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The word `Pink' describes a state of joy and
suggests good health, but in the business
world it has a negative connotation and nobody is pleased to hear that word as it is not
the favorite color of the working folk. A pink slip
is the way of notifying a person that he has been terminated from employment. The concept
of `pink slip' has come a long way from when Henry Ford dreamed up a way of evaluating his
assembly line employees and, later on, it was used by
many American department personnel as a discharge notice in an employee's pay envelope to notify
the worker of his or her termination from employment. When a company is in crisis
and losses are reported, the first thing that comes
to their minds is to lay-off some workers and cut down on expenses which might save them
a sizable figure in the payrolls. But handing over
the pink slip is not the only option left for organizations hit by troubled times. It is, in
fact, more harmful in the long run.
As organizations grapple with the recessionary trends, downsizing, retrenchments, lay-offs
and salary cuts are becoming a common phenomenon and the current times are actually lessons
for organizations who must understand that it is better to be sensible in good times so that they
do not have problems during recession. While termination of jobs is considered the last
option for most organizations, a lot depends on the
crisis at hand. One needs to be in touch with
those people and take personal care to keep them engaged all the while. By doing so, one can
take good people into confidence.
According to Dr. Cabot Jaffee, Chairman, Global Talent Metrics, "During the selection
and recruitment process, if the right candidate
has been shortlisted, it should not come to lay-offs
and pink slips. A good candidate will always
remain an asset, more so during times of crisis when
`extra work' is demanded from him/her. In other
words, what the companies need to do is bring into
use stringent recruitment procedures and tools
that will enable the company to welcome aboard the most suitable person for the post, rather than
hire an average candidate whom they might have to issue the pink slip later on during crisis time.
The fact cannot be denied that some companies
indulge in job cuts only to protect their profit margins. |
