Difficult Conversations

Posted by Sarah-Lee Bryant on May 27, 2016 at 6:36pm in Workplace Matters

Hi,

I'm looking for help to have a difficult conversation regarding reducing wage for a business need.

We employed staff on £8.00 per hour to work in the club shop and restring rackets, we opened 6 months ago. The shop is not taking as much income as anticipated, we therefore need to reduce the wage costs to £6.70 but incentivise staff to restring rackets at £3.00 each.

Would like advice if anyone can help please?

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Replies

Ruba Shahzada June 10, 2016 at 7:12pm

The best strategy in this case is:

1. Upper management alongside with the head of HR need to conduct an open meeting with the affected staff in this cutting cost strategy, and inform them that the shop is not performing well.

2. During the meeting, the upper management shall address the new direction of the cutting cost wages and the incentive; however, the trick here is to be human-business; means, that the management should be addressing it in a considerate empathic way but focused on the business overall results.

3. Also, the management should be aware once this issue is discussed, there might be some resistance and resignations, therefore putting new potential CVs for replacements should be a good idea.#

4. For the staff resistance, which is expected in this case, the management should be tolerant and answer their concerns in a transparent way.

Bottom line, Transparency is the key to keep your staff and making them feel that they are part of the business.

Hope I helped! :)

Good Luck!
- Sarah-Lee Bryant > Ruba Shahzada June 13, 2016 at 10:16am
  
  Hi Ruba
  
  Many thanks for your advice. I am most grateful.
  
  Best wishes
  
  Sarah-Lee
Sarah Loates June 4, 2016 at 5:43pm

Hi Sarah-Lee

So glad to hear that it all went well. Well done on handling a trick issue!

See you at the next workshop.

All the best

Sarah
Debora Figueiredo June 2, 2016 at 4:50pm

Hi Sarah-Lee,

We've actually just posted a blog all about handling and dealing with difficult conversations, might be of help: https://www.dpgplc.co.uk/2016/06/difficult-conversations/

Thanks,

Deb
- Kay Baldwin > Debora Figueiredo June 10, 2016 at 1:37pm
  
  This was a really good read, thank you. I have popped it into my favourites so I can refer back to it :)
- Sarah-Lee Bryant > Debora Figueiredo June 3, 2016 at 11:52am
  
  Hi Deborah
  
  Thank you for that information. I had the conversation and it went really well! Lucky the staff were aware of the difficulties and are so far in agreement to the changes that we need to implement.
  
  Thanks to everyone who contributed, much appreciated.
  
  Sarah-Lee
Clare Dodd May 31, 2016 at 4:51pm

Hi Sarah- Lee,

I don't envy you here because this is quite a drop in wages but understand you have your business reasons.

Is reducing hours not an option at all, at least that way if you allow, they could take up some other employment to supplement their wages.

Regards
Clare
- Sarah-Lee Bryant > Clare Dodd June 1, 2016 at 3:11pm
  
  Thanks Clare
Sarah Loates May 29, 2016 at 11:04am

Hi Sarah-Lee

So that's a bit of a tricky one how old are the employees as the National Minimum Wage is 7.20 if they are over 25.

Basically you can not seek to unilaterally vary the contract to the reduced hourly rate. But employees may be open to discussions about accepting the reduced rate. I think it would be a case of sitting down with them and explaining the situation and also to see what options the employees can suggest, they might have other ideas other than the restring fee in terms of where costs could be saved.

What would happen if the reduced rate was not agreed would this mean closure for the restringing part of the business??

Regards

Sarah
- Sarah-Lee Bryant > Sarah Loates May 30, 2016 at 10:22pm
  
  Thanks Sarah, I have some thinking to do!