Human Resource Management Harvard Case Solution & Analysis

Layoff process

            Layoff is basically a human resource issue which is a temporary suspension or even permanent termination of an employee from his job. Layoff sometimes is carried collectively also, where a group of employees are asked to either leave the job or are suspended for a specific time period. Layoffs generally occur when the company faces economic downturn or the business faces limited sales, in such a situation the company opts for temporary or permanent layoff of the employees.

            Moreover, layoff is generally not caused due to the fault of the employee, in fact, it happens due to lack of work, material or cash. If the employee is terminated permanently it is called redundancy. It is one of the most critical issues which the companies in the modern world face due to limited revenue and business (Sandra J. 2012).

            However, resource department has to be active in actually making the issue of layoff handled in a rather appropriate manner because it eventually decreases the credibility of the organization in the market.

Issues

            One of the major issues of layoff is that it increases the low morale amongst employees. When a company decides to lay off its permanent employees, it actually creates low morale among employees because no one actually knows about his position at the company. Most of the employees in such a situation generally look to find new jobs and explore different employment opportunities because they eventually do not know their future with the company.

            The issue of layoff is one of the most difficult issues which the human resource department has to convey to the employee that shall be temporarily or permanently laid off from the position at the company.  If an employee is temporarily laid off, the employee might face various issues where he shall be deprived off his salary. Moreover, it creates demotivation also because in spite working as per the instructions still if he is made to temporarily leave the job brings in a lot of issues (Bronwyn, 2009).

            Furthermore, another issue which the organization face while laying off employees is that, once the human resource department lays off the employees, it actually builds in extra work load on the remaining employees, because eventually they have fulfil the roles and responsibilities of the remaining work force.

            Along with this, eventually leads to decrease in profits because in order to reduce the expenses companies looks to opt for the layoff process, however, it back fires most of the times because the company has to ensure that the remaining employee deal with extra burden and pressure of work.

            Another issue that shall be faced by the company once it decides to lay off employees is the fact, that the employees do not trust the higher authorities, human resource and even their immediate supervisor. The reason is simple, they might feel that they shall be laid off in the coming period; therefore the left over employees generally look to find new jobs. This is another issue which HR department has to face because eventually motivation shall be hurt for the employees (Baumol, 2003).

            Along with this, another major issue which organizations face once they decide to layoff is the fact that once the company overcomes the financial crisis, limited workload, etc. it generally looks to hire new employees and the human resource department recruits new talent for the company.

            However, since the company in the recent past has opted to lay off employees, therefore, the new talent actually hesitates entering the company because they feel that they might also face the same issue in the future. Hence, it is one of the most critical issues an organization has to face and deal with.

            Lastly, another issue which human resource department has to face regarding the issue of layoff is that the employees might sue the organization for the act of lay off. The reason is simple, if the employee is delivering as per expectations, working with complete dedication and devotion, than he might resist and actually take a legal action against the company for being terminated on temporary or permanently basis. Therefore, this is another issue which the human resource department shall face while adopting lay off strategy within the firm.......................

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