Companies Are Trying to Improve Employee Attitudes During the Recession

Case Analysis

Companies Are Trying to Improve Employee

Attitudes during the Recession

Identification.

Most CEOs force to many difficult problems which are related to cutting cost situations. Each leader has an individual approach and personal view to solving such issues. Some of them prefer to cut number of employees, others decide to decrease salary including their own wage. But some CEOs just try to find advantages in those challenging conditions and use it through already prepared to such situation employees in future.

Analysis.

The main force of each leader – the ability to do not panic and see strengths in each problem. According to Steve Ellis, Bain & Co.’s worldwide managing director, “this is the huge opportunity to grab very talented people”. Despite the bad expectations for 2009, he pushed full speed ahead in recruiting.

Many managers prefer to find easiest way to decrease costs in recessions period – cutting the heads. But that is not best decision. Farsighted leaders see such problems as many-faceted situations. Talent became cheaper and there is appears the opportunity to achieve market share while others are losing through the reducing employees.

The most important thing for leaders is to take care of workers. Frank Blake, chairman and executive director of Home Depot wanted to focus on realistic goals. They closed 15 locations and he lowered sales and profit targets. As Marvin Ellison, new executive vice-president of Home Depot said, the highest percentages ever of in-store employees got bonuses in the first half of this year.

Michael Kesner, a principal at Deloitte Consulting’s human capital practice notes that “companies who took advantages of employees in past downturns were rewarded with people bailing when things turned around”. It means that when companies force to...