Haven't given salaries for last couple of months (financial crisis) - how to motivate staff and make sure they are punctual?

Dear HR,

Due to some financial crisis, we haven't been able to provide salaries for the last couple of months. As a result, employees have become demotivated, showing irregular attendance, taking excessive leaves, and logging in late frequently.

I would appreciate guidance on how to motivate the staff and ensure their punctuality.

Regards,
Anusha

First, it is a sad situation, and leadership of the highest nature requires to be shown to lead employees. What I would suggest is top leadership needs to sit across with employees and openly discuss the problems being faced by the company.

The top leadership also should not draw salaries during this period. They should draw their salaries only after the last employee is paid. The role of HR is difficult in such cases, and at a lower level, can do nothing much to alleviate employee worries. The actions and attitude of top bosses can make a difference.

A little bit of late coming and disinterest should be overlooked. If you don't get paid and don't know when the pay is going to be paid, it is normal to lose interest, look around for other jobs, etc. Ask or suggest to your HR boss and motivate your CEO/MD/chairman to come out and interact.

Hi,

Salaries are to be paid on time as per statutory laws. Obviously, when salaries are not paid for a couple of months, employees will be irregular to the office, and the morale of employees will go down drastically. Even if you are not able to pay the full salary, you should ensure that some partial salary is released to all employees. In the Indian scenario, the middle-class segment fully depends on the salary for their monthly expenses. Unlike foreign countries, the habit of saving for retirement is not there in India, except for statutory deductions like PF, which will not be sufficient enough.

Please discuss with your management about the payment of salaries, arrive at some early date, call all employees for a meeting, ensure somebody from top management assures them about the payment of salaries, and explains the future of the company in terms of projects/work orders. Else, employees will look for a new job and will leave.