Engaged or battened down?

It’s cold – darn cold. And I don’t just mean outside; it’s cold inside, too, in a lot of places.

We’ve been interviewing for an executive level position in our office the past few weeks. We’re talking to great applicants; highly qualified for our work and probably much more. Some of them have been looking for a position for months. When we mentioned to one that we didn’t know if he would be able to work for what we could offer he said, “The answer to that question (without having any idea what you pay) is yes.”

These applicants keep hearing the same story: “We’re hiring at a much lower pay rate this year. We can only afford to pay you about half what you made at your last job.”

Baby, it’s cold out there.

I get it. We just hired a couple of people at a pay level lower than we hired for the same position two years ago. We got highly qualified people, too. They’re happy for work; we’re happy to have them for a price that fits into our super-snug budget.

But I’m going to be watching our budget and making adjustments – fast – the minute it looks like its changing. I don’t want to lose good people. I don’t want to lose the forward progress we’re making in growing our company.

What I really don’t want to see is the senior care business sector get another black eye if the economy improves and we lag behind in taking good care of our employees. We know the words – and the concepts behind them – of employee empowerment, engagement, actualization.

BusinessWeek’s online Debate Room posed the debate earlier this year: “The recession is no time to worry about employee engagement. Pros and cons?”

On the pro side, (Concentrate on the business, not the workers), the commentator remarks, “You’re in this fix because of lack of engagement, right? …The real disease is poor management – and that’s you, bucky…Employee engagement is about having a well-run enterprise based on consistently applied value. Do that, and engagement follows.”

On the CON side, (Con: workers need a morale boost), the commentator notes, “Employee engagement will hit historic lows in the coming years and cost employers billions in lost productivity – and cost consumers in the form of a more frustrating I-don’t-really-care-about-you customer experience…Should you worry about employee engagement? Do the math. What if all employees in your company were engaged and willing to give the company 15 minutes of discretionary effort each week? The ROI would astound you and the improved customer experience just might make the difference between surviving the Great Recession and thriving in it.”

What’s your opinion?

Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m just guessing that your actions are demonstrating your opinions clearly to your employees right now.