Recession… it’s like a pall of gloom that is cast over everyone now a days. People are constantly lamenting the lack of business and living in fear of losing their jobs. But hey the sky is not falling yet and there are still tons and tons of jobs that need to be done. Ok, we don’t have too many new ones opening up, but many of the old ones are still there and millions of companies are still in business. So there is really no need to panic and worry yourself insane about losing your job!

Recession is just like a season. It comes every few decades and then it’s gone…. Sales go up, jobs open up and everyone has lots of money.  It’s really only temporary.  So don’t worry! And I’m here… (J) to offer some HR Gyan that I keep giving to the people who want a little reassurance and advice in these tough times.

So here are some tips on how not to let the recession bug bite you and how you can reduce the odds of you being the next one out!

·        Give more than you take - You probably try to do the best you can in your work anyways, but it would be a good idea to ask yourself at the start of each day what you can do better today. In these tough times you have to come off as being more than useful and take on more without being asked! You cannot just do your job and feel that you’ve done your bit. Companies are now looking to maximize returns from every penny they spend. So your output and value to the company should be many times more than the money you take home.

You need to ensure you are performing at levels that are not just expected, but beyond. More is the mantra and you will need to identify which of your unique skills you can leverage to ensure that you bring more to the table. In general, one needs to be a doer, show initiative, innovate, show responsibility, influence others, exhibit the ability to grow and adapt and demonstrate that one understands and impacts the big picture.

·        Get some positive face time with your Manager’s Boss (or even higher up!) – If you’re one or two spots removed from the top decision makers, then you don’t need to read this. I probably don’t have any gyan to impart to you since you are already so high up in your organization. But if you’re way down the ladder and wondering if anyone up there knows about you, then read on.

Today it’s not enough to only be a performer… it’s extremely important to also be seen as one. Ok, so you’ve got your appraisal rating to prove it, but when the axe needs to fall, only performance on paper is not looked at. It’s very important to be perceived as a good performer and that too not only by your boss.

If you have a great equation with your boss that’s great! But if he moves or gets axed, will higher ups know about your good work? It’s always a good thing to also get some positive face time with your boss’s boss or even higher up if that’s possible. Show initiative, try and pick up some assignments that get you some cross functional exposure, give presentations, take knowledge sharing sessions, start a new learning trend in your team, research and share industry/ other relevant info on mails to all… in short, do something useful to be noticed by others in the system.

·        Improve skills and add some weight to your resume – Like I said earlier, it’s not good enough to be just good enough. So you need to constantly up your game and show that you have the inherent ability to continuously learn and develop. Undergo some training, take on some e-learning courses, get certifications, get a degree or anything else that works for your resume. Getting the added skills and knowledge will hopefully not only help you do your job better, it will definitely help you be seen a someone who can learn, adapt and be ready for the challenges of tomorrow and therefore less likely to get the axe today.

·        Have a backup plan – You can do all of the above and more and yet it’s quite possible that your job might be axed. So if it’s going happen after all, it’s going to happen.  Don’t take it personally. And don’t worry about impending doom.

You should know in most cases, people are retrenched because there is a lack of business, not because they have not performed. So don’t take it personally. You have skills and experience and jobs are definitely going to come back. See if you can come up with a plan to take care of yourself in the in between times. 

If not your job, what else can you look at doing? Look inside yourself and identify unfulfilled passions. There would definitely be areas/ skills you have not explored. See if you can leverage any of them for alternate off the track careers. It’s better to have a plan (however vague) than no plan at all. 

The challenge then is not really doing these studies, but going beyond the results and actioning on them. Without the required action implementation the relevance of such studies die. Then they are only seen as numbers to be looked upon once a year and for the mgt and HR to include in their annual reports. 

How does one then ensure these studies are effective in their action and kept alive during the year? Here are some ideas that I feel could help organizations.   

1)      Ensure action implementation is a top recall item for all teams. In most Organsiation, there is a general lull that settles in after the first flurry of activity when results are declared. The challenge is to ensure that action implementation and reviews happen in a cyclic manner throughout the year.  Having a process that ensures managers need to look at Team scores and engagement issues once a quarter can help. We have designed a process wherein Managers/Team Leaders get rated on the Engagement Action plans and the status of their implementation atleast once a quarter. This kind of a focus will ensure action of scores is a top recall item for all employees.

2)      Creating a live reference point for action as and when needed.  A huge challenge that one usually faces is that scores for studies are generated usually once a year. When managers are asked to keep going back to that score and identify plans they usually come back with feedback that old scores are usually not a good reference point. To counter this, one can make a simple tool that will enable managers to do a dip stick check on engagement levels of their team as and when they want, as often as they want. We have made a local poll tool which enables managers to activate it, send it to his/her team members, get their feedback on key parameters of engagement and generate an anonymous report all on his own. This allows for a manager to have a live reference point for action as and when he needs. He can action plan based on the feedback, implement plans and then do a dip stick again to see how his efforts are translating into positive movement in engagement levels. It is a great way to keep the momentum up through the year. It keeps up their enthusiasm and Managers tend to keep doing something if they can see some tangible numbers showing the effect of their efforts. Our teams have found this to be an extremely useful tool.

3)       Need to create activity and focus around Engagement throughout the year: It is very important for employees and Managers to see that the Organsiation is also making effort throughout the year to ensure improved engagement scores. Giving Organizational action updates, sharing best practices from teams who are doing well, sharing engagement related literature, having awards around team engagement and best managers are some ways we can keep the focus on this activity throughout the year

This kind of setup allows for the control of the body of knowledge and practices because of which people have a common expectation of the outcomes of the occupation.

As an HR professional, I often wonder about the way HR is viewed by other professionals and their varied expectations from HR. People expect HR to do a variety of things, which may or may not be the core requirement or outcome of HR practitioners. From admin issues of transport, Ac/s, Canteens to complex issues of retention, leadership development, HR is expected to resolve/support employees and the management end to end.

Though none of the work we do as HR is less/menial in any way, the essence/brand of HR does get diluted in the myriad ways in which people expect HR to contribute. While overall employee engagement and retention are key outcomes for HR practitioners, at what level they need to act and contribute is very vague. For example, even resolving someone’s issue with their A/c can be clubbed under an umbrella of employee engagement!

There are multiple networks and HR groups/associations that are there today. They are helpful and do serve the purpose of knowledge sharing and networking across the industry. But none of these are viewed as an authority in the area of defining the content and context of the occupation.  

Having a recognized authority that identifies and determines the outcomes of HR practitioners can not only help build clarity in the industry, it will help HR folks focus on the things that are important. As a central authority it could help build/certify content for the occupation, have common level of competence expectation from the practitioners and create clarity on the outcomes. Only when we are seen as making a difference, will we get viewed as the business partners we all aim to be.

We know the direct manager for an individual is key towards engaging and retaining him/her. And of course one of the key elements of engagement is supporting the individual to grow and develop. In an environment where teams are put together for specific purposes, the manager can only control opportunities/movements, growth plans within his/her project. Once the individual is released to another team, the new manager become responsible for the development of the employee. In such a scenario, who looks at the overall opportunities that the individual is getting and ensuring objectives of the development plan of the individual are met? Is it HR? It is the resource leverage/deployment group? How can these groups actually ensure developmental goals of individuals are met?

One of the solutions I have heard of (though never seen in action) are the presence of what we can people development officers. All employees are assigned to one people development officer and he /she ensures holistic development and facilitates the career of the individual in the company. But how realistic is this model? No company can really afford to have officers doing only this as a primary job. The existing executive structure would need to pitch in for this role. Is it possible to ensure success of such a program when everyone would have their own primary responsibilities to execute? Some thing as long term and intangible as development would most probably get relegated to low priority items.

How do we then deal with this challenge?