Question

You are the newly appointed HR Manager and must develop some programs, solutions, or interventions to address these issues. Ideally, there should be integration among the various problems. As such, you do not need to address EACH item, point-by-point.

1) The organization is in the decline stage of growth

2) Many of the top leaders on the verge of retirement (i.e., those in the highest leadership positions)

3) Many of the mid-level managers are aggressively pursuing other employment alternatives

Answer 1

The challenge before the HR manager is to enable the organisation to be sustainable with dwindling profits, declining employee morale and the upcoming leadership crisis.

He / she needs to have a detailed discussion with top management about the future strategy of the business. The organisation may look into viable options to revive the product / service lines, diversify into new segments or reorganise its structure to make it more lean, efficient and focused. Every effort is to plan the rebirth / rejuvenation of the company to prevent it from its inevitable demise, owing to its state of decline.

The reorganisation should start with the identification of new segments, augmentation and omission of the business lines and other strategic decisions. The human resource manager should do the manpower planning once the strategic framework for the reorganisation is ready. He /she should prepare for the top slots first, preparing a plan for leadership development within the company or sourcing them from outside to take charge of the helm in the time to come, so that the planning done in the boardrooms can be materialised. The middle management and other staff should be evaluated on past performance and should be trimmed to include the best. The specialists can be recruited from outside if the need arises. Restructuring would make the organisation and its functions leaner and efficient, which would lead to higher productivity and performances which is very crucial under given circumstances.