In the days after Britain voted to leave the European Union, a nationwide footwear retailer emailed all its staff, asking that they make no utterance of Brexit in the workplace. Pavers said any conversation about the decision could upset and offend colleagues, with one employee who voted ‘leave’ telling the media he believed he would face disciplinary action if he was overheard discussing his views.
A gagging order might seem an extreme way to respond to the referendum. But at a time of heightened economic and political uncertainty, it is perhaps a natural reaction. After all, in the absence of facts, all that’s left is speculation and bland reassurance. And when 52 per cent of the country (which means around 52 per cent of the workforce, too) has voted for the exit door, the natural inclination of many leaders to suggest Brexit is bad for business is likely to alienate, or sound condescending to, a large number of employees.
“As an adviser, it’s difficult to tell businesses what they should be saying,” says Alison Dixon, a senior associate at law firm Bird & Bird. “Alienating certain parts of your workforce by taking a stance on the referendum could be viewed as unreasonable or overly prescriptive in terms of employee behaviour, but there’s also a fine line between trying to be reassuring and being unable to make promises about what will happen in the future.”
While many are hedging their bets when it comes to predicting the business implications of Brexit, HR consultancy Peninsula Group has been proactive in opening communication channels with its employees in the weeks since the vote.
“You have to control the output in these situations,” says CEO Alan Price. “If you don’t implement a communication strategy, you leave naysayers and the uninformed to take control. Some of our employees who are EU nationals are already saying they might go home – one employee from Eastern Europe said they would rather leave now than wait two years to be sent home. There’s a real concern among managers about a talent drain, with people leaving the UK before any concrete decisions are made.”
Communication is essential for limiting impulsive reactions to Brexit, says Price. Following the vote, Peninsula’s HR department developed a clear internal and external communication plan that included video conference calls with branch offices, making FAQs available, publishing legal analysis of the implications of triggering Article 50 (to leave the EU) and scheduling weekly updates with the senior management team to address staff and client concerns.
Others, understandably, are more reticent. “There is certainly anxiety about Brexit,” says Caroline Day, organisational development manager at OneMedicalGroup, an independent health provider with 300 staff.
“We’ve had questions from colleagues across the group asking whether this will influence or impact on our recruitment or retention policies, and certainly our strategy for the next five years – but as yet we are issuing guidance very cautiously.”
OneMedicalGroup takes its communication directives from the NHS Partners Network. While it is trying to maintain an open-door policy on asking questions about the vote, until more information is made available the organisation won’t be issuing directives, says Day: “Before the vote, we campaigned with our own teams to encourage them to vote. We never issue a preference about which way to vote – but we do encourage turnout. So after encouraging people to use their vote, the communications we ran have probably raised some questions, with people looking to us for answers and direction about what happens next.”
Day’s strategy is to try and reassure employees, while accepting that the situation is still highly uncertain: “Until we have been given some firm decisions about national and NHS strategy, we’re in no-man’s land.”
Despite their different approaches, Price and Day both emphasise the difficulties that lie ahead in guiding staff through the next two years, as concrete decisions surrounding Britain’s exit from the EU are made. While taking the uncertainty into account, they stress it is important that HR leads the way in offering employees opportunities to share their concerns, and support as the outcomes become more clear.
“If you have a careers programme, a good employee outreach service or a strong HR team, make use of that support.” Price says. “Employees should be given as much unbiased information as possible, and signposted to support areas should they need them. Acknowledge the uncertainty, but don’t let the situation control your day-to-day agenda.”