Introduction


When the economy is at full capacity, certain industries become carried away with the prospects of unlimited growth, which, if expanded to large proportions, may sow the seeds for a major economic reversal. At some point supply and demand are balanced, but time elapses before companies recognize the situation (Schaefer, 1993). An economic downturn causes long-term investors to become cautious and place excess funds in temporary investments to ride out the decline. Hence, the increased supply of short-term capital causes short-term interest rates to fall faster than long-term interest rates. An economic recovery cannot begin unless there is a supply of short-term funds in excess of demand, which is usually evidenced by short-term interest rates being significantly below long-term interest rates (Schaefer, 1993). Economic downturn causes the uneasiness in a firm particularly in the part of the personnel. Economic downturn is caused by various circumstances in the firm one of which is the tendency of firms to be carried away by its success. When a company is overconfident they lean towards the notion of unlimited growth without strategizing well; it leads to failure for the firm. Economic downturn can be reversed through the help of motivated and satisfied personnel. The personnel can provide the assistance to create better opportunities for a company and it s economy. The personnel need to be satisfied for them to work effectively in a company that is facing economic downturn. This paper intends to focus on strategies that will be used to counter the effect of economic downturn to the company and its personnel.


 


Effective career management strategies


 The proliferation of stress management and organizational change management programs and the expanding presence of employee assistance programs attest to this trend. There is also an expanded role for career management professionals (Pickman, 1997) Career management professionals are more in demand because of the toughening competition in the business environment. Career management professionals create self career management programs to revolutionize personnel and make him/her desirable for employers. Self-career management programs are designed primarily for those individuals who view themselves as relatively independent professionals or businesses, rather than as organizationally dependent job holders. These are individuals who can and do make their own decisions about their careers, know their capabilities, and understand where they can find the types of work opportunities where they can sell themselves as a business or service. Self-career management is a different way of looking at oneself and one’s work capabilities. It is a mechanism for declaring oneself independent of an organizational control system but at the same time being willing to negotiate mutual terms of acceptability concerning work contributions to that system (Pickman, 1997).


 


 Self-career management is the giving up of relatively permanent organizational relationships in favor of more self-controlled career decision making. It has become increasingly recommended to and by HRM professionals as a possible approach to dealing with challenges presented by the emerging world of work, a world still dominated in great degree by the use of downsizing as a management strategy despite continuing questions about its outcomes. Clearly, there are reasons for such positive evaluation. Self career management recognizes the tentative nature of a specific employment relationship while also emphasizing the need for employee skills and meaningful contributions and the opportunity to fulfill the desire for self-enhancement that is so important in the work setting. In addition, for the appropriate individual and the appropriate situation, self-career management also provides an approach to meeting the need for self-protection, because this can be negotiated by the individual involved. The key, however, is in the word appropriate (Kraut, Korman & London, 1999). Self-career management is appropriate when the individual has or can develop both meaningful self-knowledge and the types of skills and abilities that are in demand. In addition, self-career management is appropriate when the individual has knowledge of the job market and the freedom to respond to the opportunities available (Kraut, Korman & London, 1999).


 


 Still, some negative aspects also need to be recognized before a corporate decision is made to undertake a personal growth program encouraging self-career management. Second, there is the continuing reality that all the benefits the programs may provide to employees may never be of value to the organization that pays for them (Kraut, Korman & London, 1999) Third, it needs to be realized right from the beginning that such programs are not for everyone. They should not be oversold as the answer to the problems of the new world of work. Rather, companies need to keep in mind that other programs will be necessary regardless of what they decide about self-career management programs (Adams & Morrison, 1991). Appropriate career management programs that could be emphasized are employment, orientation, developmental reassignments, promotion from within, and disengagement. The only career management programs that could be implemented would be those that make an immediate contribution to the day-to-day business and accrue no costs beyond normal operating expenses (Adams & Morrison, 1991). Managing the careers of the professional personnel whose company experiences economic downturn is a difficult task.  The personnel should first have an idea on how to manage their own careers.  The personnel cannot just rely on others assistance; only the personnel can distinguish the best career for him/her. This can be done through seminars that would help them decide how to make sure that they are on a right career path. Afterwards as part of an effective career management strategy the company needs to give opportunities to the personnel.  The company can give the personnel some ideas on what other jobs they can do in the company and what would they learn if they do the job. An effective career management strategy would include the creation of various activities that would improve the abilities of the personnel. The activities would help the personnel learn new things and can help them improve their overall performance.  Moreover an effective career management strategy would be meetings between the personnel and the management wherein they will discuss the strength of the personnel and the weakness they can improve to achieve better position in the firm.


The company’s Work Demographics


Employment choices in the future world, which were not as readily available to prior generations, include an ongoing decision about whether to stay engaged with an organization, and, if so, in what capacity. They include the choice to participate in the contingent workforce. They include the choice to change organizations or career directions when priorities and lifestyle needs change. These choices introduce tensions into organizations and into individual lives. The evolution of thinking in the field of career development provides a perspective on these changes (Elsdon, 2003).  On an organizational level career development evolved with the growth of corporations and an emphasis on training to mold individuals to fit organizational demands. Implicit in this fit was an understanding that the organization would provide a safe haven for each employee. In the 1980s and early 1990s people saw this implied contract severed, as organizations sought to increase short-term efficiencies. The organizational emphasis switched to self-reliance based on individuals taking ownership of their careers, with organizations providing support for their development, but not long-term commitment. Employment became a one-night stand or, euphemistically, employment-at-will (Elsdon, 2003).


 


 Those unable to function in this environment were left with depleted resources and options. However, changing population demographics created a scarcity of critical skills by the late 1990s and, as a result; some organizations could not reach their growth potential. Many organizations began to experience increased attrition rates and difficulty recruiting. Most organizations began to critically evaluate their relationship with their employees, recognizing the need for a major transformation, but unclear about the direction of this transformation. While the slowing economy of the early 2000s mitigated employee scarcity temporarily in some sectors of the economy, workforce demographics will drive employee scarcity as a central issue in the years to come (Dibble, 1999). Organizations were challenged both from the outside by technology and globalization and from the inside by the demands of the changing workforce. While organizations were reinventing themselves they reconsidered the role of people. To be competitive, to be flexible, nimble, and fast reacting, required employees with the right skills. The technical skills to out engineer, out market, and out think the competition were critical. Equally important were such skills as planning, initiative, creativity, customer service, and risk taking. To move quickly organizations have to cut down on the time it takes to make decisions. The need for talented employees occurred at the same time that terms of the old contract particularly stability and trust were disappearing (Dibble, 1999).


 


 Employees who find that they are no longer getting what they want from their current job will look for alternatives, within or outside their current employer. Employers who decide that an employee no longer has the right skills have options. If the employee’s skill is not adequate there are performance improvement plans. If the skill is not longer useful, perhaps because the employer is getting out of a business, then layoffs are a result. Organizations benefit when they actively support development and career opportunities. They benefit from both the increased ability to achieve results and the ability to retain the employees they wish to keep (Farazmand, 2002).The workforce is changing and rapidly growing more diverse. Demographics are being reshaped by decades of increasing immigration, by increased representation of persons with disabilities, and by the maturation of the baby boomer generation. While an aging workforce can have positive effects, such as greater experience-based work knowledge, older workers may be less responsive to organizational changes, less mobile, less interested in training, and more prone to frustration by their lack of advancement. Because of constrained budgets organizations have not invested as heavily in diversity programs as their counterparts even though many organizations are committed to diversity efforts (Farazmand, 2002). The downtrend in the economy has caused the company to refuse to hire any new personnel. This also created a lower number of personnel due to resignation. The personnel feared that the economic downtrend will force the company to refuse to sustain or increase their salaries.  Moreover the downtrend in the economy made the personnel unstable and paranoid; this affected the performance of some of the personnel. The downtrend in the economy gave fears to the personnel with regards to their job security. The personnel fear that they will subsequently lose their job and it might happen in an unexpected time or day.   This negative change in workplace demographic can be reduced through proper information dissemination and maintained communication between all members of the organization.


Career strategies to be used in the company


Career development programs vary on the extent to which they support career resilience, insight, and identity. For instance, self-assessment workshops or workbooks and career counseling may focus on promoting insight. A career motivation assessment center may promote insight through feedback and resilience through rewards for high achievement on the tasks. Supervisory training may promote identity and insight. Working for a boss who is a good role model and encourages subordinates’ development can be a source of all three (London, 1998).  Business conditions result in different levels of support for career motivation. For instance, in a declining business environment, career motivation is generally diminished by layoffs and a focus on closing down rather than turning around the business. However, career motivation can be supported by communicating openly, discussing alternative career opportunities, counseling, and employee participation in organizational redesign and searching for new direction. In the case of mergers and acquisitions, career motivation is diminished when little information is revealed, decisions are made at the top, and employees are terminated involuntarily (London, 1998).


 


 However, career motivation can be supported during a merger or acquisition by employee involvement in planning, evaluation of organizational design and job skill requirements, and incentives for voluntary terminations (London1998). In this hyper-competitive economy increasingly driven by knowledge work, competitive success is often dependent upon the talents, knowledge, and skills of the workforce. Firms need more than mere flexibility in the deployment of the workforce; they need each employee to be continually adaptable on the job. In light of the demands for adaptability and responsiveness associated with the complex work and competitive environments of contemporary organizations, people would argue that a strong commitment to career development is one of the most important levers available to organizations for developing and maintaining competitive advantage (Burke & Cooper, 2004). Where employees’ capabilities are most strategically important for the firm career development becomes evermore strategically critical. Because people will work to establish and maintain situations and relationships that validate their sense of self, organizations can potentially influence the degree of engagement and commitment that results by structuring work experiences and relationships that resonate with the aspects of employees’ identities to which they are most committed. Organizations are able to influence the development of employee engagement and commitment through their capacity for structuring developmental experiences and supporting high-quality relationships (Burke & Cooper, 2004). In the essence of career development, the career strategies that would be used in the firm include career assessment and career motivation. The two strategies would help the personnel adjust to the downtrend in the economy and it would help in changing the outlook of the personnel in their job.  Career assessment can help the personnel see what they can do to assist the firm while the economy is in a downtrend .Career motivation will give them better insights to improve their performance and do the best they can in every endeavor.


 


Minimizing the turnover risk


Companies facing turnover problems commonly lament their ill fortune, curse the competition that stoops to buying people with stock options, and resolve to put in retention bonuses. Knowledge is equally important when companies face the challenge of retaining their best human capital owners. It is a competitive world, after all; if a company has good people, someone out there wants to take the good people away from them. Dissatisfaction alone does not drive turnover. People need an alluring alternative to break the bonds of commitment. Assessing where the organization’s return-on-investment offering stands in relation to competitive offerings is a key part of the analytical foundation needed to fight and win the retention wars (Davenport, 1999).  There is no magic elixir that cures a turnover problem. An equilibrium relationship is the culmination of the full range of human capital management elements. The joint energies of individual and organization to find the right equilibrium point should reflect this broad perspective. An important organizational outcome factor is employee turnover. Dysfunctional turnover, that is, losing high-quality employees you would rather retain, is costly for an organization (Davenport, 1999).


 


 The determinants of turnover are multifold; for example, involuntary turnover due to layoffs or job performance factors, and voluntary turnover from job dissatisfaction, current economic conditions, and the likelihood of finding another job (Cooper & Murphy, 2000).  Turnover can be caused by voluntary and involuntary instances. Whatever the reason, and whatever the type, the consequence of high levels of turnover are troublesome for an organization. Employee perceptions of managing change were associated with the important organizational outcomes of patient satisfaction and employee turnover (Cooper & Murphy, 2000). In modern parlance, they treated exit as an alternative to voice.  As one economist put it, trade unions voice their protest against bad conditions by sending a committee to see the firm. The unorganized voice their protest by asking for their time. Another economist observed that turnover rates were higher in unorganized industries. Early supporters of personnel management noted that the same conditions that gave rise to quits and low morale in the present might lead to strikes or worse in the future (Cooper & Murphy, 2000). If the conditions could be identified and remedied, they reasoned, morale would improve, quits would fall, and the possibility of industrial revolt would be greatly lessened. High turnover rates were frequently attributed to the impersonal atmosphere of the large corporation. Turnover was also attributed to the deadening effects of labor and particularly to scientific management, which had made work highly repetitive and intolerably tedious (Jacoby, 2004).


 


Low turnover came to be regarded as a desideratum for the well-managed, strike-free firm, an indication that the company was sensitive to the problems of its workers and that it provided them with outlets for voicing dissatisfaction. Moreover, a low turnover rate helped to stabilize worker effort and gave management time to build a corps of loyal employees. Although turnover costs were neither large nor rising, advocates of personnel management gave much emphasis to them, in order to legitimize reforms principally, the restriction of the foreman’s discharge prerogatives and the provision of employment security which they regarded as necessary for other reasons (Jacoby, 2004).  Turnover is said to be the rate of gain or lose of the company’s employees.  Turnover may lead to additional costs for the company in replacements for those who left. Turnover may also cost the company employees who can create the best products and best service. With more cases of turnover means lesser chances for the company to be successful. Turnover or the loss of employees is desirable in a company when they feel that the employees are not performing well in accordance with the standards set by the company.  All kinds of organizations expect that their employees will perform at their best and provide assistance in obtaining the company’s goal. Once the staff does not meet the expectations of the businesses, a decision must be made on whether the staff should remain or be removed from the company.  To minimize the risk of turnover the firm needs to establish a good relationship with the personnel. The firm needs to ensure that the personnel have the chance to air their grievances with any other member of the organization. The firm needs to make sure that they treat the personnel with outmost respect. To minimize the risk of turnover the firm needs to explain the goals of the company in achieving growth. The company needs to explain how the company’s growth would bring benefit to the personnel.  The personnel need to have an idea why they should try to help the company in achieving growth.  This would promote the needed virtues of communication and openness between the firm and the personnel.


 


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