What is Your Legacy?

By Rich Wellins, Ph.D.

I was reading a column by Jack and Suzy Welch in BusinessWeek (March 11, 2009) entitled Layoffs: HR’s Moment of Truth.

They thought HR should focus on making sure managers—not hired guns—do the letting go, ensuring people are treated fairly and helping to absorb the pain.  I found the article disturbing as most HR people I know are well-aware of their job and do it because they care about people.

But what worries me is that the article relegated HR’s job in the company, when their role is much larger. We learned our lesson from the last recession that slash-and-burn leads to a slow and painful recovery, so HR needs to make sure they’re laying off the “right” people. And, what about HR’s role in saving jobs by proposing alternate labor reduction approaches, and keeping up the morale of the “survivors?”

But truthfully, layoffs are not HR’s moment of truth—even in a recession. Here are some things I think are:

• Keeping engagement as high as possible and communication wide open.  Employees are scared, and it’s showing up in their work.

• Guiding managers on the talent they will need to maintain their businesses in the tough times while getting ready for better times.

• Creating new roles and stretch assignments for A-players, who can add immense value to their organization.

• Focusing on the basics of great talent management. Use downtime for training time and make sure every new hiring decision counts (because there are fewer of them).

So, at the end of the day, I hope HR’s moment of truth is not how they fired people (yes, it is still important), but how they maintained a culture of trust and performance and ensured their companies have the right talent when business gets good again. Because it will.

Rich Wellins is senior vice president at Development Dimensions International (DDI).