A distressing 80 percent of downsizers admit that the morale of their remaining employees has been mugged. These sullen, dispirited, hunkered-down folk, lest we forget, are the very people who are supposed to revitalize your enterprise and delight your customers.
Ronald Henkoff in Fortune, January 10, 1994
Companies are like human, they have their strengths and weaknesses. I can say that the worst weakness of the company is when it decides to have their downsizing.
Before we discuss about company’s downsizings we will first define and elaborate the meaning of down sizing.
These findings was based on the downsizing experience in America.
Study Findings
Following are some of the highlights of the Downsizing Study Team's findings from our investigation of benchmarked organizations:
Senior leadership plays a vital role in downsizing.
We found that successful downsizing resulted when senior leadership became involved early on in the process and continued to participate actively, remained visible and accessible, and was perceived by employees to be their source of communications concerning major downsizing actions.
Causes of Downsizing
Downsizing causes resentment and resistance in surviving employees
Downsizing if not handled carefully will cause financial set backs
HR management must handle employees, both survivors and former, with
Over communication is impossible during downsizing.
We found that honest and open communication of what was happening to the organization during the downsizing is what employees most want from their organization's leadership. Moreover, the communication flow must be two way, with management listening to employees as well as the converse.
Planning for downsizing begins with getting the right people together.
This includes senior leadership, human resource executives, and labor representatives; all of whom play key roles in strategic downsizing planning.
Information not normally required in an organization's day-to-day operations becomes critical during downsizing.
For example, management requires information for planning and monitoring the staff reduction, and employees need information to help them decide on a course of action. Most of this information is supplied internally by human resource offices; additional information can be obtained from other organizations that have successfully downsized.
Successful planning for downsizing includes the development of business plans from various departments within the organization.
Requiring each department within an organization to develop a business plan helps ensure that the managers of those departments are involved in the planning; it also builds support for the effort.
Identification of work processes that will not be needed in the future organization is vital to the success of the downsizing action.
This identification effort also helps protect those processes that are key to the organization's future from being affected by the downsizing.
Incentives such as early retirement and buyouts work well and are popular with employees. Early retirement incentives allow employees to retire with either full or reduced pension benefits at an earlier age than normal; buyouts provide a lump sum payment to employees in exchange for their leaving the organization voluntarily, regardless of whether they are eligible for early or regular retirement.
The use of multiple strategies and techniques to accomplish goals for downsizing helps to leverage the outcome.
Our partners found that not all downsizing strategies worked exactly as planned, with some not working well at all and others exceeding expectations. The concurrent use of multiple strategies, therefore, helps ensure the success of the downsizing process.
Organizations that have successfully downsized provided career transition assistance to both separated and surviving employees.
Among the services provided are career counseling, personal counseling, career/skill and career transition training, relocation assistance, outplacement assistance, resumewriting assistance, access to office equipment, paid time off, child care, financial counseling, and access to job fairs and to Internet job placement sites.
Monitoring progress is a chief component of successful downsizing.
Those organizations that took the time to periodically review their procedures, learn from their mistakes as well as their successes, and incorporate what was learned from these periodic assessments into their downsizing procedures found that they could minimize adverse impact in ongoing downsizing processes and complete future downsizings in a more streamlined fashion.
Successful Downsizing Depends on the Survivors
A key conclusion of this report is that the success or failure of a downsized organization depends on the workforce remaining after the downsizing. A well-planned and -managed downsizing process, which the survivors perceive as having been fairly and humanely administered, promotes trust and faith in management and in the future of the organization among these employees and empowers them to provide improved service.
http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/npr/library/papers/benchmrk/downsize.html
Ronald Henkoff in Fortune, January 10, 1994
Companies are like human, they have their strengths and weaknesses. I can say that the worst weakness of the company is when it decides to have their downsizing.
Before we discuss about company’s downsizings we will first define and elaborate the meaning of down sizing.
These findings was based on the downsizing experience in America.
Study Findings
Following are some of the highlights of the Downsizing Study Team's findings from our investigation of benchmarked organizations:
Senior leadership plays a vital role in downsizing.
We found that successful downsizing resulted when senior leadership became involved early on in the process and continued to participate actively, remained visible and accessible, and was perceived by employees to be their source of communications concerning major downsizing actions.
Causes of Downsizing
Downsizing causes resentment and resistance in surviving employees
Downsizing if not handled carefully will cause financial set backs
HR management must handle employees, both survivors and former, with
Over communication is impossible during downsizing.
We found that honest and open communication of what was happening to the organization during the downsizing is what employees most want from their organization's leadership. Moreover, the communication flow must be two way, with management listening to employees as well as the converse.
Planning for downsizing begins with getting the right people together.
This includes senior leadership, human resource executives, and labor representatives; all of whom play key roles in strategic downsizing planning.
Information not normally required in an organization's day-to-day operations becomes critical during downsizing.
For example, management requires information for planning and monitoring the staff reduction, and employees need information to help them decide on a course of action. Most of this information is supplied internally by human resource offices; additional information can be obtained from other organizations that have successfully downsized.
Successful planning for downsizing includes the development of business plans from various departments within the organization.
Requiring each department within an organization to develop a business plan helps ensure that the managers of those departments are involved in the planning; it also builds support for the effort.
Identification of work processes that will not be needed in the future organization is vital to the success of the downsizing action.
This identification effort also helps protect those processes that are key to the organization's future from being affected by the downsizing.
Incentives such as early retirement and buyouts work well and are popular with employees. Early retirement incentives allow employees to retire with either full or reduced pension benefits at an earlier age than normal; buyouts provide a lump sum payment to employees in exchange for their leaving the organization voluntarily, regardless of whether they are eligible for early or regular retirement.
The use of multiple strategies and techniques to accomplish goals for downsizing helps to leverage the outcome.
Our partners found that not all downsizing strategies worked exactly as planned, with some not working well at all and others exceeding expectations. The concurrent use of multiple strategies, therefore, helps ensure the success of the downsizing process.
Organizations that have successfully downsized provided career transition assistance to both separated and surviving employees.
Among the services provided are career counseling, personal counseling, career/skill and career transition training, relocation assistance, outplacement assistance, resumewriting assistance, access to office equipment, paid time off, child care, financial counseling, and access to job fairs and to Internet job placement sites.
Monitoring progress is a chief component of successful downsizing.
Those organizations that took the time to periodically review their procedures, learn from their mistakes as well as their successes, and incorporate what was learned from these periodic assessments into their downsizing procedures found that they could minimize adverse impact in ongoing downsizing processes and complete future downsizings in a more streamlined fashion.
Successful Downsizing Depends on the Survivors
A key conclusion of this report is that the success or failure of a downsized organization depends on the workforce remaining after the downsizing. A well-planned and -managed downsizing process, which the survivors perceive as having been fairly and humanely administered, promotes trust and faith in management and in the future of the organization among these employees and empowers them to provide improved service.
http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/npr/library/papers/benchmrk/downsize.html
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