Lesson learnt from economic slowdown

Lesson learnt from economic slowdownThe world had not expected one of the worst recessions during these times when the market was booming. India, though not extremely affected, was also wounded with the sudden economic slowdown. Before the recession had hit, companies were giving bonuses and salary hikes to all employees, hiring was on a roll and cost cutting was not even thought of. The economy has now resolved to a certain extent but has there been any learning from this havoc?

“Key learning from the recession has been to have clear communication with all your employees and not pay heed to any rumours. During recession most employees had a lot of free time in hand which was utilised in internal training of employees and development of various skills in employees. That has been a positive change as many employees have utilised this time to strengthen their processes. It has also made the organization realise the use of internal trainers to train a group of employees and less dependency on external trainers. This has been the case with recruitments also. There has been an increase in the use of employee referral programmes and reduce dependency on external agencies”, says a HR executive of a finance company.

“The key learning for me as well as my organization has been cost control in various areas. The recession has made the organization realise to improve efficiency of the working professionals and to bring an improvement in the various processes. Since I am a marketing professional I have to travel a lot. But I have reduced it to a large extent and make the fullest use of technology available at hand. The only disadvantage was that the organization has reduced perks and postponed employee benefits”, says the Vice President of an organization.

During good times, organizations do not pay heed to costs. They want the best and they hire the best of recruiters, trainers and even the best of facilities. But during difficult times, they realize the impact of a slowdown and then start cutting on wastes. It should not be done abruptly but should be communicated well to all employees so that they understand the need to do so.

Lay off’s have also made most of the organizations realise that recruitment should be done on need basis only and not just to increase your work force.

Not only from the organizations point of view, there has been learning from the individual employee’s point of view too. “It was the best time for our organization to develop a new HR software for all its employees. We got full support for software testing’s and learned quite a lot in the process”, says a HR professional. “I was given an opportunity to carry out internal training programmes for employees from various departments. This not only increased my confidence but also boosted my motivation to take more of them”, says a training professional. The time is right to show your capabilities and value towards your organization. It is a great opportunity to identify new areas in your organization where one can provide their valuable contribution.

 

- Ekta Bhatnagar (views expressed in the article are that of the author)

 

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