KEY CONSIDERATIONS

Cost Control

Take steps to manage your human capital costs:

• Audit systems and processes to identify work that can be outsourced, streamlined, or eliminated
• Review benefit plans to find cost saving alternatives; consider design changes, funding alternatives and cost-sharing arrangements
• Evaluate severance plans to determine if they are cost effective and equitable
• Review vendor agreements to determine whether vendors are meeting service agreements; contracts can/should be re-negotiated; service levels can be enhanced thus reducing drain on corporate resources
• Maximize benefit plan effectiveness through claims audits, dependent eligibility audits, death audits and data scrubbing, and Medicare claims audits

Risk Management

Monitor the impact of workforce changes on key programs:

• Pension asset disbursements that drive expense and funding volatility and asset rebalancing
• Major savings plan participation changes that can negatively affect non-discrimination testing
• Potential COBRA and disability claims increases due to downsizing steps

Develop checklists of non-routine compliance issues:

• PBGC underfunding
• Partial plan termination triggers
• Plant closure notifications
• Loan covenant triggers

Avoid reductions that could result in negative long-term impact:

• Wellness and disease management initiatives
• Safety and training programs
• Performance management initiatives

Talent Management

Increase employee effectiveness through technology:

• Streamlined onboarding
• Portals and self-service technology
• Total rewards sites that emphasize the retention message

Reduce employee absenteeism by:

• Instituting total disability management
• Improving the leave management program

Refocus employee development:

• Develop training strategies, curriculum, and delivery options
• Review and assess competency management

Workforce Optimization

Conduct strategic workforce planning to ensure the right resources in the right place at the right time:

• Analysis of current and future workforce demand/supply
• Action plan to close potential gaps

If staff downsizing is a consideration, establish a protocol for:

• A fair and objective evaluation of the jobs that will be eliminated, combined, or changed
• Evaluating the skills of the remaining workforce
• Determining the training and resources needed to support the remaining workforce

If restructuring is appropriate:

• Design an organization the increases efficiencies
• Redesign jobs
• Assess and redeploy workforce

If you need to implement workforce transition strategies, consider:

• Early or phased retirement
• Severance management

Develop a communication strategy to support your messages for:

• Communicating the company’s vision
• Delivering negative news
• Managing during change to drive desired behaviors
• Monitoring the pulse and needs of the organization

HR Effectiveness

Evaluate HR functions and special projects; categorize into what is:

• Necessary/important because of valuable return on investment
• “Nice to have” but not imperative to ROI
• No longer required

Determine the HR metrics that clearly drive corporate success:

• Develop a baseline
• Institute a tracking mechanism
• Monitor and report results

Evaluate the tools available to improve HR effectiveness with special projects:

• Employee meetings
• Divestiture swat teams
• Specialty call center support

For more information on Buck's solutions, visit www.buckconsultants.com.