The World According to Cachia

Unless you’ve been successfully hiding away thus able to avoid the Global Financial Crisis ‘AKA’ the ‘GFC’ organisations have been restructuring their business in an attempt to continue trading; and as such, an inordinate amount of employees have lost their jobs through Redundancy.

 

Being made redundant hasn’t just become an issue.   Employees were being made redundant, well before the ‘GFC’ and so the anguish associated with loosing your job remains – if it’s any consultation, there plenty of people in the same position.   Given there are more people out of work because organisations are consolidating; finding your next role has now become somewhat more difficult!

 

When talking to recruiters and candidates, the apparent issues have become there aren’t as many jobs openly advertised, and for those that are the number of candidates applying has increased dramatically.   This leads to increased pressure on the recruiter as they now have so many more applications to consider.  

 

Some suggest that as a result [of the level of applications received] candidates would be considered more so because they meet the criteria in the ‘key word’ search rather than because they can demonstrate [transferable] skills to perform effectively in the position.

 

Additionally, candidates feel frustrated, whilst they believe they meet the ‘broader terms’ of the selection criteria, they are not considered suitable because they don’t have experience in the [respective] industry.   The problem for the recruiter is that they have an enormous amount of applications to process and with the selection criteria being so specifically defined; they won’t need to broaden the scope of the search.

 

In reading news articles and/or [HR] publications, there appears further discontent from the candidate… and that revolves around the ‘Human Element’ of the recruitment process.

 

Comment suggests the candidates are dealing with recruiters who don’t really understand the fundamentals of the positions they are trying to fill.   Some of the criticism [of the recruiters] includes; they don’t confirm receipt of the application; they don’t return phone calls; they don’t call me when a position becomes available.  

 

However from the recruiters’ perspective, it is seen that the candidate may have an unreasonable expectation of what the recruiter can actually do!   The recruiter is not there to attend to the needs of the one candidate – the recruiter must provide a certain standard of service to the client organisation as well as manage the expectations of the numerous candidates applying for any given role.

 

Notwithstanding the good recruiter will appreciate that the candidate he/she places today, may well become the customer/client of tomorrow!

 

I’ve spent a number of years delivering outplacement programs to people made redundant, and during that time I’ve witnessed the plight of the candidate, actively perusing their next role… and the recruiter struggling to appease their customers and managing the ever increasing number of anxious candidates (and let’s not forget that a number of recruiters themselves have since become candidates).

 

The one thing I advise participants [of the program] is that you cannot [solely] rely on the recruiter to do your job search for you! Candidates must be proactive; Candidates must network; Candidates must make job search their major task!

 

Yes job search is hard work, but then again, maot things that are worthwhile take some effort!

On the 20th March 2009, the Federal Governments Fair Work Bill passed through the Senate, and with this, the wheels were set in motion for its implementation, which occurs on the 1st July 2009. When reading commentary on this legislation we are told that the introduction of the Act has practical implications for businesses across Australia, as ‘Forward with Fairness’ aims to strike a balance between fairness and flexibility at work!

This Bill continues with the plan to have a ‘National Industrial System’ which was a big part of the ‘WorkChoices’ philosophy. The idea of removing complexity from the Industrial system (with regards to competing federal and state legislation) was an element that was favoured by employers and employees alike.

Bear in mind though, that before the Fair Work Bill takes effect, the Government wants to introduce two more pieces of legislation. The first is the Fair Work (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Bill 2009, which was tabled on the 19th March 2009. This refers to the transition from the current system to the new. The second, due for introduction in May 2009, deals with the consequential amendments to other federal laws and/or referrals of power by the States. It is the Governments intention to have both these pieces of legislation passed by mid June at the latest.

With all the publicity surrounding the introduction of the Fair Work Bill, there of course has been much discussion in and out of the workplace. Whilst the level of discussion varies, one aspect seems to remain, and that is, what impact will these changes have on me and/or my business?

For some this appears to be a very real problem… a recent survey conducted on small to medium enterprises (SME’s) identified that;-

• 80% of these companies are not ready for the introduction of the new workplace laws,
• some 45% of SME’s were unprepared or uncertain about how the changes would affect their businesses,
• 30% had a little or no understanding of their obligations under the legislation,
• 50% were rather concerned, or at least somewhat concerned about the changes.

Considering the above, it’s obvious that we still have some way to go to prepare for the implementation of the Fair Work Bill. However, it is of paramount importance for the effective running of HR practices in any business, that its managers understand and properly implement this type of legislation.

Organisations and their managers cannot ignore this legislation and therefore must familiarise themselves with the facts, in addition to juggling a number of other business decisions (especially those brought about by the impacts of the current economic climate)!

As we find ourselves working through this current economic climate many organisations have had to seriously consider how best to manage the business with regards to its productivity and financial return, a part of this includes ‘Redundancies’.

Redundancies occur not as a result of individual performance rather as a result of changes in process, technology, and/or business viability and as such the employer deems the role performed by the individual is no longer required…

Companies must carefully consider the process with which they must take when making employees redundant, and so implement an effective strategy. This strategy includes:-

• The impact redundancies will have on the business (i.e. productivity, morale, reputation);
• The legal obligations (i.e. the selection/consultation process, payment of entitlements);
• Investigating alternative solutions (i.e. extended leave, job sharing &/or part time work);
• Devising an effective Communications process (for all employees, including those remaining).

Whilst the need to ‘downsize’ the organisation in this time of economic turbulence may well be common place, the integrity of the process whilst respecting the dignity of employees is paramount. Companies will do well to ensure a ‘Best Practice’ process is developed and maintained throughout this time.