There is a dagger effect that the company must work hard to overcome. Stum spoke this month to about 140 employee-benefits lawyers and other professionals at the 15th annual Employee Benefits Institute in Kansas City. The event was sponsored by the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. Aon Consulting Inc. The telephone survey of 1,800 employed adults examined attitudes toward workplace productivity, pride in their organizations, and job retention.
People are afraid about their own job security.
Employees in organizations that are downsizing are particularly vulnerable to being lured away - sometimes by former coworkers who were part of the force reduction, he said. That investment should include management training to teach top and mid-level managers how to communicate with employees, he said. Employees in downsizing organizations do not need pep talks, Stum said. They need the truth about their value to the company and their role in helping it become healthy. That's the only way to buy their retention.