The economic downturn has forced many company leaders to reexamine their organizational structures—to streamline processes, decrease waste and reduce costs.
Changes may have occurred in every area of the business: the product, the people and ultimately the profit. It has likely become necessary to make adjustments in materials, suppliers and/or employees. Companies may have fewer people on staff to do the work — and without a solid plan for moving forward — that can cause undue stress on already overtaxed employees.
As E. Michael Norman and J.P. Elliott of Sibson Consulting say in their article “How to Drive Performance in the New Economic Reality,” (http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/orgempdev/articles/Pages/DoingMorewithLess.aspx ) “The result of these painful, but necessary, decisions is that many organizations have become quite good at delivering their core products and services with fewer resources, essentially adopting a `doing-more-with-less’ operating style.”
That’s not necessarily a good solution in the long-term. If the need to reduce continues, eventually there will be nothing left to cut. The solution is to think and plan strategically so that organizations retain the ability to have the resources needed to adapt.
Norman and Elliott propose that talent is the key when realigning an organization for greater sustainability, and we could not agree more. In fact, we believe that talent matters a great deal, regardless of economic variances. We believe company performance depends heavily on employee performance, and that is why we work with executives and HR staff to strategically align organizational objectives with roles and employees.
Shelley Moore, President of Insight Strategic Concepts®, says that strategic alignment is the key to success. “Organizations must be agile in order to compete. They must be able to respond as markets demand. For that to happen, leaders must have processes and people in place who are ready and able to rise to the challenges uncertainly presents.”
Moore is also the founder of BLOOM®, a web-based performance management system geared toward small- to mid-sized businesses; she emphasizes the value that technology offers business. “There are systems for nearly every process, and what asset is more important to a company—more crucial to its success—than its employees? Their solid performance and commitment is a company’s greatest competitive advantage.”
This press release was distributed through PR Web by Human Resources Marketer (HR Marketer: www.HRmarketer.com) on behalf of the company listed above.