by Jason Klees

   This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter 

PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT AS A COMPETITIVE EDGE DURING AND AFTER RECESSION:
Historically, recessions have provided opportunities to grow business and personal wealth.  For the purpose of this article, WEALTH is defined as an abundance of valuable resources or material possessions; an abundance or profusion of anything; a plentiful amount (Merriam – Webster).  No doubt, it helps to have wealth to weather an economic down turn!  We all have heard or personally know about managing wealth during a time like this.  You have probably recently experienced some of this management in your personal bank account or in your company’s budget and expenses.  But finance alone does not make a company wealthy.

CFOS LOOK TO EFFECTIVELY POSITION ASSETS, PRESERVE VALUE
I attended a presentation by Dennis Schuler, VP of HR at Proctor & Gamble and Dave Ulrich, professor of business at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, author, and co-founder of The RBL Group.  They said that HR people need to be business people first and understand how to add value to customers and investors through the capabilities they possess.  Does the Chief Financial Officer know about your training department?  Is (s)he aware of how the corporate university is a competitive advantage?  More appropriately – are you prepared to discuss these topics with them?  Many of my professional training counter parts would say “no“.    Take account of your staff with discernment to increase both your available cash and your profitability. Here are some ideas on how to do that:

SUCCESSFUL ON BOARDING PROGRAMS
There are many cases where executives leave a company within the first year.  Some are well known, like the Michael Ovitz / Michael Eisner arrangement but there are many many more that cost companies millions of dollars each year.  Likewise, there are many companies that grow their leaders from within using a “trial by fire” or a “sink or swim” approach.  Such an approach is open to liabilities and litigation. Issues like harassment, discrimination, negligence, or compliance can be mitigated by a consistent entry program.  And I might add refresher training doesn’t hurt either (Civ. No. CV08-331 JCC in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington).

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Identify your highly motivated, indispensible people as well as your up and comers who are able to take on new challenges.  Make this a focused effort that is similar to other processes designed to protect and grow corporate assets. Provide a training ground for these folks to develop so that you can capitalize on their strengths and their increased abilities.  This can be done through a mentoring program, a partnership with a college or university, or with an updated internal management training program.  All of these to be aligned with this year’s performance goals as well as the five year plan. 

EXPAND INTERNATIONALLY – THINK TRAINING
Any company with the potential for an international presence should look into how prepared they are to enter or interface with the foreign culture.  Does your company offer language training? Do you tap into opportunities to host cultural experts to enhance your employees’ understanding? Do you have a management exchange program with a sister division where a manager participates on a learning path like a student foreign exchange program?  Imagine if you were to arrange an exchange program with your counterparts in China for example.  Did you know that 200,000 Chinese students study abroad ANNUALLY?   These are just some ideas that provide the ability to catalyze, be competitive, be compatible, and capitalize. Contrast these behaviors with that of your competition whose natural tendency is to view staffing as the most expendable expense and you quickly realize competitive advantage.

EMPLOYEE LIFE PROGRAMS
Okay, this is the soft stuff that typically HR is known for.  But before you stick your finger down your throat and make a gagging sound, hear me out as this will help leverage your assets for long term value!

Your employees may be as anxious or affected by this downturn as you are. That’s why you should consider offering seminars on topics such as credit, finances, debt, or foreclosure. Other topics could be eldercare, retirement planning, or funding a college education. These programs will be of significant value to your employees who may be facing great uncertainty. Programs like these demonstrate the employer is concerned for the people who contribute to the company’s success.  This value translates into increased loyalty and positive sentiment which become wildly important when the economy turns around and people start looking to change jobs (and companies).  Remember, the employee you’re able to save today is the position you don’t have to recruit, screen, hire, and train for tomorrow.
Jason Klees is just a simple guy from the mountains of North Carolina.  Though not an experienced farmer, he knows enough that spraying Round Up on your fruits will kill them.  Jason is a training and development specialist with the bulk of his career being in Operations as well as Human Resource departments for Fortune 100 companies. An avid follower of Stephen Covey, Jason really believes that if we live in Quadrant II, we can prevent more of the problems that we would otherwise have to solve later.  You can follow his thoughts and contribute your feedback by following him on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonklees

Sources:
http://www.eeoc.gov/press/8-21-09.html
http://www.vistage.com/library/articles/article.aspx?id=%7BF3745ED9-BFA9-4753-A644-F497D88556EF%7D
http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-Canada/Local%20Assets/Documents/en_ca_CFOrecessionplaybook_Mar09.pdf
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-ideas-articles/exec-onboarding-key-to-companies-growing-through-recession-1100320.html
http://www.sibson.com/publications-and-resources/articles/May-09-workspan.pdf