Millions of words have been devoted to the recession, tough business climate, stimulus, layoffs, etc. It's easy to see the articles announcing thousands of layoffs a day - depressing to just read the headlines.
The people behind the headlines have been crunching the numbers, and making the difficult decisions to make the cuts - I feel for them, I really do. That's not an easy job, and I know many of those managers and leaders have agonized over these decisions.
But inquiring minds want to know...I wonder how many of those organizations making layoffs ran the numbers to determine what would happen if everyone took pay cuts, rather than letting people go entirely?
What would happen in your organization if everyone took a 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% pay cut? For 6 months, 12 months, 18 months? Would those savings let your organization get by without layoffs - or with fewer layoffs?
What if the company's leaders took the first steps and cut their salaries to the bone ahead of everyone else? (Uh, no...I didn't mean changing the compensation structure to offset the salary decrease with other non-cash related benefits...I mean CUT).
This would not be an easy situation for anyone - family budgets all across the company would be affected, for one thing...and that can make employees cranky. It could drive some good employees into looking for new opportunities.
Many HR departments know what to do in case of layoffs - but getting HR and Finance to make the changes to databases, salary schedules, recruiting strategies, etc. can be tough. Companies don't "think outside the box" easily, and figuring out wholesale changes to entrenched systems can be paralyzing.
BUT - think about the upside. Leaders who make the effort to keep everyone on board can generate tremendous loyalty from the majority of employees who remain. This loyalty and sense of camaraderie *can* translate into better attitudes towards customers...and organizations need all the customers they can get right now.