Human Resources Needs to Do More With Less
By David Lewis
Reprinted from the Norwalk Hour
4/28/03
Each year brings new challenges. Never has that commonly stated
axiom been more true than in 2003. For the Human Resources professional
the challenges are exponential. They start with supporting an organization
that is faced with having to do more with less. The challenges then
move into something more fundamental ? self-preservation. HR professionals
are looked at with a greater level of scrutiny in times of economic
upheaval.
Many HR organizations have fewer staff members than
a year ago, with many companies having totally eliminated the function.
Others further reduced staff levels to skeleton crew status. Either
way the challenges multiply for the HR professional when these reductions
occur. Morale in a company that has experienced a lay off tends to
drop. At the time you need motivated, focused resources instead you
start off with demoralized, fearful employees who are now shouldering
more responsibility. This is the time for the HR professional to
make their presence known. Consider the following ways to address
these issues:
* Meet with the management team, both as a group
and in a one-on-one setting, with the goal of understanding how responsibilities
handled by recently terminated employees will be dispersed. You
are there in a proactive effort to learn about the resulting organization,
allowing you to then offer advice to both manager and employee.
Specifically, the more you understand the plan the better you can
respond to the issues that may flow from it.
* Assuming you have not been a part of the planning that occurred
before the layoff, you now need to be prepared for what may result.
Definition of the resulting roles is critical. As dynamic as some
people are in growing organizations, an organization that has shrunk
tends to sap energy instead of energize. An employee hired in to
a role that involves wearing multiple hats is invigorated and challenged,
usually resulting in a motivated performer. While a reduction creates
a similar scenario (more hats, more responsibility), the results
can be quite different. Doing more with less, and not receiving more
compensation for the added roles, is demotivating for many. Insure
that the communication internally is clear, with new roles defined
to the responsible party and the organization as a whole.
All of the above is designed to serve the company from the HR perspective.
Activity of this nature will also serve the purpose of self-preservation.
In a growing organization HR tends to be more of a processing center,
recruiting and integrating new talent as the primary driver. In a
shrinking or stabilizing entity the other areas of HR focus must
be addressed in order to demonstrate value and continued contribution.
A few thoughts worth consideration towards this effort:
* There are a slew of administrative
issues that are impacted by company contraction. Have recent organizational
changes turned org. charts and job descriptions obsolete? Are your
employee files up to date and compliant? Is the career page on
your company website out of date. When was the last you’re
your employee handbook was updated to reflect new policies and
changes to the old ones? Look as well at the projects that were
shelved, set aside, or simply not addressed due to other priorities,
specifically looking at those that only cost your time, not additional
dollars.
* Is everything you are doing
today reactive or proactive? If you find yourself reacting chances
are you were not there when the decisions made. As you finish addressing
the fallout start addressing how to involve yourself in the decision-making
the next time around. Get in tune with the business objectives
and how they can then be served by the HR effort…not the
other way around.
The key to success for the
HR professional in the coming year is to insure that their presence
is felt, their value recognized. Without this approach you too
could find yourself in the pool of others that were caught up in
a reduction in staff. The differentiator tends to be proactivity,
creativity, and passion.
For more information about
OperationsInc, please contact David Lewis at:
