HR Planning a Requirement in All Businesses
By Nick at 29 December, 2006, 3:14 am
An article in the Wall Street Journal discussed a growing number of white-collar workers (i.e. engineers, salespeople, management trainees, etc.) who lost their jobs during times of economic downturn. Many white collar workers are those that are recruited right out of college and are typically touted as the next big thing in their respective companies. However, these college graduates are the first to go when their companies fall on hard times.
Recruiting, selection, orientation, and training costs can get very expensive for companies, which are mainly measured on a per employee basis. There are other costs that are incurred, such as damage to the companies reputation. When companies layoff workers, it can be extremely difficult to attract qualified candidates for new positions. Those rejected workers are talking to placement professionals and networking with their friends and other colleagues. This will invariably bad-mouth the company that dumped them. When the company begins a hiring spree, job seekers seeing ads for open positions at such companies are asking themselves whethere or not it will be a waste of their time to invest with this company.
Every company of virtually every size is involved in strategic planning to some extent. A survey of 200 large corporations indicated that 60 percent included human resources planning in their strategic planning process. 20 percent said they were considering adding it. Many companies still see the human resources department as mainly an administrative, paper-pushing department. By not giving HR a seat at the table demonstrates the weakness that exists in the business planning process, as companies continue to think that employees are commodities that can be bought and sold like soybeans (i.e. expendable at any moment for any reason).
Changes in the levels of employment of blue-collar workers with changes in the economic environment are quite common. The magnitude of these changes would obviously drop with HR being given a seat at the planning table. Elimination of layoffs will never happen, but with better employment planning it can be reduced dramatically. It is unfortunate that many of the laid-off workers are the recent college graduates who have invested as much as $70,000 into themselves only to have the companies that they join treat them like dirt. Employees are said to be a companies’ most valuable asset. So what gives?
The incentive of higher pay has been disappearing for some time along with the stability of employment. This incentive is losing its power as job candidates evaluate other aspects of the job. A glance of the job listings online you will read “no job-hoppers need apply.” In other words, companies are looking for stability in employment. Until companies start treating employees with more respect and dignity, employees will continue looking for better opportunities elsewhere. The long-term impact can be enormous.
Popularity: 5% [?]
No comments yet.