Chapter 9: Prune

Employees Carefully
Fatima (sp19-bba-020)
 Introduction

Many companies in diverse industries face the economic downturn by

cutting their largest expense: head count.

In the United States, January 2008 layoffs rose a whopping sixty-nine

percent from December 2007 to 75,000—the highest amount since August
2007.

Career Protection’s Annual 2008 Layoffs Forecast survey of 1,375

corporate executives nationwide conducted in January.1 The survey
predicts a thirty-seven percent increase in layoffs in 2008.
 Managers in many HR departments are in the midst of planning for or
conducting layoffs, Nemer reports.

“Corporations are going to have to get leaner,”

Factors HR
professionals Nemer counsels HR professionals to:

should consider
Make sure appraisals are up-to-date. 

■ Identify top performers and get them working on the company’s

future. 

■ Have leaders committed to the company’s turnaround.

In short, have faith in your performance management system, never

lose sight of the big picture—and retain top talent. 
Importance of Performance Management System

• “If you don’t have a vigorous performance management system,

you don’t have an operating plan; you have an operating hope,”
says Angello. And when it comes time to select people for layoffs,
your decisions are based on guesswork rather than fact, he adds.
“You get into a fuzzy area where managers start picking those
who look like them to stay,” opening up the company to legal
risks.
Workforce Planning

So the managers should “You should always look at

conduct workforce planning the demographics of your
in advance, he adds.  workforce and ask,

‘Do I have the right number Do I have the right

of people? competencies?’”
 Leaders of many organizations have been staffing
smarter in recent years.

Leaner Staffing

“Companies are making reductions in force, but

[managers] are much more concerned this time
around about how they make those reductions
because talent has been harder to get,”
Definition

• Lean staffing, simply put, is intentional, severe understaffing. This

is often promoted as beneficial by management and management
consultants, and may be 
described in a way that emphasizes efficiency (“do more with
less”, “eliminate waste”)
What are the outcomes of this staffing model?
What is the experience of lean staffing like for
employees?

Understaffing can be extremely difficult for employees. Even if all staff members are
working on a given day, getting everything done is a struggle with insufficient staff.

Staff may find themselves forced to work longer hours, even “off the clock”, to get
everything done, which eats into their personal and family time 

guilt-trips are often a part of understaffing. Supervisors may say things to employees

like, “It’s everyone’s responsibility to get the work done”, “We all have to pitch in”,
“You want to help your co-workers, don’t you?” 
 Companies are
leaner than in
recessions past, mergers and
according to acquisitions,
experts, because
of
Why leaner
staff?
and the
outsourcing,
“rightsizing”
 Once you have decided to reduce your force, how you communicate and
when you communicate are key.

Say It Often As ''Employees find out about it right away and get concerned.”

“Employees are shocked and scared,” “We’re even getting calls from

people who are hearing rumors of possible layoffs at the end of the year,
and they’re asking what they can do to protect themselves. We tell them
to continue to perform at a high level because no matter how stressed
the economy gets, companies still need top performers.”
 It may seem oxymoronic to focus on
retention when conducting layoffs, but
Retain Top there’s no other time when retention
Talent becomes more paramount than when a
company lets workers go.

So HR professionals need “to get in

front of the line managers and
critically assess [who] is the talent
they must retain,”
Turnaround Strategy at Nuera

'' when team members were

given a defined role in the
According to research, at turnaround after the layoffs.
company Nuera, “Those teams that had a part in
meeting the company’s goals
were focused and productive,” 
money doesn’t retain top talent,”“You have to give them more
of a reason to stay by finding a meaningful role for that person
where he or she can contribute to the success of the
organization and have room for growth.”
“While you retain the person, you won’t necessarily retain the
spirit or the will to contribute. The key is to help the retained
folks have a part in enabling the turnaround.” 
 Staff feeling pressure (or literally being ordered
by supervisors) to come to work when they are ill
or injured. 

Some other
consequences of Staff may blame one another for the stress caused
by someone’s absence.
lean staffing:

Staff may be forced to do additional duties

without recognition or compensation,
 Understaffing can lead to dangerous
situations such as when only one person is
on duty, isolated, easily targeted, and unable
to summon help if needed.

The chronic high stress of understaffing can

lead to mental and physical health problems
and/or burnout of employees,
 Keep communication continuous and comprehensive

Managing Reallocating Job Responsibilities

Employees in a
Downsized Retraining
Environment
Adjusting Compensation and Benefits

Maintaining Employee Engagement and Satisfaction

References

• https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/
pages/managinginadownsizedenvironment.aspx