The Headcount Solution : How to Cut Compensation Costs and Keep Your Best People

Employee involvement is a key ingredient. Don’t make the error of keeping the bad news from people in an effort to save them discomfort. The worst punishment for employees is to know that something is afoot but not know exactly what.

Employee involvement means three things. First, it means early, open, and continuous communication. Second, it means asking for opinion and feedback. Third, it means meaningful engagement in the process. It doesn’t take much time, for example, to brainstorm cost- cutting ideas.

Employee involvement in the headcount solution will yield the following benefits:

• Better decisions because you are using several heads rather than one.

• Commitment to decisions because the choices are the products of joint analysis and decision making.

• Surer and faster implementation because there will be no surprises. People will already know what’s going to happen and why. They will already have worked through the “how will this affect me” anxiety and will be committed to the course of action.