Downsizing and Retention Management
Despite the objective to retain quality employees, many organizations find they need to lay off workers at all levels of the organization. Sometimes, the downsizing, or Reduction in Force (RIF), can have an undesirable impact on employees who remain within the organization.
The primary goal of an RIF is cost control. In an ideal world, the organization should terminate the least productive individuals and retain the most productive. Downsizing can be a productivity enhancing event if the organization has the data to select the least productive and these are the individuals who are terminated.
Please help me with the following:
Q1. What HR policies and metrics must be in place to accomplish an effective downsizing, including retention management?
Q2. What are the concerns, if any, with downsizing as an organization's initial response to the need to reduce overall labor expenses? How will the decision to bring about large-scale terminations, and the approach to an RIF, impact the retention of high performers and people in other key positions in the organization?
Q3. What data, if any, should an organization collect and analyze on a regular basis to minimize the need to reduce the size of its staff?