Industry v/s Consultants on Abating Recession Onslaught!

I read TOI (Times of India) everyday -(its not a promotion statement, its not my personality either; my wife thinks she'd not know about the best sales in town otherwise).

Recession is finding its roots into every newspaper almost everyday. And today came THE BIG announcement, and also a NOT SO BIG advise. Here they are and lets see what can we infer from it.

Here's the first - Citi to slash 52,000 jobs (link is from ET, though)

and, the second - When others fire, you hire, says Robert Miller (again from ET)

The article says it all where it says “If the past is any guide, Wall Street overshoots in terms of hiring, and then overshoots when it’s time to cut jobs,” said Walter Todd, portfolio manager at Greenwood Capital Associates, which invests $1 billion. “It’s a moving target.”

This is how I see it. On one hand by absorbing excess people than it needed, organisations like Citi create more employment while on the other hand - at receiving flak from investors and Board, CEOs sack a %age of employees to show they are doing something. I think balance lies somewhere in between. Not all organisations do this with similar vigour. This is where character or persona of organisations emerges. A good portion of employees hired would have been working with some other organisations before the same and might have been safer there. They join such organisations for career progression along with a commitment to add value to the system which is what is the usual contract. However, by taking measures such as "%age lay-off" organisations only display their inability to cope with environment and an inherent lack of preparedness for rough weathers. This erodes confidence of others too -i.e. the unretrenched people, the people looking forward to joining such places and even customers who start wondering about integrity and sustainablity of such organisations.

Add to this the logics extended by Robert Miller in the second article above, organisations stand to loose much more than they portray to be gaining. In fact, it is during these timmes that organisations need to be innovative and proactive and start looking at the Basic problem that plagues them and how they can best utilise resources. There are other costs that can be reduced like travel, Townhalls etc - people understand, and linking rewards to incentives in a more efficient manner. And those who do not understand, leave -partly accomplishing the target of having excess manpower. And if you thought these were your best people, then you need to reread the Rules of Business and Human Behaviour as it has been proved since time immemorial that those who stand by you in the hour of need prove to be your best friends.