The title of this paper has been chosen deliberately. With so many headlines spreading doom and gloom about headcount reductions, freezing of wages, forced cutbacks in working hours and cost cutting in response to the current crisis, it is easy to forget that people do not only give rise to an expense but are also key “assets” contributing to value creation within a company.

Naturally, given the nature of this crisis, it is important to focus on the bottom line by managing cash spending and increasing operational effectiveness. This should clearly also involve a sound review across the HR spectrum to understand where cost savings and better risk management can lead to better performance. But we must be careful that, in doing this, we do not lose (literally or through disengagement) the critical assets - our people - that we need now to get us through this period and will need all the more when recovery signs start to emerge.

As you will read in this paper, a good number of companies in the Benelux (apart from focusing on cost savings) are still making targeted investments in people, deliberately keeping an eye on the future. We hope the examples set by those companies will inspire you. Even at this difficult time we cannot get away from the longer-term structural people challenges our world is facing: that of a rapidly ageing workforce and a relative talent shortage.

An area for more concern is that almost half of the companies we interviewed are not paying special attention to employee communication. The current economic crisis affects all of us, if not in our immediate work environment then in our private lives, affecting our savings. In uncertain times leaders must provide as much clarity and transparency as possible to remove anxiety and stress and improve employee engagement. We applaud those organisations that told us they are doing this.

We would like to thank all the companies that participated in this research, and especially the people who agreed to be interviewed. I also want to thank all my colleagues who contributed to this paper.

Sigrid Geens

Leader of the Mercer “Leading through Unprecedented Times” initiative in the Benelux