Workplace Issues in a Downturn Economy: HR Advice for Employers
A downturn in the economy troubles employers and scares the life out of employees. Employees know that if the down trend continues, one of the certainties that some will face is employee layoffs. How many and who, are the questions of concern to everyone when it comes to layoff time.
What To Do & How To Do It.
1) Employee Identification and Ranking
Every company generally has employees who, at any given time, fit into one of five categories.
*Star performers (10%)
*Good / very competent (20%)
*Average /satisfactory performers (40%).
*Mediocre performers (20%)
*Poor/problem performers (10%)
2)WHAT NOT TO DO- do not ignore any cases of performance concerns and just allow the employees concerned to drift along, because you are a nice guy and feel badly for them. Reality check: You must accept that to do so is not being fair to yourself, your company or to the employee. Believe it or not, no one enjoys being considered as a poor or problem employee. Allow these people to get a fresh start somewhere else. Do not enable them to just drift (at least not in your enterprise.)
3) THE NEXT PRIORITY- Once you have identified your stars, your satisfactory performers and those who need to improve or leave, there’s another important step. You should turn your attention to how to keep “the doors open” for the intake of newcomers who have the credentials, reputation and experience that would be invaluable to your company.
If you are willing to be flexible about work schedules, benefits and compensation, you may be able to make it worthwhile for those key people to consider carrying on beyond their normal retirement age.
This will then allow you to continue to use that invaluable experience for the benefit of your company, in difficult times as well as times of rapid growth.
4) LEADERSHIP
Are you a leader as well as the boss (most senior manager)? The above scenarios require strong, determined and visionary leadership by the decision makers in the organization. The job of the leader is to see clearly what is right, appropriate and essential for the continuing good health of the company. The next step is to make develop an intelligent plan. This plan should give all possible consideration as to how the company can retain the employees who will help you move the enterprise through the downtime and back into the upturn growth economy. You know that the return to better times is not very far away.
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