Author: Valerie Frazee

The Dilemma:
In the beginning there was a trumpets-and-fanfare announcement about the productivity change initiative. Six months later, it’s clear the changes haven’t been sufficient to meet management’s financial goals. As director of HR, you know layoffs are a possibility. You also realize that maintaining morale and employee trust are equally important. How do you respond when employees—including your own staff members—cautiously ask how things look for the future?

Readers Respond:
As a senior HR manager, I need to be proactive and sensitive. As soon as I realize that despite the changes under way layoffs can’t be ruled out, I need to plan for an effective communication strategy. That means establishing an understanding with top management—in advance —about what, when, how and by whom the demoralizing news will be released. The objective is to minimize the effects of the negative news as well as to avoid unhealthy rumors.

When such a plan is in place, and procedures have been rehearsed, I’d take the initiative to communicate the details to the staff. If such a plan isn’t ready and I’m approached by the staff on the subject, I’d confirm the company is looking into ways, including staff measures, to reduce costs or to meet the target goals. I’d emphasize that HR remains the most valuable asset of the company—and full staff consultations will be conducted before management makes decisions affecting employees’ careers. I’d also indicate when they can expect a formal announcement—which should come as soon as possible. Delays will result in uncertainties and, therefore, adverse effects on staff morale and loyalty.
Charles Mak
Director
Charles Mak & Associates
Calgary, Alberta

I believe the best response is to explain the truth—that business isn’t good and unless things turn around there are possibilities of reductions in force (layoffs). Deceiving employees can only lead to future distrust of your credibility.

I would solicit staff members’ ideas as to what might be done to meet business plans to avoid such actions. I would present this as a challenge to the group with individual goals and predetermined time lines. I’d follow up with frequent meetings to review progress and provide positive rewards for every improvement in performance that contributes to financial goals.
Ronald Velasquez
Former Director Industrial Relations

I believe that when such a question is posed, an honest answer is best. The way one conveys that honesty is going to be the catalyst for action or inaction. I would attempt to put a spin on the situation that gets the whole organization involved in the responsibility for change. This would require that the explanation invoke a vested interest in the company’s success.

We all see things differently. Typically we tend to find it easier to attempt to change others rather than to concentrate on changing ourselves. So, in any kind of change management, there has to be a degree of change shown by those initiating it. The behaviors must be visible and deliberate.

I would explain that these changes are important to the survival and growth of the company—and that so far the efforts to change the organization for the better haven’t been successful. I would also convey that management views these changes as “a requirement.”

Workers need to feel that there’s a “payback” for change, so at this point I would explain the rewards. Obviously, if the company is doing better, then those within the company will do better. They’ll experience an increase in programs, perks, benefits and pay. They’ll also enjoy a certain amount of job security with the attained goals. It’s everyone’s responsibility—from the janitor to the COO—to work toward company goals and fulfilling the company mission to serve its customers. Without full commitment, cutbacks will be inevitable in order to survive.
Kelvin Ham
Manager, Human Resources
AMBAC International Corp.
Columbia, South Carolina

My response to such inquiries would be as follows: The change initiatives we instituted six months ago have failed to yield the level of results we anticipated. As a result, we’re in the process of reevaluating these changes, and I’m personally asking for your help in this process. While I’m hopeful that we’ll see immediate improvement, there’s the possibility that we may be required to find alternative methods to reduce expenses, one of which may be staff reductions. For now, let’s establish some short-term action plans to contribute toward the change modifications.
Phil Brunoe
President
HR Solutions Inc.
Harleysville, Pennsylvania

Employees need to know how the changes are affecting the bottom line. Not dealing with their questions honestly will further heighten their anxiety. The employer should solicit employee ideas about how to make the business more profitable. Employees should be assured that the company will do everything possible to eliminate the need for layoffs.
George W. Laing
Human Resources Manager
Clark Public Utilities
Vancouver, Washington

The Dilemma:
Vivian, a manager at your company, was reviewing random e-mails sent by one of her employees, John. She suspected that even though he had been warned to stop, he was still sending an excessive number of personal messages through the company-provided online service during company time. In checking the messages, she learned that another co-worker, Jennifer, was extremely unhappy about being passed over for a promotion and was considering quitting—and encouraging John and other friends to do the same. Vivian has come to you for input on how to handle the situation. What do you advise her to do?

Readers Respond:
Does John get his work done correctly and on time? Is he available to Vivian when she needs him? If the answer is “yes” then I’d ignore his e-mail activity and be grateful that I have the time to monitor anyone’s e-mail—randomly or not! I might wonder, however, if he has enough work to do.

However, if his work isn’t done, or if the e-mail costs the company money in another way, I’d go to the bottom line: “John, you’re not meeting reasonable production/quality standards. Do you understand that this could cost you your job?”

And, unless Jennifer is irreplaceable, I’d ignore that problem as well. It’s probably just a face-saving device. I believe American workers have an inalienable right to complain and a right (by law) to encourage their co-workers to join them. Let’s encourage our managers to concentrate on more important issues!
Sally McKinney, Director of HR Services,
American Society of Composers,
Authors and Publishers,
New York, New York

First, if Vivian’s first indication of employee dissatisfaction comes from reviewing e-mail, there could be a management problem. Perhaps Vivian is spending too much time sorting through e-mail and not enough time interacting directly with her employees.

Second, I would want to know if the company has a written policy on the use and ownership of e-mail and the disciplinary action that’ll be taken for violations. If the company doesn’t have an e-mail policy, then one should be written, placed in the company handbook and covered with and signed by all employees. If the company already has an established e-mail policy, then it would be appropriate for Vivian to follow the outlined actions.
Gaylynn Lankford,
President,
The HR Connection,
Jacksonville, Florida

Have you ever loaned something to a neighbor for safekeeping? Your home, maybe, while you were out of town on vacation? You relaxed comfortably in the sun knowing that everything was being well taken care of and that when you were ready to return you’d find your plants had been watered, your fish had been fed, and your stereo and computer were safe and sound. It’s so much easier than holding your breath and hoping.

Two innovative companies in Michigan have been using a similar idea as a creative technique for avoiding layoffs. When production is slow, Brooks Beverage Management Inc. (BBMI), a soft drink bottler based in the city of Holland, temporarily loans employees to its corporate neighbor down the street. When things pick up again, it knows its workers haven’t been lured away to other jobs and will be happy to return. Also, like the neighbor you paid to take care of your home, the corporate neighbor in this exchange situation benefits significantly.

For the last three years, BBMI has faced a seasonal dip in demand for its new line of alternative beverages: teas and flavored juices. Typically, as September and October hit, Americans return to what they traditionally have consumed in the colder months—usually coffee and other hot beverages. This part of the cycle lasts until early in the new year.

In the fall of 1994, the company knew what to expect. So as marketing geniuses scrambled to come up with ways to overcome the trend, Dennis Eade, VP of HR, and others at BBMI worked to develop a strategy to keep people working during the slowdown between September and March. There were 55 employees in the alternative-beverages production center who specifically would be impacted. “The primary goal was to avoid losing these highly trained, qualified, prescreened employees. We’re in a 3% unemployment market. The minute we would have laid these folks off, I’m certain other companies in our area would have hired them on the spot,” says Eade.

Plus, layoffs have been uncommon throughout the company’s 64-year history, and BBMI didn’t want that to change. Eade says: “In the soft drink business we typically staff to the low periods and then supplement for the high-demand periods—so we don’t have a history of a lot of layoffs. Therefore we’ve cultivated [a reputation for] being a good employer… and that image is important to attracting good new people to the company.”

BBMI forms a task force.
Faced with the slowdown, BBMI formed a team of representatives from manufacturing, legal, finance, production and HR. Members brainstormed possible solutions to this staffing dilemma. One was to keep the employees and find projects for them to work on, like painting the walls and ceilings. This option was ruled out because the plant had been operating only for a year, and there weren’t many fix-up jobs to do. Another idea was to send the workers out to blitz the marketplace—washing shelves and doing resets at retail outlets—providing an unusual level of service to customers. Yet another idea was to acknowledge that layoffs would be costly, but to do them anyway—with plans to save money in the months before they would need to recruit and train again.

Then someone suggested: “Can’t we just loan these people to somebody for a while?” Immediately everyone agreed this was the best choice—if the company could make it work. This alternative would preserve the sizable investment BBMI already had made in training. Much of the company’s equipment is state-of-the-art machinery run by computers, and employees receive three months of instruction before operating it on their own.

Eade says, “We figured if we made the accommodations—which were to offset the employees’ difference in pay, continue their insurance benefits and continue their 401(k) matching—that had a fixed cost. But compare that to what it would cost to retrain a new workforce, and suddenly it was a third of the expense to make the accommodations than it was to be faced with having to replace those people.”

Eade called Randy Evans, his counterpart at Haworth Inc., an international office furniture manufacturing company also based in Holland. Haworth was Eade’s first choice because he knew the company was growing. Plus, Haworth offered two additional benefits:

• Proximity:
  Haworth is only two miles from BBMI, meaning less aggravation for workers in terms of dislocation
• Availability of multiple shifts:
  If an employee worked the second shift at BBMI, he or she could work the second shift at Haworth—without upsetting child-care arrangements or other scheduled activities.

Evans was extremely receptive to the idea because Haworth had been having a difficult time recruiting enough qualified workers. Aggressive business development efforts by the state and the automotive industry’s solid performance in recent years has created a strong Michigan economy. And this has a serious impact on unemployment rates. John Berrett, VP of corporate communications for Haworth, explains: “The counties surrounding Holland have some of the lowest unemployment levels in the country. We’ve been under 3% for the better part of a year. And that has been a real challenge for companies located here.”

Add to that the fact that Haworth also deals with its own cyclical trend: Corporate America buys more office furniture at the end of the year, creating a peak demand that lasts through the beginning of the next year. Also, the U.S. government’s fiscal year closes at the end of September, and many of its purchases happen around that time.

“We try to hire people on a temporary basis to expand our production capability at the end of the year. When you’re in an area that has an extreme shortage of skilled labor because of low levels of unemployment, plus… you have a higher level of demand, it becomes a problem,” Berrett explains. And the problem is compounded when you need special skills. “The most important requirement [for factory workers] is that they’re able to work with machinery, some of it computer-controlled,” says Berrett. “Many of the employees available from Brooks were [workers with these skills].”

A three-way partnership is born.
Because of the good match in skills, Evans expressed interest in the loan, but also some concern. He was, in fact, planning to hire 150 temporary workers—50 of them immediately. But he was worried he would have trouble with approval from his legal advisors. His primary concerns included:

• Which company would handle workers’ compensation exposure?
• Which company would handle unemployment compensation?
• How would employees maintain benefits continuity?
• When the workers were recalled, would it leave Haworth in a bind?

Haworth usually hires temporary workers through Kelly Services, with the help of two onsite Kelly employees. So, Evans felt it made sense to bring Kelly in as a partner for this project; Eade agree. Claudia Wallace, a Kelly Services supervisor located at Haworth, went over to BBMI and worked with Eade to handle the administrative details of registering the 31 workers as Kelly employees.

Eade found that one benefit of working with Kelly was that the quality control (QC) employees with chemistry degrees had the option of pursuing positions in QC at other Kelly client companies. So far, however, the BBMI employees have preferred to stick together at Haworth.

In hammering out a written agreement between BBMI, Haworth and Kelly Services, the following points were made:

• Kelly would pay the rate normally offered to Haworth’s temp employees
• BBMI would pay the difference when the Haworth rate was lower than employees had earned at BBMI
• BBMI would sponsor the insurance benefits and 401(k) plans
• Kelly Services would cover workers’ compensation and unemployment
• BBMI agreed to give Haworth a 48-hour notice when recalling employees
• Haworth agreed not to solicit BBMI employees for permanent jobs.

BBMI shares the plan with its employees.
When all the details were settled, BBMI called a meeting to announce the temporary reduction in force and the options the employees had—including the Employee Loan Program. “I think the greatest satisfaction I had was when we made the announcement. At the same time that we announced we were going to need to cut back, we also talked about the provisions we’d made. I looked at those eyes and saw the fear leave immediately… as if people were thinking, ‘Wow! We’re realists, we see it—production is down. But, boy, the company sure thought of everything.'”

Workers chose whether or not to participate in the Employee Loan Program. BBMI simply provided the information to help them decide. Employees learned that not only would their compensation and benefits remain intact, but also they would retain their seniority accrual. They were told they would be invited back for a holiday luncheon and other special occasions. They also learned HR had created a special biweekly newsletter, with updates on current events, to help them continue to feel connected to BBMI while they were working at Haworth. And if they still felt apprehension, they were given the opportunity to visit Haworth for a tour and to meet the supervisor they would be working for. In the end, 31 people accepted the offer to transfer to Haworth, and the remaining 24 took the layoff.

These two privately held companies were able to move forward quickly. After six weeks of preparation the workers began to transfer over, staggered according to demand at the BBMI site. Since the duration of their employment at Haworth was uncertain, they were placed into assembly line positions with limited on-the-job instruction. At this stage Wallace played an active role in orienting the workers to Haworth and keeping everyone on both sides of the exchange informed of the status of the program. She also served as the main contact for BBMI when it came time to recall workers.

When March and April rolled around, all but three employees returned to BBMI. One was left behind at Haworth to pursue an outstanding career opportunity—with BBMI’s blessing. The other two accepted jobs at other companies. All parties involved deemed the 1994 exchange a positive experience, so BBMI, Haworth and Kelly agreed to try it again in 1995.

The 1995 program was nearly identical to the first one. This time, because BBMI had improved at adding new products and generating additional business, only 10 employees were transferred over. Also, BBMI agreed to accommodate Haworth with a longer recall time. “We said we would certainly live by a two-day notice, but that informally we would give them at least a week’s notice from when we wanted our people back,” Eade explains.

As for the future, Eade expects that as consumers develop brand loyalty for the alternative beverages, they will begin to look for the product regardless of the season, and the cycle will be broken. In the meantime, it can count on an invaluable relationship with the company next door.

So if the shoe were on the other foot, would Haworth consider sending employees over to BBMI? “Oh, absolutely, absolutely—to hang on to trained, qualified people…. It’s a win-win situation,” says Berrett. And how would BBMI feel about taking on some of Haworth’s folks? “Out of respect and admiration for their cooperation, I think I’d jump through hoops. We’d find something for them to do,” Eade says. Now that’s what being a good neighbor is all about.

The Dilemma:
Ted’s youngest child recently developed a health problem that requires a great deal of home care. Ted and his wife both work full-time jobs and they can’t afford to give up either of their incomes. So, Ted’s idea is to reduce his work-week to 30 hours. He’s willing to tele-commute a few additional hours, but is concerned that his workload, without adjustment, will swallow up 60 hours a week as usual. The challenge? Ted is a well-respected and well-liked supervisor of seven full-time employees. The trouble is you’re worried he may be setting a dangerous precedent. Telecommuting has been a popular option, but never job-sharing or working part time. Should you find a way to work with Ted and create a schedule you both can live with? Or should you let Ted know that his job requirements can’t change based on the demands of his personal life?

Readers Respond:
We would first hand Ted a copy of our FMLA form and notice with information on the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993. We would ask Ted if he felt that he would qualify under the criteria and if he could produce documentation from a physician regarding the serious health condition of his child. If Ted met the established criteria, we would have no problem approving a leave and arranging a reduced work schedule until he had utilized his prorated 12-week period as provided by the FMLA. We would then suggest reviewing the situation if necessary after the exhaustion of the FMLA leave.

Regarding the exemption for the highest paid 10% employees—our company policy is to extend the benefits of the FMLA to all employees.
Robin Bartanen, Benefits Manager
& Naomi Richards, Employee Rels. Rep., Marquette General Hospital Inc. in Marquette, Michigan

Ted’s request is not unreasonable. The organization should find a way to work with him and find a mutually satisfying solution. The Family & Medical Leave Act allows Ted to take up to 12 weeks of leave to attend to his child’s health problem, if he so desires. It would likely benefit the organization to accommodate Ted’s request for a modified work schedule, rather than lose him for 12 weeks. Ted and management need to discuss schedule options to determine the number of work days and their duration. The modified schedule should be temporary, not permanent. If Ted’s onsite supervision is not essential, telecommuting is one frequently used solution for cases in which the employee needs to be at home.

Ted’s job responsibilities, however, should not be reduced if a modified schedule and telecommuting are provided in response to his request. This would place an undue hardship on the organization and other employees—particularly other supervisors who have to pick up his share of the workload. If Ted wishes to go to part-time status in order to attain a modified schedule and reduce his workload, he must recognize the potential for change in his total compensation and benefits package—a reduction most employees do not want to make even without the addition of the family health problem that Ted is facing.
Martin B. Kormanik,
Senior Associate,
O.D. Systems Inc. in Alexandria, Virginia

I would first try to work with Ted and his wife for a low-impact solution, such as moving one of them to an alternative shift. If that could be done in our firm, it would be top priority.

Failing that, I would next explore whether both wage earners need their onsite time halved, in order to care for the son. If only Ted is seeking a 50% cut, I would encourage, and perhaps insist that they share the child-care impact equally.

The constraints on Ted’s onsite time come more from the character and complexity of his and his employees’ work, than from a concern about precedent setting. It may help to fit the 30 hours of onsite time into three days, also saving him two or more round-trip commutes weekly. With his long and successful supervision, one or more of his employees may be ready to take on some newly delegated tasks for self-development.

Ted could take 10 hours per week of FMLA leave for 48 weeks, and his wife could do the same. In several states, such as Washington, each also could use sick pay to care for a seriously ill child.

It seems possible that either of them might be at risk to lose pay or position if performance in their jobs were to suffer substantially over an extended period. Long term, they may need to consider and plan for lifestyle adjustments in consideration of the home-care and health-care costs of the child.

A program like Borg-Warner’s is a sizeable investment, so before you jump right in, there are several factors you should consider.

1. The cost per employee, per hour is likely to be greater with a consultant than with a community college-but the overall cost may swing either way depending on how many contact hours you’ll need with each program to achieve the same results.
2. When comparing programs, be sure to consider the quality and the approach of the instruction, as well as the student-teacher ratio.
3. Your first group to go through a new training program is likely to be more costly than those following it because there’ll be some one-time setup fees. You also may be able to negotiate better rates for successive groups.
4. The most expensive element actually isn’t the cost of the program—but the lost productivity: the time your employees are away from their jobs and their overtime pay. These costs depend on how much your employees are paid and how much you expect them to produce in a given hour. If the pay rate is $10 per hour and employees are making $40 per hour in product, you’re losing an average of $50 per employee per hour of training.
5. You can expect consulting services to run approximately $15 to $20 per employee, per hour-on top of the $50 per employee, per hour above.
6. Ask for arrangements that tie performance to cost. For example, EdWel & Co.’s performance clauses guarantee that predetermined goals will be met before the client pays the full fee.

The Dilemma:
You are the HR director for a high-end department store in Los Angeles. Your current focus is to hire an assistant buyer. This person will be in frequent communication with offices of designers in Europe and New York and will assist the sportswear buyer in determining trends and choosing merchandise. Marie is your top candidate by far, but you have reservations. In her favor, she has a degree in fashion design, speaks some French and Italian and has worked for two of Beverly Hills’ trendiest boutiques. But on the flip side, she grew up in a tough neighborhood and although well-dressed, you’ve noticed a few small tattoos on one hand—a possible sign of gang membership.

Your in-house recruiters have given her the thumbs-up after a standard background check. Should you accept Marie’s embarrassed explanation that the markings are from a time long ago when belonging to the neighborhood gang seemed like her only choice? Or should you give in to your fears and continue searching for someone else?

Readers Respond:
Not providing Marie with this new op-portunity because she “grew up in a tough neighborhood” and has “a few small tattoos on one hand” is ridiculous. Marie apparently has a good work record, passed the background check, admitted her past (I repeat, past) gang affiliations and is obviously qualified for the job. So what’s the problem?

Are we, as HR managers, never to forgive and forget—even after an employee has distinguished herself on the job? In this scenario, it appears that Marie’s past gang membership occurred before she joined this company. So, we should hold that against her? Is Marie being accused of doing anything wrong?

Most of her work is going to be by phone, although the occasional meeting is sure to come up. So the argument that these small tattoos are unsightly and, therefore, can negatively affect her professional appearance is null and void.

This dilemma isn’t a dilemma at all.
Mark J. O’Brien
Human Resources Manager
Remediation Technologies Inc.
Concord, Massachusetts

I found the dilemma in the February 1996 issue of Personnel Journal very interesting because I was faced with a similar situation while with another employer several years ago. We resolved the problem by asking the prospective employee whether he would be interested in either removing the tattoo or having another tattoo drawn on top of the gang tattoo at his expense to get the position. He thought the removal would be too costly, so he opted to have another tattoo drawn on top of the gang sign. The result was a tattoo of a flower that looked very benign and ordinary and carried no gang message. As far as I know there has been no problem with the employee since he was hired.
Michael Salkowski
Director of Personnel/Admin. Svcs
School District of South Milwaukee
South Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Having been in retail for 20 years before starting my own company, I have very mixed feelings on the issue you present to us. In the retail corporate world, re-cruiters are put under undue stress when it comes to filling open jobs due to the high turnover rate in the industry. So it doesn’t surprise me to see that the corporate re-cruiters gave this young lady the thumbs up. They probably would have given the thumbs up to someone a lot less qualified for this position if the references came in good. In the retail world, you don’t have to be an expert in the job function, and in the case of an assistant buyer (or in the industry, they call them gofers) all you need is to be able to work an exorbitant number of hours to get the job done. But to answer your question, the HR manager does have a couple of options. First: Do a more thorough investigative background check to ensure that this applicant did not, in fact, have any gang-related activity in her past, or anything else out of the ordinary.

Second: Give the applicant a pre-em-ployment test to measure certain personality traits that might show signs of dishonesty. And finally, what I recommend all my clients do in making the final offer is arrange a 90-day probationary period, with monthly reviews. This ensures the candidate is going to put his or her best foot forward for you, and it gives you an opportunity to terminate the employee if she doesn’t live up to the standards you expect. Just be sure that if you want to terminate this employee, you do so within the 90-day period. So, to answer your question: Yes, I would hire the applicant because the reality in the retail industry is that if you don’t hire her, your competition will. And in this case, with this applicant’s background, they probably would.
Michael Ferraro
Human Resource Consultant
Training Solutions
Chantilly, Virginia

A review of the information at hand re-veals the following:

1. Marie is by far the top candidate
2. Marie has a degree in fashion design
3. She speaks some French and Italian
4. She has job experience and performance success in two of Beverly Hills’ trendiest boutiques.

The fact that she grew up in a tough neighborhood seems to have little to do with her current job and job performance. Many individuals—in fact, perhaps some reading this column—may have had various obstacles or failures in their past. We should be more interested in the current performance and potential of all contributors than in some veiled or assumed problems in their childhood.

The small tattoos on one hand may perhaps be a sign of previous gang affiliation, but by themselves they’re no clear indication of continuing gang contact. These tattoos may be a sad but continuing reminder to Marie of the past she left long ago. If there’s concern about how other employees and designers will view Marie when they notice the tattoos, perhaps waterproof makeup, jewelry or even removal are options. I think Marie should be hired based on her abilities and not penalized for the possible mistakes of her past.
Susan Kubiak
Manager Human Resources
Mallinckrodt Medical Imaging
Angleton, Texas

I would accept Marie’s explanation regarding the tattoos. However, I would question that “standard background check.” Find out just how thorough the check was before you make a hiring decision. You even may want to talk with Marie’s former employers yourself, as well as the school where she received her fashion design degree. Additionally, I would let Marie know that your company does a thorough background check on all job applicants and evaluate her reaction. Then if everything checks out, I would not hesitate to offer her the job.
Henry J. Mengay
Human Resources Manager
WNED-TV
Buffalo, New York

The Dilemma:
Your company went through its second round of layoffs six months ago—dismissing 245 employees, or 6% of your work-force. As expected, you’ve started to notice a change in morale. Employees seem disinterested in the company’s 50th anniversary celebration, there has been an increase in sick days and enthusiasm about next month’s new product release has dropped off considerably.

You’ve kept up to date on this topic, and you recognize the symptoms: Your company has a bad case of survivor syndrome. You’ve come up with some ideas about a few programs you’d like to implement, but you know you’ll face a great deal of resistance from senior management. After all, the downsizing was intended to save money, not generate expenses. With all the effort being put into getting back up to speed, should you “bother” senior management with your ideas, or just encourage employees to seek help outside on their own?

Readers Respond:
You should bother senior management with your ideas. Ideally, a plan to deal with survivor syndrome should have been part of the downsizing program. Since the HR person in this situation expected the change in morale, it would have been wise to plan a little preventive medicine and follow-up care. Now that the problems must be dealt with after the fact, it will cause even lower morale if employees are expected to look outside the organization for support. If the organization believes in the benefits of strong morale, it must see the value of letting the employees know it cares and understands how they’re feeling.

There are many inexpensive ways to do this and research shows a lot of goodwill can be gained by a little effort. Even something as inexpensive and simple as lunch-time meetings to discuss the issues would make a significant difference. Often you’ll be able to find experts in these areas who will do a session in-house inexpensively. Or you may have people on your own staff who can do an excellent job of this. Even having relevant videos or books available for department managers to include in their regular staff meetings will be helpful. Getting the support of managers to incorporate simple inexpensive programs is crucial.
Karin Wills
Employee Relations Coordinator
Nordion International Inc.
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

I would not hesitate to bother senior management with my ideas on how to help our employees cope with the very difficult situation they have now been placed in. Any assistance we could offer subsequent to the hits that are going on around them would have to be better than the rampant rumor and innuendo that now permeates the water cooler discussions.

It’s far better to have open and frank dialogue with the remaining staff about the state of the business than to have them operate in the dark, not knowing what each new day will bring. An informed staff is a prepared staff.

In today’s society change is inevitable. As HR professionals we must be prepared to deal with the questions as they’re asked and, if needed, be able to refer employees to qualified professionals, such as the organization’s employee assistance program.
Horace C. Boyington
Employee Relations Officer
Detroit Water and Sewerage Dept.
Detroit, Michigan

The problem must be addressed in some fashion or it’ll take more time and effort to address it later when it’s inevitable. If it’s recognized that bringing the problem to senior management would be a challenge, then be prepared with a good plan. There must be a focus on the debilitating impact on the health of the company. Tie it back to the significant drivers for your company: If immediate bottom-line results are critical, then sell it on a dollar savings comparison. You need to capture the attention of senior managers with something that’s important to them. The value and cost of the morale issue would be factored into the plan. And be prepared with a back-up plan. Keep it short, keep it simple and do your homework. A good cost comparison is the expense for absent time and potential medical expenses as a result of stress. And don’t whine! Speak with confidence and authority.
Robin Noah
VP HRD
Crest Financial Corp.
Cerritos, California

Yes, by all means, bother senior management! If they don’t listen, at least later you can say, “I told you so.”
Ronald J. Cori
Vice President of Human Resources
Healthcare Mgmt. Alternatives Inc.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The decision to downsize is a last resort taken to protect the viability of the organization and its ability to provide products or services while maintaining employment for the remaining staff. After a layoff is the time to show commitment to employees.

We have significant evidence to demonstrate that survivors are under great stress. From other’s experiences and our own, we know that survivors worry about the impact of change, the loss of friends, the disruption of routine and loss of a sense of control. After the traumatic event of the layoff, senior management and all leaders need to demonstrate that the employees are valued members of the ongoing organization. This demonstration can’t be talked, it must be walked. After the downsizing is the time to implement broad-based assistance programs designed to rebuild the loyalty and sense of community damaged by the layoff. Without this type of proactive support, I would expect to see an erosion of morale and company support.
Robert Foldesi
Assistant VP Human Resources
Illinois State University
Normal, Illinois

How Would You Respond to This Dilemma?
You’re the director of HR for a company with 75 employees. So, naturally, Ted came to you to seek help with a work-life issue. Ted’s youngest child recently developed a serious health problem that requires a great deal of home care. Ted and his wife both work full-time jobs and they can’t afford to give up either of their incomes. So, Ted’s idea is to reduce his workweek to 30 hours. He’s willing to telecommute a few additional hours, but is concerned that his workload, without adjustment, will swallow up 60 hours a week as usual.

The challenge? Ted is a supervisor of seven full-time employees. He’s extremely well-respected and well-liked by his co-workers, which has led to a successful six-year career in management with your company. The trouble is you’re worried he may be setting a dangerous precedent. Telecommuting has been a popular option, but never job-sharing or working part-time. Should you find a way to work with Ted and create a schedule you can both live with? Or should you let Ted know that his job requirements can’t change based on the demands of his personal life?