In these challenging times it is vital that we look for ways where we can make our companies more efficient. In most businesses HR has always helped in this process by simply reducing the workforce through redundancies, which is often seen as the quickest and for some, the easiest way to reduce overheads. However, it is really encouraging that there are a number of organisations out there that look at alternative ways to reduce costs before resorting to machete. E.g. Honda halting production.

Here are a few to start with: (please note some of these will depend on what's in the employees T&Cs)

Maybe more for Finance this one but in my experience significant cost savings can easily be achieved with specialist input on the benefits and expenses side, i.e.

• Is the current expenses policy in line with best practice - e.g. do you still pay over the odds for meals, travel etc
• Does more need to be done to ensure employees are within policy, e.g. around alcohol with evening meals and in hotel room , etc
• Are you maxing tax reliefs on employee payments - again meals, travel, working at home, etc
• Are company car users using their cars for business or duplicating costs by taking public transport
• If company cars are provided, there are many ways to cut costs, tax or generally.
• Could employees be rewarded more tax efficiently ?

Lovely idea but perhaps a bit idealistic.  Companies don't exist to create or save jobs.  They are there to make money for the shareholders.  If in the course of making money, jobs are created well that's great.  But if sales diminish and the market for product declines, well then jobs will be lost.  HR has a role to play in limiting or reducing the costs of production, in order to maximise the profit for shareholders, but we should be doing that all the time and not just in times of economic crisis.  1.  Reduce absenteeism  2.  Reduce production time lost due to accidents or breakdown  3.  Your chance to negotiate advantageous fee rates with recruitment agencies - ditto advertising space in local press - ditto day rates for training providers.  Many have been coining it for years but are now desperate for business.  4.  Ditch the consultants (seagull managers - fly in, poo over everyone, make a lot of noise, and fly off again)

Toodle pip

Judy

 Those closest to the business should have a good sense of how they can save money in their own particular area. So, how about asking them? The smallest things can be significant. I heard of an employer who stopped having fresh cut flowers in reception and this saved a few thousand a year.

What if you're in the office plant watering business?!

Interesting thread, have to agree that we should continually strive to remove waste and "Lean" ourselves regardless of economic fortune. However, we are in interesting times and our workforces are agreeing to many things (pay cuts, short time) that are quite unprecedeted in recent times....  We should remember this team work when things get better.

It is often easier to cut the obvious, ie employees, then look around for the sacred cows in our organisations such as free breakfasts, overseas trips, Company cars.  The reason being, once the employee is gone, you can forget about it but a plastic plant is for life and its hard to commit to an ongoing hurt you see every day.

The business case for challenging this is now clearer as keeping this "waste" is harder to defend, but some managers just find it so hard to let go..

 I agree. There  really needs to be a sense of us all being in this together with appropriate actions from the top down. 

Judy, I particularly agree with the idea of getting better deals with Training providers and Consultants. I think too many businesses get into a position of using the "usual suspects" for their HRD needs and accept their fees. Instead they should all be making sure that they have a budget, stick to it and at all times ask for discounts. You could use the analogy of buying a car (minus the Gov. scrappage scheme!) where no one ever pays the sticker price. Recently at an exhibition, a provider told me that they charge £5000 per day!!. When I asked how they justified that he said "That's how we are positioning our business in the marketplace". Well, good luck to him because at the next exhibition stand was another provider offering the same services for £1000 per day and who had better testimonials. I say shop around. Myself and others in my network are now using www.toptrainingbroker.com to post our HRD needs. it's FREE, simple and effective and importantly you can state both a budget and a maximum daily rate that you are prepared to pay! That certainly streamlines the replies. 

Out of interest do any of your companies have Internet restrictions or even a complete ban on Internet access? I think everyone has their moments where they look at personal sites at work. Have you ever thought of how much it costs your company?

If there’s a company with 100 staff on an average salary of £28,000 and each employee spends an 30mins a day on the internet, that costs on average £182,000 a year (variable on working hours etc.)
Though it can easily be argued that personal brakes would bediverted and taken elsewhere - texting, coffee breaks etc.

PR: wait...  I: wait...  L: wait...  LD: wait...  I: wait... wait...  Rank: wait...  Traffic: wait...  Price: wait...  C: wait...

I don't know if anyone is still shelling out for team away days - but if you are, why not replace them with charity days? They will cost nothing and the charities involved will benefit. You'll probably also find that they work better in terms of team bonding.

Ways to cut costs..

1 manage effectively at all levels

2 communicate and reward for 'above and beyond'

3 increase co-operation between functions

4 take out one layer of management

5 stop counting the pennies and look at the value (for example give a member of staff a parker pen & they will look after it, give them cheap throwaways and they will!)

6 manage all aspects of the business effectively - that means treating individuals as individual - not complying to some policy

7 stop all unnecessary activities - appraisals are only there because managers don't manage - so stop them

8 manage meetings - if someone is only needed for 10 minutes - only have them for 10 minutes - not the whole meeting

9 email - ban it from the company

10 printers look at the costs of running them

11 energy management - encourage screens and machines to be turned off at lunch times etc

12 use virtual meeting technology rather than have people travel

13 do you really need to have people in the office or could they work from home - the UK is lagging the world in remote working - office space alone costs a fortune

14 did I mention effective management

....

Mike

 You mean you have not done that aready ?