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Resources whose contribution and
performance that makes an
organization perform. Promotions and
Increments can be deferred till the
situation comes to normal.
● We need to look into the organization
thoroughly and should try to find out
the Non-Value added activities and
Resources. Departments as well as
organization needs to take this issue
carefully and accordingly should either
reallocate them or just ask them to
leave.
● If organization does not show any
impact by taking above measures then
the last option should be the Manpower
Reduction. The objective of this
manpower reduction is to gain some
profit as organization is not in a position
to even pay salary to their employees.
It should also be done in a step wise
process like
● Identify the list of the employees with
whom we do not have many liabilities.
It should be done by taking the concern
of the Department heads.
● The practice which is being followed
for the identification of the list is last in
First Out. The person who has joined
last in the department can be the first
one to be moved out.
● The record for Chronic Absenteeism
can be taken into consideration
because it shows how serious an
employee is towards the responsibility/
work/job assigned to him.
● Performance and Potential Measures
of the employees can also be taken into
account while downsizing is being
followed in the organization.
Employees need to be rated on certain
parameters by the reporting officer,
non-performers of the departments
needs to be identified and accordingly
the step should be taken.
● While downsizing, we need to consider
the Deadwoods of the organization.
These are the people who are working
with the organization since the
inception of the organization. They
must have shown the loyalty towards
the organization but priority should be
given to the identified cases in this
category.
This is not enough because when the
above stated measures have taken, the left
out employees must have lost their
motivational level, they will not be that
enthusiastic as they were earlier, they will
not concentrate on their work rather they
would spend their time discussing the
above stated measures. In such situation,
HR needs to be very powerful and effective
they will have to increase the motivational
level of the rest of the people. HR needs to
plan and organize such programs which
can help them reducing their stress
because the left outs are very insecure
about their job. There are certain ideas and
suggestions which can help an organization
to deal with left out employees. Employee
Emotional Engagement, Employee
Engagement and Involvement is what just
works and make the organization going.
They are as below:
● We need to identify the list of the
talented people or need to differentiate
the performers from non performers
and then talk to them on individual
basis and can try to resolve their
problems.
● This is the time where we need to
develop the talents from falling out of
company bandwagon because this is
the category which requires extra care
and attention.
● Need to develop people with cross
functional skills because this is the
situation where extra manpower can be
rotated. This will help in making
balance between remaining talents and
deadwoods.
● There should be a clear communication
to the employees about all the
measures that we are taking. A person
from senior management needs to take
session for the rest of the employees
which can ensure them. Sessions
pertaining to all these should be taken
on a regular basis.
Attributes of the Adaptive Challenge
As there are two sides of a coin, there are
both Positive as well as Negative aspects
of Adaptive Challenge.
The Positive Attributes include:
● The ability for employees, departments
and groups within an organization to
collaborate effectively.
● The ability for all employees at all levels
to network with others outside the
organization, gaining new sources of
information and helpful perspective in
the process.
● The ability for all employees at all levels
to innovate and Experiment without
fear of "Reprisal".
● The ability for all employees at all levels
to be more committed to the
responsibility, job assigned to them,
even they are ready for the additional
responsibility.
The Negative Attributes include:
● Credibility issue.
● There are employees who are involved
in the above mentioned process try to
be Safe. They want to maintain Good
Relations with all the employees across
the organization.
● Risk of Lip Services is there.
● There must be a proper
Communication channel, through
which this process should proceed.
● Employees are ambivalent about their
efforts and sacrifices required of them.
They often look to the senior people to
take problems off their shoulders.
What the Employer should do?
In case of a downturn or slowdown, the
organization impacted should take the
following steps to mitigate the impact of
downturn on its People Strength:
● The management must inform
employees about the current situation
in the company through thee best and
effective means called -
Communication.
● Keep employees abreast of the
company's decisions and future plans
through communications at all levels.
Keep the morale and the trust of its
people strength intact.
● Avoid any change-in service and
employment conditions but if
necessary, give adequate notice to
employees; change in HR policies is
must to make it more vibrant and need
based.
Conclusion:
Without such changes, any company today
would falter. Indeed, getting people to do
adaptive work is the mark of leadership in
a competitive world. In order to make
change happen, executives have to break
a longstanding behavior pattern of their
own as well as they need to change the
minds and hearts of the people around
them. Solutions to the Adaptive Challenges
do not reside in the executive but in the
collective intelligence of employees at all
levels, who need to use one another as
resources, often across boundaries, and
learn their ways to the business. The
organization needs to take step to cope up
with the prevailing situation because these
are the sensitive issues and management
may feel resistance of the employees. In
such situation, rather than protecting
people from outside threats, they should
be allowed to feel the pinch of reality in
order to stimulate them to accept. Instead
of maintaining the norms, management has
to challenge "the way we do business" and
help others distinguish immutable values
from historical practices.
| HRD News Letter | March 2009, Vol.24, Issue:12 29