Stability in workplace
Building Workplace Stability: A Guide for Leaders
It seems that the ancient saying “May you live in interesting times” has come true. We live in an era of uncertainty and significant change. In the age of globalization, a crisis is like a new virus that knows no borders and automatically impacts the economy and social well-being of various countries.
In an era where instability becomes the norm, waiting for a “new stability” is not an option. This means that business leaders need to learn how to maintain stability even during crisis times. Creating and maintaining stability may be challenging, but it can be crucial for business success.
- Why stability matters
- 7 steps to create stability amid disruption
- Reasons workers prioritize stability
- How Stability Can Bring Organizational Excellence
Why stability matters
Stability is really important in the workplace. It’s important for people to do their best work. Stability makes for a great working environment, with things running smoothly and everyone working towards the same goals.
Sometimes, when we hear advice to “step out of your comfort zone” to become successful, we feel lost and more frustrated. The problem is that most people today are already constantly outside of this zone and feel like the world is slipping away from them. Meanwhile, we all need stability and trust in our lives.
Every new employee wants to know they’ll be able to stick around for the long haul. In today’s fast-paced world, a company’s stability and a leader’s predictable actions help employees feel safe and engaged in their work.
Any changes, whether good or bad, can shake up a company’s stability. Things like reorganization, mergers, rapid scaling, and other significant business milestones can all have an impact. During these times, things get pretty unstable. Employees start to feel insecure, and their motivation, ability to concentrate, and desire to develop decrease. All of this can affect productivity and, in the end, the success of the company. That’s why leaders who can meet their employees’ need for stability will be able to handle changes well, achieve important goals, keep employees engaged, and contribute to the company’s success.
Here are five main benefits that every work team gets when they’re stable.
Building Trusting Relationships
When the team is stable, employees and managers can trust each other. When workers feel like their workplace is stable and reliable, they’re more likely to communicate openly and share ideas. This, in turn, helps boost productivity and makes teamwork more effective.
In a chaotic work environment, it’s harder to keep valuable knowledge and experience from being lost. This is especially important in fields that require specialized skills, like science, education, or medicine. If you lose this experience, it can really hurt the organization. But if the team’s need for stability is met and employees aren’t rushing to leave in search of safer and more predictable opportunities, the accumulated experience and knowledge of employees can be preserved.
Improving Communication Efficiency
When people work together for a long time, they get to know each other better. This makes things easier and faster, and it also reduces the risk of conflicts. When teams are stable, employees and managers can communicate more effectively. When processes are well-established, team members can understand what is required of them in various situations almost instantly.
Reducing Employee Turnover
When employees are happy at work and with their colleagues, they’re less likely to look for a new job. This helps the company keep its best employees and avoid spending money on recruiting and training new hires.
Stable Teams = Predictable Processes and Results When employees know each other and what they’re supposed to be doing, things run more smoothly, work gets done faster, and results are more predictable. All of this builds trust in the company with clients and partners.
7 steps to create stability amid disruption
Is it possible for a company to be both flexible and stable? Absolutely! They don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Stability is the solid foundation that allows the structure to remain agile and not break under any adversity. How the leader handles relationships affects how employees feel and how well the company does. If employees believe that the future is safe, it reduces stress and makes them more engaged in their work.
Stabilization won’t happen overnight. But a leader can take steps now to make the company more secure and build trust among employees. This will help keep employees engaged and motivated, even during tough times.
Set Clear Goals
It’s important to define clear, expected goals and develop a clear strategy. Every team member should know what their role is in the grand scheme of things and how they contribute to the company’s goals. A team that works well together is more stable. The leader’s job is to figure out what’s most important and come up with a plan of action. Both long-term and short-term strategies should be easy to understand and attainable. When employees know what they’re doing, why they’re doing it, and what the team’s overall goal is, work processes become less stressful and they feel more secure.
Maintain Feedback
It’s all about keeping the lines of communication open to make sure you and your team are on the same page. When things get unstable, the leader should share info about what’s going on, give kudos for what’s working, and be open about what’s not. Open communication helps build trust and get ahead of issues before they arise, which helps keep work stable.
Encourage Development
In times of crisis, personal development and employee training are often seen as non-essential. But employees appreciate it when their leaders show they care about their training and qualifications. So, it’s important to make sure you’ve got the right resources, training, and opportunities for professional growth. A program to help employees grow and develop is a great way to keep top talent, reduce turnover, and keep things stable.
Distribute Duties and Resources
The boss has to make sure that tasks are distributed fairly among employees, taking into account each person’s strengths, skills, education level, and personality. It’s important to give employees the resources they need to do their jobs well. This isn’t something you can just do once. In a crisis, things change fast. Sometimes employees have to do new tasks that require new tools and technologies to get the job done right and on time. So, the leader should keep in touch with the team and team leaders often to find out what they need and then give it to them.
Solve Problems Quickly
If the team isn’t stable, it can cause problems. The leader needs to be quick to put out fires and, even better, to anticipate tension points and deal with conflicts effectively. Promptness, fairness, and respect should be part of the crisis management plan from the start. This helps to prevent any destructive consequences and ensures the team doesn’t fall into unstable relations.
Stay Optimistic and Positive
Not all changes are easy. Sometimes a leader has to take tough measures, like layoffs, salary cuts, and letting underperforming employees go. In a crisis, these decisions are especially tough on the team, and the leader’s job is to keep a positive work attitude even in tough times. A well-thought-out motivation system, rewards, team competitions, and team-building activities—all of which boost employee engagement and foster a positive attitude—are good because they ensure the stability of the emotional climate in the team.
Be Open and Honest
Building trust is all about fostering personal relationships and keeping the lines of communication open. It’s important to be open and honest with each other in the team, as these conversations help build trust and make the future more predictable. The leader’s job isn’t to avoid difficult conversations; it’s to be engaged, involved, and present. Even if there’s nothing going on in the company, keep the team in the loop and let them know what’s going on.
Reasons workers prioritize stability
Research shows that there’s a clear connection between trust and economic outcomes. People tend to avoid doing business with people they don’t trust. It makes sense that when the economy is unstable, employees value job security and a reliable income the most at work. But these aren’t the only reasons people join a company and stick around. For instance, Gallup research shows that how engaged and interested employees are in their work is heavily influenced by emotional factors like a friendly atmosphere, which helps them find close friends at work, and the personal involvement of the leader in their well-being, which shows that the employee is valued and protected. It’s important to think about these things to keep your best employees when the company is going through changes.
The best way to figure out what stability means to the team is to ask them directly. Ask them what they value in their job and what they think about stability. You can do this through discussions, confidential surveys, or testing. Knowing what your team needs makes it easier for you as a leader to keep things stable. Being in the loop means you can take steps to give your employees what they need.
Neuropsychology can help us understand why people seek stability and dislike risk. The reasons for this are down to the way our brains are wired. Safe behavior is something we’re born with, not something we learn. By looking at how the brain works, scientists have found that people who are happy in their jobs and plan to stay for years have more gray matter in certain areas of the brain compared to those who are ready to leave their jobs suddenly. Both types of personalities are important for the development of human society, but it is thanks to the “stable” ones that humanity has achieved what it has.
Stability is a guarantee you can pay the bills
A stable income and the job that provides it are the keys to a comfortable life, paid bills, and annual vacations. These are predictable life cycles and routines, which for many are the epitome of a “good life.”
Stability is feeling valued
Does the company stick by you, support you when you need it, and invest in your training? For many workers, a positive answer to this question makes them feel like they’re valued as a person. “My role in the company is important!” People who feel valued by their company will stick around even when things get tough because they know their input and role are important to the company’s overall mission.
Stability means a secure retirement
People who are inclined towards stability start thinking about retirement at a young age. They need to know that they’ll be able to live comfortably in their old age. A lot of surveys show that young people these days are planning to save up for retirement by working, renting out their homes, and starting businesses. All this takes a reliable income now.
Stability Reduces Stress
Having a regular, predictable daily routine where you go to work and get paid a set amount is a great way to beat anxiety. People who’ve been with the same company for years say that they’re less stressed and don’t get anxiety or panic attacks. Even the routine is seen as a plus because it helps form a healthy daily schedule, good habits, and a thoughtful approach to their health. This means you’ll be more energetic, productive, and optimistic about the future.
Stability Gives You Career Growth
A lot of employees are really motivated by the chance to climb the career ladder in a company that offers that kind of opportunity. Any investment the company makes in the employee, whether it’s training, professional development, workshops, or internal hiring, helps them achieve their goals and ensures stable growth.
Stability gives you confidence in your abilities
As you gain new skills, you gain confidence in yourself as a specialist. You can get them engaged in the company through programs that let them keep learning and growing with the company.
How Stability Can Bring Organizational Excellence
The most resilient companies are those where employees work for many years. Such experienced individuals act as stabilizers, positively influencing the entire team. The longer an employee stays with the company, the deeper their understanding of its changes and processes. This creates a bond that inspires employees to strive for success as part of a larger collective result. These employees work harder, are more willing to implement innovations, and ultimately elevate the organization to a new level of stability and productivity.
How a company does is often measured by how productive it is, how many people it turns over, and the results it gets. While this is a great way to get results, trying to get them fast and cheap can mess up teamwork. When you only measure efficiency in monetary terms, it makes it easy for each team member to think short-term. People just don’t have the time or energy to think about anything beyond the task at hand, let alone think broadly, consider long-term prospects, or care about the company’s overall stability.
When performance metrics are all about results, the team is likely to go for the most reliable route to the goal. This makes it harder for the company to innovate and grow, and it makes it harder for the company to scale.
It’s dangerous for the company when people are afraid of making mistakes or of not achieving results. All that stress just makes things unstable in the workplace. To avoid this, the leader should focus on creating a stable environment that is favorable for employees and will ultimately yield the desired results, rather than on KPIs. Changing priorities won’t just help you reach your goals, it’ll also create a calm and stable culture within the company. In the long run, this will have a positive impact on the performance of the whole team and on each individual member.
One of the best ways to make a company more competitive in the long run is to keep your staff stable during challenging times. When management takes action to create a culture of stability during a crisis, they’re basically reorganizing the work environment, adding new functions and opportunities to the internal corporate atmosphere, and changing the scale and pace of changes within the company.
