Does Your Workforce Strategy Support Your Business Growth?

by Pamela Wasley

Does Your Workforce Strategy Support Your Business Growth?

Every day as I pick up the newspaper I read the same headlines - high gas prices having a financial impact on consumers and businesses alike; sub prime mortgages pulling another financial institution into a crisis situation; and stock market volatility causing uncertainty with everyone.  On top of this, we have the unknown impact of the upcoming presidential election.

It's like being in a meteor shower with meteors coming at you from all angles causing many business leaders to wonder if they have people with the right experience and skill to get through safely.  A few wrong moves can put you out of commission for good.  So how do CEOs maneuver through these critical times? 

In uncertain times, fixed costs are what most executives look at first; thus their first instinct is to lay off employees.  But is it the right solution?  And if it is, do you sacrifice opportunity with a smaller group of people who may or may not have the skills to grow your business?  A recent report from Manpower confirmed that this is exactly what many companies are doing right now.  They are putting a hold on hiring until the economy turns around.  So how do these companies expect to grow?  And once the economy recovers, these same companies immediately go back to hiring full-time employees, thus increasing their fixed costs again.  For most companies, this seesaw effect happens every time the economy changes.

As I mentioned in my article in the Summer Issue of Cerius Edge, successful CEOs and executives achieve results in good or bad times by continuing to charge ahead, with an eye on mitigating business risk.  But to do this they must take a flexible and strategic approach to their workforce, thus avoiding the use of their fixed budget dollars to grow their companies.  As you know, a rigid organizational structure is very costly and sometimes a limiting factor on performance; thus resources should be built around specific business needs.  Using interim executives is the smart way to achieve this much needed flexibility and growth whether in good or challenging economic times. 

With interim executives you only pay for specific expertise when you need it. The interim executive can be hired to fill a full-time vacancy, or part-time over an extended period of time, or a few days a week throughout the duration of a project. The ability to hire an interim executive for two or three days a week provides businesses with a top tier professional with the maximum expertise at a manageable cost.  The company is now using variable dollars for short periods of time rather than fixed dollars for longer periods.  And on top of this, you are bringing in the specific talent and expertise you need in a particular area to achieve your short term goals. 

Another known fact is that recruitment, training and retention costs of full time employees are incredibly high.  Interim executives, on the other hand, can be hired quickly with no recruitment fees and since they are experts in their fields of expertise they deliver results in a very short period of time as opposed to the 60 - 90 days a full time employee requires to become productive.  The cost advantage of using interim executives is significant.

Are you being honest about what your current staff can and cannot do?  Is your operation as efficient as it could be to increase margins?  Is there a new market where you could be selling a new or existing product?   Did your last acquisition go as smoothly as you would have liked? 

Why not accelerate your company's growth by bringing in a seasoned, "been there, done that" interim executive to enhance your team and accelerate your growth?  Consider them when you have a gap in critical skills or bandwidth for a mission critical initiative as well as when you want to take the time to find the right person to fill an executive position but need someone to fill the gap and achieve results in that position while you conduct your search.

Are you being smart about your human resource allocation today?  It used to be said that interim executives were only brought into companies when the companies were in trouble.  Today, bringing on an interim executive means that the company is wisely managing its resources while charging full speed ahead. 

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