Manpower planning during a recession

During the recent reccession that is so publicly discussed on news websites, radio and in pubs up and down the land there has been a decline in turnover of staff in most companies. This has meant that the manpower planning undertaken could lead to a higher provision for recruitment and training costs than previously planned. There are both advantage and disadvantages to this for many companies:

Advantages
- Lower turnover means quality of output should improve as more experienced staff are in situ
- A reduction in time gap between leaver and joiner with any checks and training required
- Reduction in complaints when client has to deal with a different employee each time.

Disadvantages
- If there is a headcount reduction required this means that redundancy may need to be considered
- Cost of employees that have been with the company will be higher than new entrants meaning overall wage bill may offset any savings on recruitment process

Unforseen Disadvantages
- If employees are forced to stay due to poor local job market they may infect the rest of your team with negativity. This drives down engagement of the staff and can harm productivity
- More time may be spent dealing with absence and disciplinary issues with staff that do not want to be in the job anymore but have no option.
- Talent pools can stagnate with no fresh new ideas and enthusiasm coming in from external environments sharing best practices

Potential solutions:
- Invest time in engagement, staff get togethers and social activities.
- Have team building days which foster a feeling of teamwork, collaboration and creative thinking.
- Provide an open forum to address any employee concerns and address issues before they escalate.
- Look out for the signs of poor engagement and negativity and stop them before they affect other staff.

Unfortunately during difficult economic times the first thing to be cut back on is staff engagement and team building which often leads to an ever downward spiral until the economy recovers and jobs begin to move freely again.

Written by
Steven Hill