Over half of Australia's managers lack the skills to manage their people and businesses through a downturn, according to research released this week by Hudson.
The latest Hudson Report: HR Insights survey of 4,930 Australian employers reveals that 53% of Australia's business leaders say they have no experience of leading in a downturn. Further, only 9% of employers offer any specific training to help managers lead through challenging economic times.
"Managers are clearly in need of better support from their organisations. Most of them have never been more challenged in their working lives than they have been over the past 12 months," said Simon Moylan, general manager Hudson Talent Management. "It's a delicate balancing act to implement cost cuts and redundancies whilst engaging remaining employees to keep productivity levels up."
Almost every single respondent (98%) agreed that demands placed on leaders by this economic climate require a unique set of strengths and competencies. "Stress levels in leaders who are constantly confronted with situations that they are ill equipped to handle, will soar, and stressed leaders are likely to have stressed teams," said Moylan. "As the market improves and more opportunities arise, both leaders and their employees might well be tempted to jump ship."
Having had their skills tested, leaders are likely to be receptive to development. However, only 12% of those organisations surveyed said they intend to introduce specific training and development and, of those, only 35% said they will introduce training within the next three months.
"An embedded leadership development program provides leaders with support, giving them greater control of a challenging work environment and reducing their stress levels," said Moylan. "Investing in development will equip leaders to guide their people through this period and take advantage of new opportunities that will undoubtedly arise."
Moylan warned that organisations also need to have a sound plan in place to ensure a continuity of available, engaged people. "Organisations must prepare for the departure of key leadership talent when the employment market improves with a sound succession plan and an external talent pipeline."
Well over half of employers surveyed (60%) said they have no strategy in place to recruit leaders with the competencies required to lead through adverse and challenging economic times.
"It's clear from these results that organisations need to adjust the definitions and emphasis of their leadership recruitment profiles to suit the changed operating environment," said Moylan. "Now is the time to not only provide existing leaders with support, but also to identify, retain and develop organisational leadership capability."