If You Get Lean, Get Fit

03/05/07

Adrian Savage has seen recessions—and the downsizing and cutbacks that ride along with them—come and go over the years. An authority on organizational development and head of New Jersey-based PNA, Inc., Savage points out that “Layoffs are expensive and disruptive, and they rarely produce the savings that have been promised. Instead, they often produce huge amounts of confusion.”

That confusion results in mistakes, more work hired out, lost customers—and dashed hopes that layoffs will save money.

Get Fit
Why all the confusion? Executives who order layoffs don’t often stop to think about how the remaining employees will do all the work. Says Savage: “Simply becoming leaner doesn’t make you fitter. It just makes you thin.” That’s why you need to get fit as you trim staff.

Getting fitter is a two-part process, according to Savage. First you uncover the things that aren’t working, aren’t productive, or that block progress. Then you stop doing them.

The second, more important task is to ask what will make people more productive so they can handle extra work. That usually means helping them grow and develop. You look at the individuals who will survive the cutback and ask: What are their strengths? “A majority of the people in a company have strengths that are not being put to use,” Savage believes.

You should also make it a point to find out what employees’ value. “Values,” Savage maintains, “are the main source of motivation.” When you tie what a person values to the job he or she does, “it makes work more interesting, more exciting. If we do something we value, it doesn’t feel like work. And they’ll not only go the extra mile for you, but an extra two or three miles.

Keep on Training
Key to maintaining and improving productivity is to keep the training budget intact. Cutting training in a downsizing is, according to Savage, “absolutely crazy. You have fewer resources to maintain the current business. Plus you must depend on the people left to grow for the future. Cutting training at such a time is so backward it boggles the mind.

Be Proactive
If your company is planning to lay people off, ask top managers whether they have a strategic plan for how to handle the same amount of work with fewer people. If not, be proactive.

“You can be proactive without being critical,” says Savage. “Ask, ‘Have you thought about how we are going to deal with cuts, how all the work is going to get done?’” Prepare for a blank stare by having some ideas of your own: “We’ve taken a look at what the outcome of the layoffs will be, and we see problems in areas X, Y, and Z.”

“If you think through the whole process beforehand,” states Savage, “you’ll be much better informed and armed by that exploration. You can make a compelling case for what needs to be done—not only to survive the cutbacks, but to build on the future. And that,” he concludes, “justifies HR’s existence.”

Note: Healing the Wounds, a book by David M. Noer, is a great help for organizations experiencing downsizing.