Human Resources

Human Resources (HR) has a big job. HR professionals must counsel employees about their future and manage a host of options to ensure employees that the organization will take care of them in some way. Often in the case of technological change, the possibility exists that there will be a reduction in staff. Employees anticipate this and, therefore, will become resistant. Insecure employees can sink a promising change initiative before it even gets started. Therefore, employees need to be reassured that they will not be sacri.ced. There are many ways to do this. HR can reassure employees that plans are made up-front to look out for their interests. The cooperative nature of the company sends a strong signal to all employees that they will be taken care of in the event of a layoff and not just discarded. Interestingly, we are aware of several change efforts that actually required an increase in the number of employees rather than a decrease.

If necessary, a reduction in staff should first be accommodated through natural attrition, such as retirement or persons leaving the company. Second, those who choose to initiate a career change within the company should start immediately on their new career ladders. You may be surprised at how many employees in a department are willing to change jobs. Last, if people do need to be laid off because of the change, the company should arrange to help them make a positive career transition. Career counseling is a start, but continued financial support while they are retraining is also important. An example might be to provide tuition toward an education or training program for a certain amount of time after the person is laid off. You could determine the actual amount by examining the average tuition to trade schools and colleges in the community or surrounding area. You may want to be sure that each laid-off employee impacted by the reduction in force (RIF) receives some amount of time at an outplacement firm, where he or she can receive professional assistance from experienced career counselors, attend job-related seminars, and access important resources. Many companies provide this longterm support in one form or another through a severance package.

When people know they are not forgotten and that they have a real role in the decision-making process of the company, they can put personal issues aside and concentrate on helping move the change forward. A management team would be naive to think that employees should and will consider the company as their .rst priority. The days of the “company man” (or woman) are over. Studies on work-life balance programs (Galinksy, Kim, & Bond, 2001; Litch.eld & Pitt-Catsouphes, 1999; Smith, 2001) have shown that employees are willing to take a different view of their jobs, even to sacrifice promotion and money, if gaining these means sacrificing family and leisure time. This change of attitude might seem surprising in a business environment where downsizing has become increasingly common and jobs are harder to find, yet it is a fact.

Many companies have created vicious cycles where the very policy of staff reduction in hard times creates poor attitudes among the workforce during good times. Twenty-five years ago, when there were tough times in a company, people were kept on-board. IBM, for example, had a longstanding policy against layoffs. Job security was a reality. Today, employees have learned—usually the hard way—that if the company begins to lose money, their jobs may be sacri.ced. The attitude is “Why should I do more than the minimum expected when, at any time, I can be shown the door?” Federal Express remains one of the few major companies that still retains the philosophy of the “social contract.”

Everyone has heard of or has known someone in management who worked seventy hours a week for twenty-five years and was then let go. They missed seeing their families grow up and sacri.ced any personal life to “get where they are today.” And where is that? Often the attitude is to get as much out of a company as you can while you’re there because you don’t know how long the job will last. The enlightened company will take these issues into account and plan ahead. There is no more important time to conduct this planning and to take these steps then at the outset of a change initiative. Further, the “Gen-X” and “Gen-Y” populations that have entered the workforce have seen their parents laid off or seen the parent of a friend mistreated, and witnessed the hardships that follow. As a result, many of these employees are unwilling to sacrifice their lives for a company.