Winning Workplaces

The Money & Investing section of this weekend's Wall Street Journal had a cover story profiling several small businesses that have had their credit lines cut and/or are having a tougher time getting new credit lines approved at the bank.

In an economic downturn such as this, you would expect this to be the case with startups and other early stage firms, and also at those that have done a fair to poor job of handling economic crises in the past. Yet, in what may be a sign of the severity of this recession, even businesses that have weathered past storms and continue to grow revenues and add positions in this climate are having a foot put on their throat by banks and other credit issuers.

In a new survey of our Top Small Workplaces and Best Boss award winners conducted last week, one in five say they have been affected in the same way. Here are some of their qualitative responses along these lines:

"Reduced line of credit at one bank."
"Credit has been much more difficult to get."
"Bank requires more security for lines of credit."
"We are a non profit so it is harder for us to get credit (utilizing our line of credit)."

So what is an owner or leader to do when their business is strong and yet they are getting less than a VIP treatment when it comes to getting and using credit? You might take a cue from these same folks we surveyed. When asked about the actions they're taking in response to the recession overall, here are their top five solutions:

Cut operating expenses
Introduce new products/services or extensions; redesign processes to create efficiencies; eliminate unfilled positions (tie)
Refocus on core products/services
cut back on outsourced resources
Staff layoffs

Notice that for one through four, here's where a strong workplace culture made possible by good team building and employee engagement best practices can make a huge difference.

Stay tuned to our free IDEAS newsletter this week for the full results of our survey of our Top Small Workplaces and Best Bosses winners, including more takeaways on what they're doing that you can adapt for your organization.