Can't Fire

It will be a dejavu for Mr Naresh Goyal , head of jet airways. Last year during tougher times he tried to remove around 1900 employees from the jet payroll , which sounded a right decision for the company as many of these people were on probation and they had completed their probation period post which it was Jet's call whether it want them to continue or not, given the special macroeconomic conditions there was no other option . Of course no one can deny the human side of the story but this risk has always been associated with private jobs and people today come prepared to face it any time .

Doing a job today does not make you feel as safe as it was 4 years back or much safer before 2000 bubble burst or safest before GE Neutron Jack era when lifetime jobs were guaranteed and companies like IBM was famous for committing to life time employment of its employees . Currently once more jet fired 2 pilots facing an unprecedented situation with almost entire pilot staff going on a synchronized leave. Organizations which are service intensive and have to face volume of customers on many touch point every day turn themselves into a tricky situation by such issues , some thing similar happened in 2006 when some staff of gourmet ( a food supplier to airlines) was fired resulting a strike which meant no food in flights irrespective of the fact that many of these flights were as long as 14 hours journey.

In such conditions company would not have any choice but give it up to the demands of the union. Even though there is no such instance observed in IT industry where in last two year thousands and thousands of people have left the job but there is definitely damages, when companies remove employees who are redundant or so called non performers , people who have been retained also feel the fear and start looking for the opportunities to leave the current company . It may result to a fast attrition rate once normal times return back which leaves companies into a situation where they have work but no resources and now they are bound to hire resources from market at higher costs.

Given this vicious cycle , it seems organizations just can't fire but still they do ....

Want to build a sustainable organization !!

More than 80,000 company failures per year in the last 20 years, compared to 19,000 per year, on average, in the previous 30 years. Going forward it is becoming difficult for corporations and experts to predict sustainability of organizations. It is not at all surprising in this scenario every one is talking about making organisations more resilient.

Here is what I feel can make an organization sustainable

Connecting with Employees : It is said that employee are the biggest Assets of a company , accountants might not be very happy with this statement but in todays world where intellectual capita is considered the biggest asset , this statement definitely holds true. For any organization to be strong , to grow and break all the barriers it is very important that their management connect to Employees . Employee should be an integral part of organization , he should live the value of organization .
This connection works as bedrock on which whole organization can sustain. Leaders must make sure that they understand each and every team members to, get to know them - to build a connection based on trust, honesty and respect. Lets take a very simple example of Indian freedom fighters , they literally built an empire where every one was connected , Leaders not only gave instructions but also set an example and that resulted in a connection in all the members , Connection to an extent that every one saw the same vision , everyone worked on the same ‘s mission . Similar connection . Most important thing about connection is , its infectious nature , even if one employee is in synchronization with organization , his influence will work like a charm on other team members as they will be able to relate with organization via him very easily and hence will be transformed from an employee who simply does a 9 to 5 job to someone who will feel integral part of organization to such an extent that he will be engaged to it for always. An organization where leaders are able to connect with employees will never loose its valuable employees and will overcome the biggest problem which comes in way of companies resilience i.e. attrition rate , migration of talent. Once you are able to retain your master performers you will certainly be able to amaze yourself and team with a brilliance and consistent performance because when you have succeeded in creating a team that is connected, you can count on each of them having a higher degree of personal engagement toward meeting the goals before them

Change management: Change can be defined as "… to cause or to become different, alter, transform, convert. Implies a radical alteration of character or replacement with something else" [2]. As truly said , change the only constant thing in the world , when an organization grows from a small 20 – 30 people company to a MNC having headcount in thousands , it goes through in numerous changes . Accepting a sudden change is not in nature of human being , he likes to be in his comfort zone which he is familiar with so if these changes not handled properly they lead to a big panick and chaos. Change inherently brings conflict and turmoil to organizations.
According to Smit and Cronjé [18] management should be sensitive towards potential change in order to prepare for it and should be aware of the steps
involved in a change process to increase the possibility of its successful implementation. In the process flow diagram there are some important steps which need to be followed for implementing any change in an organization. A resilient organization must be able to manage it’s changes at the same time making sure that it’s employees don’t see new change as a liability on them and this can happen if and only if desire of excelling and improving can be generated in employees so that they can feel the need of change from within.