Make the right personnel decisions now to survive after the crisis
The pandemic is forcing companies to make tough personnel decisions. But layoffs should always be the last resort. Because those who act with foresight now can profit after the crisis.
The current crisis will most likely lead to an economic downturn. But after the downturn, there will be growth again - that's as sure as eggs in the basket. That is why leaders should not only try to survive the crisis, but should already now put themselves in a position from which they can rise again to prosper. Personnel decisions are also important. And the right ones are often not the obvious ones. Your personnel decisions can fall into four categories:
1. Reskilling / further training
Your first step should be to consider which parts of the company were stopped by the crisis. Now would be a good opportunity to retrain, train or transfer the affected employees to a new position.
Develop a strategy that promotes the critical digital and cognitive skills of employees, their social skills and their adaptability and resilience. Also consider which skills are important for the future of the company. Identify the key value drivers and employee groups within your organization.
Specify the contributions of these roles to value creation and imagine how their day-to-day work will be changed by the value shifts caused by the crisis. Identify what shifts in activities, behaviour and skills are required.
Begin to build employee skills that are critical to your new business model and will add significant value. Focus your investment in digital, cognitive and social skills, as well as overall adaptability and resilience. Skills development in these areas is likely to be largely digital and self-taught.
2. Commitment
To survive the crisis, it is important that your employees feel part of the company. Ensure clear, consistent communication. Ask more often about the well-being of your employees. This kind of communication should be for exchange and definitely not for micromanagement.
Encourage your managers to continuously feel the pulse of your employees. Don't leave this important task to the personnel manager or delegate it otherwise. Of course, this requires managers to have a certain social competence.
As a managing director or divisional manager, report to your management team twice a week to get a feel for how the employees are doing, their motivation and commitment. Address any problems that have escalated to you.
3. Dismissal
Dismissals are hard and emotionally stressful, but they are part of the duties of a manager. If layoffs are needed to protect the balance sheet or simply to stay in business, you should make sure that they are well planned and dignified.
Consider which part of your business you want to hire, pause or slow down. Evaluate by area, market or customer segment - and by current demand.
If you need to make redundancies, do so in a timely manner. You must be able to reassure your remaining employees that their jobs are secure in the medium term. Several rounds of layoffs are painful and demoralizing. This is a terrible time to let workers go. So if this step needs to be taken, be as humane and generous as possible.
You cannot always protect jobs, but you can protect people. After all, they are your most important strategic asset. Consider layoffs as the last resort. Think about all the alternative possibilities beforehand, e.g. a change of use or taking out a loan.
4. Competence building
During the current crisis, most of us have been severely affected in our working and social lives. The world is collectively trying to understand what happens next. The fact is that due to the disruption caused by Covid-19, we have already experienced more digital changes in the last two months than in the last 20 years.
The crisis will significantly accelerate the transition to digital and fundamentally change the business landscape. Even before the crisis, companies had to change their business models in the face of digitization. And now the pandemic has shown how vulnerable organizations really are. For many companies, the only option is to accelerate their digital transformation.
But while almost all industries are impacted by digital technologies, most companies are not sufficiently prepared for digital change. They lack the digital skills. Build them now and turn the crisis into an opportunity!
