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Tony Forsyth spent 25 years in Human Resource Consulting in Auckland and London, the last seven years as Managing Director of Sheffield, New Zealand’s oldest-established broadly-based HR Consultancy. He has seen a number of economic cycles and likens the current situation with the recession that hit in the late 80’s. Below are a few insights from his experience for employment relations and recruitment in the current market:

• Be good to your staff and create open dialogue with them – let them know the situation and the plans that are being put in place to get the company through. There is generally an attitudinal shift in staff if they understand times are tough. If an organization is open with staff on how they plan to get through and ask for their opinions on this, they are generally more inclined to roll up their sleeves and work harder.
• Wage cost control is a significant key to survival, and using contract staff can be an important element in the mix, given its flexibility and task-focused nature.
• Employing a flexible workforce at times like these have a number of spin offs, they take the pressure off other over-worked permanent employees which means staff morale and positivity can be lifted. This will also ensure top performing permanent staff members can be retained for the future.