COVID-19: What to consider before downsizing

The novel Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought in its wake dire fiscal and financial, legal and social implications for nations, business organisations, employers and workers.

With business operations being shut down across the world, or in some cases hampered by governmental restrictions, stakeholders are compelled to fashion out innovative ways to stay afloat.

One of the considerations by employers and business owners is downsizing their workforce to meet the exigencies of the time.

Downsizing decisions are normally unpleasant and complex.

They carry far-reaching consequences for both employers and workers, as well as their beneficiaries, as it affects the triple bottom line.

Laying a worker off is a bread and butter issue. For the employer, it is a means to survival, which is business continuity.

To that effect, there is the need to strike a fair balance which will leave both parties not dissatisfied at the end of the day.

Factors

So what factors can the employer consider in downsizing as it responds to the threats of COVID-19?

A friend and colleague practitioner called me to seek my professional advice on how to go about her company’s intended layoffs in response to COVID-19.

She revealed that the two criteria her organisation wanted to use to downsize would be attitude and hard work. She explained them to mean, only workers who had demonstrated the right attitude to work and those who were proven hard workers would not be affected.

According to her, she had a funny feeling the two criteria might not be enough. I told her to maintain her two criteria and add my two; Results and Respect for Ethics and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

I broke my points down with the following explanations.

Attitude

With the right attitude, a worker will embrace, champion/own and support change.

With the right attitude, a worker will accept tasks and work hard to achieve results—provided the requisite skills, knowledge and abilities (SKA) are available.

With the right attitude, a worker will stay the course from the formation stage of work teams through the storming, norming and performing stages. With the right attitude, employees will work hard even when resources are limited.

Hard work

Have you met a student who was studious, but ended up being one of the worst performers in class tests and examinations?

That is the issue with hard work if there is a skill gap. Imagine a worker who has the right attitude and works hard too. The outcome (result) will be excellent.

Result

Result is everything if processes are not circumvented and ethics sidestepped.

Many sales executives in their quest to achieve high and unrealistic sales targets flout the ethics of their profession.

If someone has proven that he or she can achieve their targets without having to use unapproved means to counter the organisation’s SOPs and the ethics of the profession, such a person should be highly rated and kept at all cost.

They will save the organisation a substantial amount of money by not dragging it into legal and other risks.

Ethics and SOPs

Ethics and SOPs are fundamental to every organisational task, duty and responsibility (TDR). They are important because they guide the worker on how best to go about their TDRs without incurring costly risks.

Although many hardworking workers achieve results without adhering to ethics and SOPs, it is important that management insists on things being done according to its own set standards, as well as regulatory requirements in order to avoid costly risks.

In summary, an organisation needs to work with workers who can meet all the foregoing criteria aside from the financial considerations.

The task of asking colleagues to go home due to lack of work or the quest to keep the business on its feet is not for the faint-hearted.

Therefore, decisions must be made based on honesty, transparency and verifiable facts. Only then can the employer and the worker accept the decision in good faith.

The writer is a Human Resource Management Practitioner