FEATURE
Tamsin Ashmore , CFO , Ultima
to deliver on it , these businesses hired lots more people which proved to be unsustainable .
There needs to be a move towards a responsible , sustainable growth trajectory . Future business scenario planning should inform all hire decisions . When recruiting , it ’ s important to understand if that role is going to be continuously needed or if it is a project role that exists due to significant growth .
You only need to look at the film industry to understand how this would work in practice . Here , staff are commonly recruited on a fixed term basis for big project deliveries as they know that they can ’ t commit to that level of sustained growth . Responsible hiring in this way eliminates the excited reaction to growth and avoids difficult decisions further down the line .
We live in an instant gratification world where hiring new is often easier to fill gaps . New blood is certainly a good thing , however , there is huge value to be gained from people being in an organisation over a long period of time and building on those skills .
Showing humanity in the face of layoffs
There is a level of compassion that ’ s needed when handling layoffs , especially at scale as it can be a horrible place for both parties to be . How you handle these situations is key . The only way you can do this is by bringing in a sense of humanity rather than handling it in a robot-like way . It ’ s not the easy way in any regard . Being compassionate opens the floor to the employee ' s emotions , which can be uncomfortable . Nevertheless , the best way for that individual to walk out of the door is to have the conversation with compassion and for them to consider the organisation as one they ’ d like to go back to , albeit in better circumstances . That ’ s the real win .
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