Human Resources Strategies for Workforce Development & Cost Management

Mentoring: Development & Benefits

• It is a developmentally oriented relationship between senior and junior colleagues or peers. Mentoring relationships can occur at all levels and in all areas of an organization.
• Key activities include: advising, role modeling, sharing contacts, and giving general support.
• Effective mentoring can significantly improve outcomes such as:
  • Performance levels
  • Promotion rates
  • Upward mobility
  • Income
  • Job satisfaction

Employee Coaching: Goals & Productivity

• Employee coaching consists of ongoing, sometimes spontaneous, meetings between managers and their employees to discuss the employee’s career goals and development.
• Working with employees to chart and implement their career goals enhances productivity and can spur a manager’s own advancement.

Job Rotation: Skill Development & Workforce Flexibility

• It assigns employees to various jobs so that they acquire a wider base of skills.
• Broadened job experience can give workers more flexibility to choose a career path, resulting in a more broadly trained and skilled workforce.

Tuition Assistance Programs: Employee Development

• Organizations offer tuition assistance programs to support their employees’ education and development.
• Tuition may be entirely covered or partially covered.

Layoffs and Workforce Cost Reduction

Typically, an organization will institute a layoff when it cannot reduce its labor costs by any other means. A model of the layoff decision and its alternatives shows that managers should first try to reduce their labor costs by using alternatives to layoffs, such as early retirements and other voluntary workforce reductions. After managers make the decision to implement a layoff, they must concern themselves with the outplacement of the former employees.

Alternatives to Layoffs

Most organizations search for alternative cost-reduction methods before turning to layoffs. The first alternatives managers are likely to consider are those that intrude the least on the day-to-day management of the business, usually focusing on adjustments to employment policies.

The least disruptive way to cut labor costs is through attrition. By not filling job vacancies created by turnover, firms can improve the bottom line. When greater cost reductions are needed, a hiring freeze may be implemented.

Other common strategies include:

• Freezing employment
• Not renewing contract workers
• Encouraging employees to take time off voluntarily

These major alternatives to layoffs, which can include employment policies, changes in job design, pay and benefits policies, and training, can be used by managers both to reduce labor costs and to protect the jobs of full-time employees.