The crisis of confidence, which is probably the worst of the crisis generated after the wave of scandals that has affected major multinationals, accentuated by the threat of war against Iraq and the Middle East conflict, has been installed in the markets, unable to react even though the basic facts about the global economy are recovering.

In this situation, in which the executives we are quite far from being able to change the macroeconomic environment, we must avoid the temptation to justify our lack of creativity and adaptability to change, using the excuse of crisis and uncertainty about the future .

If we can not act on social and macro economic factors we must put all our efforts on the internal company factors, so that they allow us to seek and provide answers favorable to unfavorable environment in which we operate.

This challenge, which requires imaginative solutions, is a major challenge for executives in addition to trying to sort out the crisis, have a responsibility to manage in an efficient human resources in the enterprise.

Development Systems, a consultant specializing in the design and implementation of business strategies and human resources, has developed along with its European partners, a study to determine how HR strategies can be applied in times of crisis.

Participated in the study of 140 HR directors from Germany, Britain, France, Switzerland, Belgium and Spain.

80% of participating companies report that in these times of recession or worse have kept their results, but the rest, which coincides with the large ones, they reported improved results with the crisis. 20% of participating companies have more than 15,000 employees, 25% in 5000 to 14.999, 21% from 2000 to 4999 and 34% less than 1.999.

The sample is represented the following sectors: services (18%), Industrial (17%), financial (16%), Multiservice and Construction (14%), health care (13%), Technology and Telecommunications (8%), Consumption (7%) and Auto (7%).

The study concludes that the main challenges they face in times of crisis, Human Resources Directors are:

1.-The reduction of personnel costs, preferably without layoffs, coupled with restrictive negotiations on flexible contracts, working hours and business models.

2.-Reduction of administrative procedures without increased budgets, for example, gain support for industrial technology solutions (IT).

3.-staff reductions coupled with requirements to keep those employees whose performance is high and attract people with high potential in the company.

Reduced staff costs

In order to select appropriate measures to reduce personnel costs, the Directorates of Human Resources, discussed a series of key ratios, most commonly used, staff costs versus overhead costs (98%), costs per employee compared with costs staff (86%), indicators of sickness absence (85%) and overtime (80%).

It is important to note that not exist or are considered a lesser extent, figures on individual contributions per employee to the business, or performance indicators such as revenue per employee (30%) and suproductividad (28%).

It is surprising that only 35% taking into account the costs of recruitment. The importance given to the redundancy costs when analyzing the costs of staff, is 30% higher in Spain and France than in Germany.

The recommended measures to reduce personnel costs, if we consider the practice in all the countries represented are in this order: staff reductions, especially in Spain, redesign work schedules, use flexible contracts and act on remuneration policy. Although they are prioritized by order of importance given to different measures, it is surprising that when put into practice 75% of favoring flexible labor contracts, 53% by reducing the workforce, 50% by change the pay scheme and 34% to work on schedules.

With respect to the downsizing of 85% of businesses believe that best practices are negotiated and low redundancy programs, the use of outplacement is common in countries like Britain or Switzerland, but Spain is still very limited . 75% of the surveyed companies use early retirement as early as reduction of its workforce.

90% of the companies participating in the study states use flexible forms of employment such as contracts for work or part time. The stagnation of the process of hiring new employees, nearly 50% of the organizations that participated in the study, has also been one of the main measures of firms to try to overcome the economic crisis last year.

With regard to the remuneration policy has been chosen to freeze the salaries of employees (20%), lowest pay increases applied last year (20%). The wage increases have begun to associate the increase in individual performance, by about 30% of firms, the wage variable in times of crisis takes a star role.

You begin to attach importance to the remuneration to the letter as a means to retain talent.

The retention of those employees whose performance is high

One of the major challenges that companies have to face in times of crisis is the retention of persons whose detention is a key to organizational success.

There is therefore a major effort to identify key employees for what they are using the following tools: Measuring results targets (95%), performance evaluation (95%), measuring the potential (70%) The competency assessment (35%) and 360 º feedback (30%).

Examine the factors that affect retention of employees to identify the root causes of the problem and the needs and expectations of employees is vital.

Following this, nine out of ten organizations do exit interviews and about half had changed its retention strategy based on information obtained in this process.

The pursuit of better career opportunities mentioned by 76% of cases by causing employees voluntary severance, 71% of respondents refer to a better compensation packages, 52% lack of recognition and 46 % the difficulty in balancing personal and professional life.

To alleviate the above companies surveyed are taking the following steps:

“Better opportunities for career development: The company must demonstrate to the employee who has interest in his career and has the means to facilitate their development and careers.

Human Resources Directors who participated in the study, understand that designing and implementing career plans, opening up career opportunities to go to key employees as one of the main measures of retention, however only 50% have implemented this measure.

The existence of management training programs related to the different levels of career empowerment and to increase the employability of professionals is one other significant factors when it comes to retaining key employees.

The increased autonomy, empowerment and recognition are the main motivators of this group, for these reasons it is essential to the Supervisor role as a motivator, coaches and through feedback from its level of performance.

“The pay on demand: flexible starting pay to be understood as one of the most effective strategies to retain professionals without added cost to the company. It is necessary to resort to formulas pay on demand, in designing compensation plans that take into account the particular needs of each employee, we can not continue thinking that anything goes for everyone, it is necessary to resort to custom retributitos plans to attract and retain the talent even at the expense of smaller professional employability.

To design compensation plans to the letter is necessary to launch studies to see how this salary the market and know that is what truly satisfies pay levels for employees who want to retain.

Among the most used measures of retribution in kind are cars, pension plans and health insurance, life and accident. The stock option plans are also an important tool to attract and retain key personnel.

-Balance between personal and professional life: In these times, it is especially difficult to juggle work and life. 38% of executives recognize work over 55 hours a week, and over 40% takes work home. It is important that companies are aware that about 65% would rather have more free time at the expense of giving up a

salary increase. Flexitime and other flexible working conditions and work part-time, teleworking, job sharing, job sharing or flexible holidays are measures being implemented in most of the companies surveyed, with Spanish companies In this sense, far more inflexible. It seems that at this point we have much to do in Spain, as it is found that the best people are those who manage to properly reconcile work and personal life. Therefore the flexibility in employment not only benefits the employee, supports the medium to long term to the company, since what matters is not whether the presence and efficiency.

-To promote the emotional bond between the employee and the company: It is essential that any organization has clear goals and strategies for achieving them for everyone to commit to achieving them and paddle in the same direction. The communication must be clear and transparent especially in time of crisis to avoid generating distrust and uncertainty.

The organization must have effective channels of communication so as integration activities to create social bonds with the employee.

The company is not going well, the numbers do not add up and one day the boss calls us into his office. Not sorry enough but you have to cut costs, make a personal adjustment … In just a few minutes our life has taken a turn and we are ‘right out in the street’, unemployed. This situation, with their logical variants was repeated 990,327 times in the last twelve months (the number of people who have lost their jobs) November according to data from the Ministry of Labor and Immigration.

The first reaction is nothing more than job loss is often a mixture of helplessness, anger, sadness, and of course anxiety and uncertainty. The degree of each emotion depend on personal circumstances and economic obligations, but what not to do is let those feelings dominate us. Being unemployed is not the ideal situation, but neither is the end of the world. Who does not have an acquaintance who remain unemployed has changed her life (at best, of course)?

Good and bad is that unemployment is not much time off work. If you know you can use this period of unemployment turn out to be even beneficial from a professional point of view or personal development. The trick is not to sink and fill the space with useful activities to help us return to the labor market, refocus your career, exercise our minds ...

The possibilities are endless, but before we get deep into each, a tip: combating unemployment in the spirit, not indulge nor apathy and boredom, nothing better than getting up to an hour following prudential , care for our looks as if we were to go to the office and take us each day as a new challenge.

Browse Jobs

What is the first thing to make a stand? Search jobs. This is the most logical answer and repeated. Some people choose to be a ‘tribute’ a few weeks or even a whole month of calm, but sooner or later, everyone had just attempted to return to the labor market.

Job hunting can be considered a job in itself and in fact most experts recommend taking the task seriously and to design the day as if we were still active. That is, forget about being at home in their pajamas and out into the street. New technology has multiplied the sources to find work, although the first option is still the official one. The Government has recently launched Redtrabaj @, the new portal of the Public Employment System (SSSS), which brings together job offers and tips for success in our search.

Another alternative are the periodic classical role and announcements section. It is best not even have to buy them, just go to a library and target the ads that interest us.

But is the internet where you actually multiply the options and even on the Net there are portals that can be considered ‘classics’. Infojobs, Infoempleo, Monster, laboris, Michael Page, or Work Oficinaempleo are some of the most visited networks. Some rooms also include jobs (which is what this is) have items that help focus the search and career, and other networking tools.

Finally, employment agencies or ETT is a must for those who need to find a job immediately. The most important in Spain are Adecco, Randstad and Manpower, although you can access the full list through the Ministry of Labor (click here).

Make networking

It could be included within the formulas to find work, but not all the networking have to be exclusively focused on the workplace. One of the most common advice for people who lose their job is to squeeze your friends to bring a new opportunity but there is no reason to do so immediately to avoid “burning” all ships and ensure that those who come forward to help him make ‘from truth ‘.

Internet has also changed the way to network and once again added alternatives to the traditional fairs, congresses, meetings of entrepreneurs and talks. Every day there are hundreds of events that you can go to expand our network but can be exhausting or even impossible to go to all (especially considering that many did not even take place in our place of residence, the costs this implies). Locate these events is not always easy.

Some ways to do this is through the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE) and its regional organizations and business associations (to access a listing by region click here) or the Chambers of Commerce, and less’ official ‘pages Iniciador.com, LastThursday, Beers & Blogs, Opencoffeeclub, Coffee and Finance Loogic, Networking Eventosfera Active or, to give some examples.

In addition, the famous social networks are the ideal environment for networking and expanding contacts. In this case we do not mean Facebook or Tuenti both more focused on friends, but LinkedIn or Xing specifically for the professional world. Here we also find events of affinity groups and make new contacts with industry professionals and even ask our advice if we are to turn around our careers.

Form

Indeed if we want to change sectors or make a tour of our career is nothing better than to promote training and do a specialized course or master’s degree. The training always grows in times of crisis and unemployment may be the perfect excuse to return to the classroom.

According to a recent study by Randstad, 67% of unemployed people improve their qualifications arises as how to deal with the crisis and boost competitiveness. The SPES is a good starting point for back to school, because it has plenty to offer in terms of training courses with varying degrees of complexity and, above all, depth to which each topic addressed. The problem arises when we find jobs while pursuing one of these programs. Moreover, this type of training need not serve our purpose for that is very free.

In this sense, if we want to refocus our business one course of Inem can be a good starting point, but probably need something more. This is where we must consider other payment options. The MBA is a good example of master as a gateway to a specific sector, in this case by the management. Fortunately not all courses are as expensive as the MBA and there are alternatives even for a pocket of unemployment.

In addition, until 16 November, the unemployed between 25 and 40 years can access official masters scholarships for free. In any event, to promote training always pays off long-term unemployment and even perhaps make us more cautious with our spending, it is a safe investment.

It remains to decide the type of course that we take and for that, intellectually curious aside, it is best to look at two things: how to complement our training and skills and what professional opportunities offered by that particular industry. In this regard, to search for jobs more defendants may seek reports as the Professional Adecco Most searched 2009 Developed by the temporary employment business. In the area of the multinational sales and marketing specialists identified as the most successful sales, while Java programmers and SAP consultants excel in the field of information technology. Pediatricians and project managers are the most sought biotechnology in medicine and science, while in finance and legal matters are the drivers and bankruptcy lawyers. Finally, aeronautical engineers still have no trouble finding work.

For its part, the business school describes the most wanted as a professional engineer with knowledge of languages. In general, languages and office are always good options when seeking training courses and programs with a technical background that fits in the shift toward a more productive model for the World economy.

And now, more skills and open mind can change your life. Be prepeare to change your cereer path – work something else than used to do. You didn’t go to school to work only that you study – you educate yourself to work on market, to be smarter. Be smart – be positive and be yourself !!!

How did you beat the crisis ?

Often confuse the terms of freelance work and telecommuting, typically belongs to all in the same meaning when in reality they are two different things.

However, in the U.S. and some countries have a valid meaning as freelance can be used to define both meanings, but this is not true in the Spanish language.

Wikipedia definition of telework as:

Telecommuting, teleworking literally refers to the performance of work regularly in a different place than usual workplace. Usually refers to desk jobs that require minimal interaction with the customer and do not require attendance. It is common to use computational tools for communicating with clients or colleagues for the submission of results and, in most cases, to perform the activity.

The fundamental difference between “home work” and “telecommuting” is the prevalence of computers and telecommunications in the implementation of telework.

definition of freelance work as wikipedia:

It’s called freelance worker or freelancer (or self-employed and independent cuentapropia) the person whose business is to perform work specific to your occupation, trade or profession, independently, for others who require their services for specific tasks, often described as remuneration paid not according to the time spent but the result, no contract required both parties to continue the relationship beyond the request made.

Sociocultural perspective of freelancers and telecommuters:

From a cultural standpoint, being a freelancer is seen both above and below the social system. To be faithful to the original meaning of the term coined by Scott, some Americans and most Europeans see the freelance work as a higher social position.

However, many Asian and some Latin American countries seem to have a low opinion of freelancers, often associating the practice with personal failure (inability to get a job with a major employer) and even criminality.

Internet has opened many opportunities for freelancers and telecommuters, especially for those working in countries with cheap labor, normally devoted to computer programming and information technology in general.

It seemed appropriate to post this information on my blog as often try the term “freelance” (actually I am a freelancer) and I will not confuse the terms. Although in my case I am a “tele-freelancer”:)