We often hear people ask, “When is the recession going to end?” That can mean: “When will things get back to normal?” I hope the recession will end soon, but I also hope that things never get back to normal in terms of the cultural changes we are seeing.
Instead of despairing, we should fight economic difficulty by using it as a vehicle for honing the kind of behaviour any organisation should live by. This includes responsibility, accountability, learning to deal with the unexpected and learning to like change.
The credit crunch doesn’t allow for indulgent debate, nor does it forgive bad decisions. So we should combine these into something positive. We should wave goodbye to consensus culture and being behind the competition.
This is also potentially a good time for HR. What takes place in the world outside tends to work its way inside. We can therefore occupy an interesting position of futurologist and sociologist. Sometimes this can be painful while we deal with the implications: some of our customers, and colleagues, struggling to pay bills or even losing their homes.
At E.ON, we’re making sure our brand resonates internally and externally in a way that will stand us in good stead in any economic market. We’ve used the credit crunch as something of a personal trainer. Budget expenditure is approached as if customers are in the room with us, telling us whether they approve of it or not. Each person is accountable for spending and investing money as if it were their own. We’re defining the recession rather than letting it define us.