch Dell start to adopt Twitter as a promotion channel. It recently launched a campaign whereby people who were following them on Twitter were given an exclusive voucher offering them 30% off a laptop, with the promise of offering new vouchers every week. This was a follow on from a campaign that made them $1 million before Christmas. Granted, $1 million may not be a huge impact on Dell’s revenues but it’s a huge number by any stretch of the imagination.

What this also shows is that communicating with your audience is a golden when it comes to improving your bottom line. Twitter is but one mechanism to do this, but social networks in general give you an extra edge when it comes to pushing your promotional products or just listening to your audience and finding out what they want, need and desire.