HR Strategic Planning: After Layoffs, Then What?

It is a fact, and a sad one. Layoffs are hurting the hospitality industry.

The pall that pink slips cast over the upbeat attitude our business projects, well, it's not a fun place to be right now.

HR is right in the middle of the action -- as is its rightful place. And HR executives are responding, with compassionate counseling, information on filing for unemployment, and other necessary words that employees on their way out can use to seek a fresh start.

Is there anything else that HR could, or should be doing? First, we must ask ourselves: Are we, the management team ready to move on from the layoffs? Ready or not, we must move on -- and HR should be playing a central role in recovering the company's fighting spirit, its accent on hospitality and employees. HR's strategy for recovering employee attitudes following layoffs cannot be divined in a vacuum, however.

If your hotel, restaurant or food service firm utilizes strategic planning:

1. Schedule a meeting today

2. Get the senior management team together, preferably off-site and in a place where cell phones, Blackberries,laptops, fax machines and all other distractions are banned for the duration of the meeting. Your team cannot afford distractions.

3. Consider use of an independent facilitator who is not an employee. Admittedly HR likes the facilitator role, and is adept at it; for this project, however, HR should have a seat at the table, not in front of a flip chart. At Hospitality HR Solutions we are glad to help with these projects, even on a one-time, one-day only basis. You can have a look at our strategic planning services by going to http://www.hospitalityhrsolutions.com/index_files/ourservices.htm.

The point is, there are plenty of excellent consultants out there; if you don't use us, please still consider the value that the outside perspective brings to what will no doubt be an emotionally charged meeting.

The meeting day arrives. Your facilitator will introduce himself or herself and then it's right to the subject at hand. Ground rules for the meeting must be established, points like: "each person's opinion matters"; "kill the negative facial expressions" and other signs of non-verbal disapproval; "we're all equal in this room;" "no interrupting one another." The Facilitator will help keep these rules in force.

A wonderfully versatile facilitator from my past life in corporate HR, Bruce Dudley (he's now in the corporate world himself, unfortunately, or I would recommend him for your strategy meeting) from whom I learned a lot about facilitating strategy sessions, used to begin these senior management conclaves with a "check in" process -- an intriguing and revealing, non-threatening portal through which strategy meeting participants arrive ready to go to work, committed to finding solutions.

As importantly the "check in" acted as a sort of ice-breaker for the participant while providing him or her with a few minutes right at the beginning to state what he or she hoped to achieve in the meeting. Bruce dutifully wrote each of the participants' meeting goals on a flip chart sheet, tore it off and hung it where we could all see that list throughout the day. It helped keep us focused. The hidden benefit for the Facilitator: It reveals biases -- negative attitudes that if not reversed, could torpedo the day before it gets underway. Layoffs give birth to negative attitudes, and management isn't immune. The Facilitator can help move participants to healthier outlooks, or at least open their minds that possibility.

Following the check-in which, depending on the number of attendees, could last an hour or longer, your Facilitator will guide you through a series of discussions that when strung together -- a process that will at times seem cumbersome or even unnecessary -- "why can't we just get to the point here?" is something you may hear -- will produce a road map beyond the layoffs. This will be your strategic plan, formal steps that your team will take to move beyond layoffs. Following the meeting it will be committed to writing and distributed to the team. Your CEO or other senior operations leader will likely appoint various department heads including HR to shepherd the strategic plan and to report regularly on its success.

Wishing won't do it. Nor will parties with balloons and food. The attitude of employees who survive layoffs needs far more careful rehabilitation, transformation actually. The process means that the company must literally examine its roots and its core principles to learn whether they still apply in the new business environment. A strategic planning process is vital to not only formalize how we examine the strengths and weaknesses of our business, but to ensure that we have a road map for moving beyond our current troubles.

Be honest and be well. -- Chuck