Reduce the costs, not the personell!

"The most serious mistake of employers is to reduce the number of employees," says Hossu. "How do we get out of the crisis? Should we reduce the expenses or the staff?" The representatives of several companies that participated in an "Interview with the crisis" answered to these questions yesterday.

The most important conclusion reached by the crisis interviewers (employers, human resources managers and representatives of trade unionists) is that the additional costs should be "cut" instead of the employees. Companies should manage their budgets, even in times of crisis, so as to further stimulate and prepare their employees.

It would be the only natural HR strategy on short, medium and long term, taking into account that any crisis passes, sooner or later, and people will always be needed to develop companies. On the other hand, the image of a company can be strengthened especially in such cases depending on the ways the employers find solutions for their employees. According to the crisis strategy created by the APT Group, companies can be saved during this period through a review of resources, a change of perspective, but not by taking extreme decisions such as reducing employees' salaries in order to reduce costs.

HELD RESPONSIBLE
"From our members' point of view, the crisis is the reason for which they are jobless. What happens the day after tomorrow, many ask themselves, and people should be offered answers to this kind of questions. Those who have the ability to use the human resources as a priority will be able to get over the crisis. Those who will mock the people will lose", said Bogdan Hossu, the leader of "Cartel Alfa".

Pauna Valentin, executive HR director at Bancpost, described the banking crisis as he sees it from inside: "The Industry that I entered two years ago was spectacular, an industry that grew fantastically. Currently, in Romania there are about 70,000 bankers. The growth rhythm in this industry has reached 10,000 new employees per year. The crisis means a stagnation for this market. We will continue to hire people, but not at the same pace as so far", he explained. The cost reduction will affect the human resources as well.

Pogonaru Florin, President of AOAR, explained that, during this period, team-buildings would take place "around the coffee machine", because the first cost that companies must give up on are the additional ones. He also explained that reducing the staff by 30% in the company that he leads targeted exclusively the ones that had already reached the retirement age, whom he can no longer afford to pay like in a normal period.