An Economic or industry recession or a business crisis is tough on the Human Resource function as they front the toughest decisions. But it can also be an opportunity to revitalise HR and pivot it to a genuine business partner.
But usually HR waits passively for business to show the way. Posts and articles that imply HR will be the centre of attention- are a polite way of saying – that HR will be the Janitor for clearing the mess that is about to happen
And as always a proper and analysis and strategic direction demands that we ask the right questions first.
This structured questionnaire can be used by HR leaders assess and define their reality; it also helps in shaking off “deer stuck in the headlights” inertia and move into an action mode .
Questions to CFO and CEO - How do we Stretch the runway
- Reality Check – Worst case scenario to the most positive outlook
- Which business lines/ products will be hit the hardest?
- If we continue with the same cost structure and revenue trend as projected- what time frame do we have – to stay afloat or start taking cost cutting decisions including people?
- If we remove the “dogs” from our product/service portfolio and the associated costs including people – how much does the timeline/ runway increase to ? ( Dog – reference- BCG Strategy Matrix)
- Using the same analogy like 3- what are the product / service lines which are star/ question marks that we need to focus on and maybe utilise excess manpower for ?
- Now that we know we can work from home – if we give up 50% of the facilities ( especially true for IT, Product and KPO’s) – and have staggered time into work- and 50% working from home- how much do we extend the runway ?
- If People cost have to be reduced – then run the following scenarios
- Can we reduce days to work from 5 to 4 and take a salary cut , rather than letting people go ?
- How much people costs do you want to reduce ?
- What time frame do I have to reduce those costs?
- If we decide to do Salary Cuts- What are the ideal permutations and how much buffer do they give us
- Do we have differentiated salary decrease at CXO to CXO-2 level ?
- Rest of the firm- do we need to make salary decisions now or later ( cue question) and if yes- how much ?
- Do we make it democratic at senior management by asking people – or give flat a percentage announcement ?
Questions to Business Unit Head and HRBP
- What is your P&L- 3 months, 6 months and 1 year ?
- How do you think your product/service line will be impacted by the downturn?
- Do you want to give up a product/service line ?
- Is there a product/service line you want to focus on next 6 months?
- How do we redeploy resources in your BU so that the best are aligned to the best opportunities ?
- Who are or will be your major customers in the next 6 months- who are the people in your team aligned to them ?
- Who are the people you cannot do without ?
- What are the roles you cannot do without?
- What roles can we permanently change to a WFH model?
- Are their roles we can split and they can be done by 2 people – as part time partners?
- What are the new roles or replacement hiring you cannot do without?
- There will be talent available in the market as some companies shed and some close down – what would be the 5 roles I can get now for you which will be an investment in the business?
- How do we retain the best talent in your business unit ? / Are their folks in your BU who are competition/ poaching targets – how do we retain them ?
- Do you have a competitor who is in trouble- is their talent we can poach from them ?
- Do you have a client / service provider in trouble – is their talent we can get from them – after informing them ?
- If you and your team have capacity & time
- Apart from the usual – What training / development need should we be addressing for you and your team ?
- Would you like to volunteer as a trainer and mentor ?
- Would you like to represent our firm at campus- guest lectures or hiring ?
- Who in your team would be a great trainer for technical and for soft skills ?
- Who are the best technical trainers in your team- do they have time/ capacity to take organisation wide workshops.
Questions to Recruitment Team
- Identify the 5 critical roles that we need to hire – we have a golden opportunity to improve quality in this market- how do we access it ?
- Can we focus on improving diversity – as the market is going to get a lot of options?
- Since everyone knows someone losing a job- can we focus on referrals aggressively?
- Since we are hiring below recruitment team capacity – can we do a succession planning exercise till the first level manager level? Do you think it will cause unnecessary panic ?
- Can we get day x, instead of the usual day Z on campus ?
- What can we do to improve Campus relations ?
- If we are reducing our campus hiring – how do we decide where to go and where not to ?
- What are we using the capacity and time we have for
- Better selection tools and process ?
- Employer Branding improvement ?
- Recruitment process ?
- Reducing time to hire ?
- What are the 5 recruitment and selection dashboards we always wanted but never had the time to implement ?
- What are the improvements we need to do in our application tracking system ?
- What are the HR tech / solutions we wanted – can we negotiate better prices for them ?
- Can we negotiate better terms for tech licensing ?/ cloud solutions that we already have?
- if we have to give up a solution- which one and at what cost to efficiency/ effectiveness
- If we have to let go of certain people/ skill sets- which organizations are hiring for that skill – can we approach them to do a “campus hiring’ with us ?
- 15. Are there any consultants which can help us with outplacement ?
Questions to Training & Development & HRBP
- Can we gamify Cost Cutting suggestions ?
- Can we re-skill / up-skill to focus on product/services which are our cash cows. And do we have the budget to do the same.
- Can available time due to low demand be invested in training & development – do we have the budget ? Or do we just give time off .
- If we have excess capacity in tech- can we use it give them a wish-list of HR solutions we wanted
- What are the wellness issues we can have and how to mitigate them ? Do we do a counsellor on call ?
- What are the tools which help productivity that we can deploy
- How do we train team members to manage remote teams ?
- How do we scale remote training & development initiatives
- If we have excess capacity / time – can we have internal trainers taking sessions and is there an existing or new solution that we can use ?
- Women associates might have to bear a disproportionate burden of working from home ?- How do we assist them ?
- How do we institutionalise company culture in a stressed environment
- If we have to let go people- how can we do it with grace ?
- How do we work on wellness and reduce burnout
To take care of your organisation You first need to take care of yourself
A word of caution for HR folks – this period is going to be traumatic – self care should be the top of your priorities . Talk to peers, family, therapists , counsellor , me ! Take care
Omar Farooq is the Founder of AceProHR.
We help you win the war on talent