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HRM Priorities and Recession

The recession changes the priorities of the organization. The change of the organization´s priorities should be reflected in the HRM Function priorities and HRM Strategy as well. The HRM Function cannot live alone; it has to follow the general business strategy.

The HRM Priorities in the Recession can change quickly or they need to be adjusted at least. The organization has no resources to add to the new initiatives and the HRM Function can be asked to produce cost savings on current programs.

The HRM Management has to make a quick scan of current procedures and policies to be prepared for the cancellation or change, when asked to make an urgent cost cut. The recession is about cost cuts and designing efficient, cheap HR Processes.

The HR Priorities have to be assessed using a simple tool for selecting the processes and policies to be discontinued. The best tool is to use the simple matrix, which divides the processes and procedures according their costs and impact on the organization.

Generally, the HRM Function should cancel the processes and procedures with the highest costs and lowest impact on the organization. The HRM Function has to be very careful as cancellation of some policies can be very sensitive for employees. Those are the processes and procedures with the highest impact.

The recession changes HRM Priorities. The HRM Function has to make a quick response to changed conditions by the cancellation of the least important procedures and policies, but the HRM Function has to change the HR Strategy to have a consistent approach during the whole recession period.

The HRM Function has to adjust the HRM Priorities in the recession very sensitive way as the employees feel some security and consistency and that they can trust the organization and its success in the war with the recession. The HRM Function has to keep the role of the employee advocate and this should be reflected in the decision matrix as well. The recession is not a chance to change and cancel everything, the corporate culture should not be touched by the change of the HRM Priorities during the recession.