If your company was profitable, would you: lay more people off, stop layoffs but not hire yet or would you start hiring?
Everyone has a strong opinion about this. Why do you feel the way you do? And would your idea be the best thing for the company?
Good Answers (1)
melinda S
Principal at Next Gen Marketing Group
Best Answers in: Budgeting (1), Staffing and Recruiting (1), Professional Networking (1), Using LinkedIn (1)
I hate directly linking staffing decisions to profitability. Yes, I realize that companies do that all the time, but that's not the smart way to run a business. You always should have an organization that is sized for your business needs. That determination should have been made based on a comprehensive assessment of the company's functions and business processes, making sure that you have made the appropriate decisions regarding what to outsource, what to eliminate, what to consolidate, and what to enhance. The results should be an organization that is appropriately lean and nimble, but also appropriately sized to be competitive in its areas of core competency.
Once you optimize the organization, you will be make refinements as necessary: to address changes in the business environment, respond to new requirements, deal with an acquisition, etc.
But if you're smart, you won't put your company in the position of orchestrating major headcount reduction events every several years. If your business does decline, hopefully you're already lean enough that you can address that situation through attrition rather than forced events which a) cost the company a lot of money, b) create disruption that pulls focus off of the business, and c) devastates morale, both for those cast aside and for the "survivors" who remain.
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Christopher O
Motivational Speaker and Writer
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I would hire the best candidates that walk through the door. Some very talented people are looking for jobs right now. Once the economy picks up again, they will be picked up by others and they will cost more than right now.
I would start hiring and never fire anyone.
We would all take pay reductions before one
person would be fired.
If you have to fire one person, close the place down.
Links:
I would perform a review of your strategic plan or update the one you have if it is more than 2-3 years old. If your organization doesn’t have one, its past time to construct one
Your strategic plan should answer the questions,
Where are we now?
Where do we want to be?
How do we get there?
How will we know when we've arrived?
Environmental scans both internally and externally can answer the question “Where are we now?”, with a SWAT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats analysis) a PEST (Political, Economical, Social, and Technological analysis) and a Porter’s 5 analysis to evaluate new competitors, suppliers, buyers, the type of competition running against you….
Strategic Formulation answers “Where do we want to be?” with your companies vision statement, mission statement, core competencies and corporate values statement. All of which are vital to an organizations continued success.
Strategic implementation answers “How do we get there?” By developing your tactical goals, action plans, evaluating your budget and then executing your strategic plan.
Developing your budget at this phase will give you a greater understanding of your companies outlook and give you insight as to how you may need to address your employment concerns for your future.
Strategic Evaluation answers the question “How will we know when we’ve arrived?” and can be continuously tracked with basic or advanced balanced scorecards and dashboard templates.
Before making any layoff decisions I strongly suggest reviewing your states employment laws to makes sure your not violating any of your state or federal employment legislation like EEO, OFCCP, or AAP.
If your company was profitable, why would you be thinking about laying people off? Many companies panicked in the last few years and decided to lay people off when there were other measures that could be taken to cut costs. Layoffs should only be done as a last resort when there is nothing for the employees to do and the company cannot pay them anymore. You should not make staffing decisions based on profitability. You need to base staffing decisions on the strategic goals of the company.
