2009 – The Most Challenging HR Year in a Long Time

It’s all over TV. It’s on the front page of the daily news. Every news and weather break on the radio drives the point home: Layoffs and cutbacks are rampant. Hard times are here, a recession driven slow down is happening and staff reductions are unavoidable.

With all the uncertainties, the most important question to every worker is....will I be on the cutback list?  For every owner/operator, the question is…will my business make it through to better times? From each individual perspective, we are all concerned.

For my part, I’ve seen it all before. I've lived through and survived several of these scenarios and base my comments on those experiences. In hard times, in 1982 and again during the 1987 recession, I survived; I kept my job. How did I make the "stay" list? Luck? Nope. I was fortunate enough to score some important points; I had what my company wanted, what they needed to keep growing. Do you?

If you have the guts to look at yourself honestly, not just at your self-image but the way others, especially superiors, see you, you should be able to anticipate what's coming.

First, let’s focus on the front line worker's perspective:

Understand, companies cut from the bottom to the top. Managers with the power to cut, never cut themselves. Makes sense, right? Managers in the middle of your organization will be asked to force rank their teams, top to bottom. If you fall in the lower half, start your job search now! Seniority won’t save you, not in times like these.
 
Forced rankings place a net value on each employee. The idea is to measure anything and everything you can do for your employer during this difficult period. The more you can deliver, the higher your ranking.

To approximate your chances of surviving the next cut, take an honest, analytical look at yourself. Look not only at what you see but what others see in you. Focus on these areas of your performance:

• Can I be relied on to meet expectations 100% of the time, regardless of challenges?
• Do I complain about unusual assignments and the occasional request to do something extra...above and beyond my job description?
• How broad based and flexible am I? How many positions can I fill on at least a temporary basis?
• Am I a seen by others as positive, a team player who is always part of the solution vs. the problem?
• Do my senior managers like being around me? Do they voluntarily converse with me, making direct eye contact? Or, am I avoided?
• Am I a valuable multi-tasker?
• Do I have the potential to grow and develop as the current business climate brightens and the company regains its ability to grow?
• Finally, and you can't underestimate the gravity of this one....what is the state of office and company politics? Who has been sucking up to whom? To whom are favors owed. How secure is your boss and what will he/she do to solidify his or her position. Will you become a "sacrificial lamb"?

Answer those questions and you'll have a reasonably accurate picture of whether or not to you are on the hit list. Good luck!

Now, what about mid-level managers? If this is you, don't think for a moment you are above it all. The first thing top managers do in times of impending crisis, is to line up the "sacrificial lambs." I've even seen top people promote these "lambs" so that when the day comes, they will have someone on whom to place blame, shielding themselves. That's just the way it is...survival of the fittest isn't just a silly theory, it's life.

So, managers in the middle, look at the above list of perceived values and evaluate yourself. Are you really vital to the success of your struggling organization? Or, are you an overpaid, fast-talker who has spent the last two or three years telling yourself how great you are? Look at the hard, measurable results of your efforts. Can you justify your position? If you were looking down the org chart at yourself, what would your judgment be?

Since you are nearer the top of the organization, you have more exposure to senior managers. Evaluate your relationships. How are you viewed from above:

• Are you consulted before decisions are made?
• Are you included in important meetings or sent a meeting summary?
• In meetings, are you and your topics consistently at the bottom of the agenda?
• When extra staff was last added, was it in your department or elsewhere?
• How did your department budget fare last time around?

Do you get the message? If you don't feel the company places top value on your function, and this can be proven by answering the questions above, now it the time to polish up the resume and start networking, something you should have been doing all along.

And, to you, my mid-level friends, an extra measure of luck…you'll need it!

Bill Hooopes is the owner of Grass Roots Training/Consulting in Delaware, Ohio.
He can be reached by e-mail at hoopes@columbus.rr.com or at www.trainandkeeppeople.com.