Provisional Blog

Rightsizing. Downsizing. Whatever you want to call it, eliminating employees can be an unpleasant proposition. While layoffs are sometimes a necessary business strategy, there are some cost-saving steps you can take to reduce your overhead – and the likelihood you’ll have to cut staff.

Step 1:
Decrease Hours Worked
Think about offering a four-day work week, or ask your staff to trade some pay for extra time off.

Step 2:
Reduce Wages
Consider asking your employees to take a temporary cut in their pay.

Step 3:
Allow Attrition
When an employee retires or leaves the company, assign their tasks to your existing employees, rather than hiring a new person.

Step 4:
Support Leaves of Absence
Let employees take leaves of absence with full benefits for a certain time period. Tell them they’ll have a job when they return, but it may not be the same job with the same pay.

Step 5:
Limit Overtime
Place limitations on the amount of overtime an employee is allowed to work. Also, consider hiring temporary employees if you have a sudden rise in demand, which can oftentimes be less expensive than overtime.

Step 6:
Offer Early Retirement
Offer an early retirement package to eligible employees.

Step 7:
Freeze Hiring
Don’t bring on additional staff until you feel like things have stabilized. If you do need some extra help, consider temporary staffing instead.

Step 8:
Create a Shared Ownership Plan
Let employees trade in some of their pay for company stock.

Step 9:
Allow Job Sharing
Let two or more full-time employees convert to part-time and share a position.

Step 10:
Temporary Staffing
Use temporary staffing to meet rises in demand without having to pay overtime or hire more full-time staff.

As a Northwest employment agency, we’ve helped many companies throughout the region avoid laying off full-time employees through the use of temporary, strategic staffing. If you’re in a position where lay offs seem imminent, please contact Provisional. We may be able to help.