With recession rife in the market, the most obvious question on everyone’s mind is “Will I be the next one to get the pink slip?”. And of course for those of you working directly in the hiring field, you will understand first hand that it is no mere blood bath out there. The market is open to only those who are the ‘toughest’ and ‘fittest’ so to speak.
When the recession was first started, the immediate and most obvious course of action was to begin looking for ways to downsize the expenditure in order to be able to at least match the income. Jobs were reassessed and many were given the pink slip. It certainly rocked the world with job loss as in just a few short weeks, the jobless percentage had risen to a whopping 25%!
As companies are stabilizing themselves and bracing for the rumors of a 4 year depression hitting the global market at any time, they seem to be adopting a new policy of keeping the employees, but cutting the pay rather than the employee.
Employees have mixed opinions as to whether or not this is the preferred action for their careers. For those who have carefully planned out their salary hike, and are now absorbing 20% salary cuts, it is a hard blow. But for those who have worked with organizations since the beginning of their career, a job loss is painful and sorely unexpected.
As a HR person, managing employees is not an easy task. You are often hesitant to build relations with employees for the simple reason that you may have to be the one to ‘take them to task’ in the near future.
An easy way out for this dilemma as well as providing a simple solution to both cutting cost for the company as well as retaining the core talent in your company, is to allow those staying on to absorb a minimal salary cut in lieu of keeping their job active and steady.
It may not be easy, but it will provide a key, all-round solution for beating the attrition and still saving the income of your company. What is your take on this? Do let us know views.
