ROLE OF HR IN RECESSION

CAN HR REALLY HELP COMPANIES TO GET

OFF AND SAVE THEMSELVES?
 YES ! ONLY IF …
 A CLEAR VISION IS GIVEN .
 STRATEGIES ARE DEVISED.

 EMPLOYEES KNOW WHERE THEY ARE AND

WHERE THEY ARE HEADING UPTO.
 PEOPLE HAVE THE SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY .

 ENVIRONMENT DEVELOPED TO MOTIVATE.

 RECOGNITIONS AND APPRECIATIONS.

 EMPLOYEES TO BE AS GLOBAL WORK FORCE.

 THE DILEMMA
 In July 2007, the Ford Motor Co. proudly announced a
second-quarter profit of $750 million
 August 2008 Ford and its two domestic competitors, General
Motors and Chrysler, the great recession of 2008 was on --
with extreme prejudice. Ford's financial trajectory (and the
American auto industry's overall direction) quickly went into
a tailspin.
 By the time the Times Square ball dropped to mark New
Year's 2009, Ford had suffered its worst year ever, racking up
a staggering $14.6 billion loss in 2008, with its stock price
hitting a rock-bottom $1.01 at year's end a drastic drop of
nearly 7 $.
OBJECTIVE
THE LEADER SAYS
 "One of the first things we did was add Felicia to the Ford
leadership team, During this latest turnaround effort, HR has
been there every step of the way. It has played, and will
continue to play, a pivotal role in enhancing and executing our
mission.”

ALLAN MULLALY
PRESIDENT – FORD
THE STRATEGIST SAYS
 "Most of all, we needed to get everyone in sync in
delivering the ONE Ford plan, ONE Ford is not just
about what we do, but how we do things. Within the
Ford HR department, we re-engineered practically
everything, creating a smoother glide path for supporting
the ONE Ford mission and goals.“
Felicia J. Fields
HR Group Vice President -
FORD
THE STRATEGY:
THE STRATEGY
 Effective Communication :

"deep dive" meetings to assess every HR process and

plan, looking for opportunities to turn fragmented ones
into common ones where it made sense.
 Team's overriding goal has been to support the company
by attracting, developing and -- most importantly --
retaining a world-class workforce.
 "We had to implement solutions and hold ourselves
accountable to the enterprise, and to each other, for
delivering the plan," Fields says.
 "Ford HR had never done this before, never looked at the
human resource function globally," she says. "Our job was
to bring it together in support of the ONE Ford plan. The
People Cycle Plan helps us do that."
 Fields and her team first re-engineered HR's
professional-development framework by focusing on
staff competencies, effectiveness and goals.
 Fields oversaw the creation of new role descriptions for
every job, and learning solutions for all development
efforts.
THE SURVIVAL:
 "Downsizing is very difficult," Fields says. "But we had to figure
out how to move quickly, to protect the skills and help the people
remaining at Ford.“
 More often, though, it was used to transfer knowledge between
employees who were leaving and those who were staying.
 Fields and the HR team also had to make some tough calls on
merit programs and bonuses. Ford gave no merit raises in 2007 or
2009, and no bonuses were paid in 2005, 2008 or 2009.
 Providing several different "Drive One" events that expose
employees to Ford products and lets them learn about senior
leaders' views on the products and technology.
 "With these types of events, employees became greater advocates
and were excited about the future and the vehicles they help
produce," Selke says.
 "Our goal was to build an informed workplace and help to ensure
that the leadership team was speaking in a single voice, providing
consistent messaging as we moved [forward]," Fields says.
THE SATISFACTION:
 "We can never go back to the way things were," she adds. "Alan
[Mulally] created One Ford as a way to produce a new company.
In [Ford's HR department], we are not taking anything for
granted."
 "I cannot tell you how good it feels right now to be at Ford. The
energy is palpable," Selke says. "You hear people talking
positively about the company. For those of us in HR, the last
words I would use are 'burned out.' We're passionate and excited
about the future."
RESULTS:
 Ford reported a 2009 net income of $2.7 billion -- the
company's first full year of positive net income since 2005
(and a $17.5 billion improvement over 2008)
 In April, Ford reported an impressive Q1 net income of $2.1
billion, and a pre-tax operating profit of $2 billion (a $4 billion
improvement from Q1 2009).
 Ford also avoided bankruptcy and declined Troubled Asset
Relief Program taxpayer-funded bailout money, neither of
which General Motors nor Chrysler managed to do.
CEOS AND THE HR
 Jack Welch, the legendary former CEO of General Electric, had it right
when he wrote in his book, Winning:

“To manage people well, companies should … elevate HR to a position of power

and primacy in the organisation, and make sure HR people have the special
qualities to help managers build leaders and careers.”

CEOs with the HR Background

 John Hofmeister, was EVP of Global HR for Shell Oil before President of Shell
Oil .
 Nigel Travis of Dunkin Donuts.

 Tim Solso of Cummins.

 Mr. Manoj Kohli CEO of Bharti Airtel Ltd .

 James Strong CEO of Qantas Airways .

 Colleen Barrett, former President of Southwest Airlines.