HRESULTS RESEARCH:

Cause and Effect: The Impact of Decisions Made

Our study focuses on the consequences, both positive and negative, of specific actions taken by organizations as the recent downturn deepened. As "recovery" plans are being developed, we are finding that (workforce impacting) options available to an individual organization are highly dependent on decisions they previously made and the way the actions were implemented. Despite the slow recovery, employees may be less forgiving of what they perceive as "insensitivity" on the part of their employer than they have been in the past.


In speaking with our clients as they ponder the changing economic environment and reflect on actions they took (impacting their workforce) to weather the downturn, we have been hearing stories of opportunity and obstacles. Hindsight, it appears, creates perspective and helps answer the question "What could we have done differently?".

However, we have been finding that this is not the right question to be asking.

Actions implemented can't be taken back. The question is "What are we able to do now?".

Our theory is that the workforce management approaches taken by individual enterprises were so disparate that recovery planning will require organizations to provide frontline leadership with a "chinese menu" of available tools as opposed to a standardized roadmap. Generational differences, which are today's workforce reality, have made cookie cutter solutions obsolete.

Our study, initiated in March 2010, focuses on the "recovery plans" being debated by business leaders and human resources executives. Using a structured interview guide developed by the HResults Academy, we are gathering data on how these executives perceive their alternatives and the extent to which these are enabled or limited by the specific tactics they employed to manage workforce expenditures.

We will periodically report on our findings and ultimately plan to develop a "recovery handbook" that will synthesize the thinking of study participants with our cause and effect analysis.

 

Important Note: In order to maintain confidentiality, individual organizations will not be identified when reporting our feedback. Data will be presented by demographic factors including organization size, industry group and geography.

 

For more information or to participate in this or future studies, contact us

Our Recent Work

Organizational Strategy and Design

A partnership of WL Ross & Co. and Ranieri Real Estate Partners completed their acquisition of Deutsche Bank's multi-family residential mortgage business. Now known as Berkeley Point Capital, with major operations in Bethesda MD, Boston MA and Irvine CA, it is the nation's second largest originator of Fannie Mae loans and services a $29 Billion loan portfolio.

HResults was engaged by the new ownership team to facilitate the design and migration of Human Resources programs and activities to the new independent entity and to ensure that Berkeley Point employees would experience a seamless transition upon Change of Control.

 

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About HResults

HResults is an HR Advisory Firm specializing in Organizational and HR Effectiveness.  Based in Philadelphia, with an office in Indianapolis, our practice focuses on the strategic, operational and cultural aspects of the people side of the business in the “new normal” environment of constant change . We enter an engagement with the understanding that our clients are investing in us as well as their own organization. We reciprocate by investing the time it takes to understand a particular business and culture and avoid making the assumption that a particular approach or solution fits all situations.