Employment planning, as part of human resources management - redundancy aspect

Employee planning is the first step in introducing a personnel management policy in a company. Unfortunately, as it happens most often in Polish companies, the result of employee planning, is the decision to reduce staff. But even this, not a very popular undertaking, can be carried out in accordance with the principles of modern personnel management, that is, according to the maxim: man the most valuable resource. If the first decision of the decision-maker is not to decide on layoffs, but to propose, for example, a reduction program or outplacement, the morale of the crew will be in much better shape, and also the company will not bear too much risk associated with layoffs and the possible search for new employees later.

Reduction program

Employee reductions are often unavoidable and result from the need to rationalize the workforce, which is the basis of efficient personnel management. After all, it is hard to imagine a company that implements its individual elements such as personnel planning, recruitment and selection, evaluation, remuneration and development of employees with special emphasis on their motivational nature, when there are four or five times as many people working in the company instead of 200.

Therefore, companies cannot be advised not to carry out the reduction, including when the environment is characterized by a high level of unemployment. However, it is worth planning a downsizing program before making a final decision. It will help reduce the social and economic costs that can be caused by layoffs of individual employees or group layoffs, which, by the way, are a final step that can be taken after all other options have been exhausted. Before deciding on layoffs, it is necessary to start the gradual reduction of the workforce well in advance, bearing in mind the effects they may have.

A staff reduction program may include:

• movement of employees in positions within the plant, which can be aided by an intensive training system designed to change or upgrade the skills of personnel, thereby increasing their job mobility,
• reducing working hours by eliminating overtime, reducing the number of working hours, for example, from eight to six per day, or reducing the number of working days per week from five to four,
• stopping external recruitment,
• not hiring employees to replace those leaving,
• reducing headcount through natural attrition,
• encouraging employees to retire early. At the same time, it should be remembered that it is necessary to create such a system of evaluation to prevent the departure of the most valuable employees with the most experience from the company.
• encouraging voluntary departure from the company through a system of compensation. According to the experience of Western companies, where employees were allowed to decide for themselves whether to get fired or not, the first to leave were the best, those who had the best chance of finding another job. Developing an appropriate evaluation system would eliminate the risk of using, for example, young age as a criterion when selecting personnel for dismissal. This would lead to the departure of capable, perspective employees.

A reduction program is feasible when the problem of excess employees is relatively small. The situation becomes more serious when layoffs are unavoidable, the company ceases to be profitable, and in extreme cases, when bankruptcy occurs and the entire staff is laid off. This can be hundreds or even thousands of people, and with a weak local labor market and high unemployment, such a situation can cause very serious socio-economic problems.

If such a situation occurs then the first thing to think about is the selection of people to be laid off, which is, if one rejects uncomplicated criteria, a very difficult task. Any idea of a criterion for dismissal must be analyzed in terms of the employee's suitability for the company. The dismissal process itself should be based on certain principles:

• internal communication, i.e. informing all employees, especially those who will be affected by the layoff program, about the upcoming changes,
• consistent adherence to the layoff criteria for all employees,
• investing in employees who stay with the company,
• eliminating fears and developing trust,
• showing all available assistance to laid-off employees.

This should be the case, especially in the "era" of human resources, where it is widely believed that the employee is the most important resource of the company

A suggestion to help solve the problem of dismissal can be a tool in the management of the company, which is outplacement, or, literally translated, locating outside.