I’ve recently heard from many people about how quiet things are right now on the business front. With the current economy and pre-election, it’s no surprise. In these situations, leaders can often be faced with difficult decisions about their future and the future of those that work for them to survive.

Years ago, my husband’s business was in a similar place during the GFC in 2008. Work had dried up and an election was looming. They did not have enough work to keep everyone busy and that meant that they had to consider letting some people go.

No business wants to be in this situation – how do you decide who goes? The last in? The person who doesn’t have a family to support? Sometimes its not that easy or clear to decide. Before any decision is made by a leader, it is important that consultation is undertaken. This is an incredibly important part of the process and should not simply be a box ticking exercise to make a decision that has been predetermined (the courts will often see through this).

When businesses go into consultation truly curious and really listen to what their people are saying, there could be a solution that no one has thought about that will meet the needs of everyone. 

When my husband’s business approached consultation with their staff, they did just this. The staff came up with the solution for everyone on the team to reduce their work one day a week while the work was slow rather than make one person redundant. They would all rather take a financial hit than have one person’s livelihood completely affected. Within two months of working 4 days a week, the election was over, and business had picked up again. Everyone went back to 5 days. 

When times are tough, if you are a business owner, it’s likely that you will be emotional in your decisions, and you may have missed something. By taking the time to let others be included in the decision making, you can know that you have considered every possible angle and have acted in Good Faith. In addition to this - when consultation is done right, employees will feel valued, heard and in the long term will be likely to remain more loyal to the organisation.