Explain the concept of Downsizing

There are a large amount of the techniques and the practices that come in to the picture from the time to time for improving the various parameters in the working of an organisation from the time to time. One of such kind of the technique is referred to as the Downsizing and before going on to the how this kind of the technique actually works and when the same is brought in to the working, it is very necessary to have an in depth understanding of the exact meaning of the same. As the name suggests the technique of the downsizing refers to the decrease in the size of the some thing and it can be any thing starting from the decrease in the number of the staff members to the decrease in the various kinds of the expenses that may help an organisation to improve the level of the profitability from the time to time. The process of the downsizing refers to the decrease in the number of the staff members of an organisation when ever there is a requirement and this has the straight kind of the affect on the expenses of an organisation. The process of the downsizing was not to the management of all the organisations but was very rarely used by any kind of the organisation in the various parts of the world and in fact this kind of the trend has come in to the picture in the past few of the years that have gone by.

There was a time decades back when the people were not willing to the jobs as were dependent on the various other kinds of the self employments and in the number of the cases the employment was of the farming but as the time passed the trend changed and in the initial phase of this thing, the organisations were finding it very hard to get the man force for working in place of them in the organisations and at that point of the time there was no chance of the coming in of the process of the downsizing as the number of the employees was less and the requirement of the same was much more in the number. But as the time has changed the trends have changed a lot and the present situation is such that the numbers of the jobs are less and the workers are in fact who at times find it very difficult to arrange the jobs for themselves. The use of the staff members is very purely based on the requirement these days in the present corporate sector as when there is the requirement of the staff, the company or the firm uses them and when ever there is no requirement of the same, the company follows the rule or the practice of the downsizing. So now in the very simple words the process of the downsizing can be referred to as the removing the number of the staff members from the job as there is no requirement of them at that point of the time. This kind of the practice is very common in the organisations where there is work that is very seasonal in the nature. One very common example that comes in to the lime light in this regard every season is the organisations that are working in the field of the milk industry.

Now in the summers the production of the milk is comparatively very less and at the same time the demand of the various kinds of the products of the milk like the ghee, butter, milk powder etc is also very less and as a result of all this the summer season for all these kind of the factories is very slow and in this duration they are not at all requiring the staff members in much of the quantity and the result of all this is that the staff members in this kind of the season face the practice of the downsizing. But the same has come in to the picture very more often and this was the case that was observed in the various kinds of the organisations in the various parts of the world in the time of the recession. The organisations in that time frame of the recession were not having the work to do and the whole result of the same was held by the staff members as they were removed from the firms or the companies as the organisations were not having the work for them. The organisations these days try to restructure themselves from the time to time and starting from the various kinds of the resources; the company is always ready to reduce the expenses by any way that is required. The organisations these days can change from the expensive raw material to the cheaper one and at times can even out source the things to save the costs and same is the scene with the human resources. The organisation calculates every thing and in the case if it finds that the things that are being made by the human resources can be received by the various other organisations by out sourcing the same, then there is in fact no need of all such kind of the staff members and here comes the scene of the downsizing in an organisation. So the concept of the downsizing is in fact based on the fact that says that the staff members that are not required by organisation are removed by the organisation and this is in fact called as the process of the downsizing of an organisation.

A lot has been said in this regard and at the same time a lot of the research work has been done in this regard and the various data that has come in to the picture from time to time by the various kind of the research work that has been made in this regard says that almost 85 per cent of the staff members who were in fact referred to as having the white collar jobs have been the victim of the practice of the downsizing and this is the data that has been made by studying the facts and the figures of the 1000 companies working in the various parts of the world. The data that has come in to the lime light says that not only the white collar jobs but at the same time a large amount of the blue collar jobs have also been facing the same problem in the past few decades. This is the one factor that has been the reason for the process of the downsizing but the other fact or the factor that supports this cause has been the requirement of the new generation. This kind of the picture has been observed in the various parts of the world starting from the various developing countries to the developed countries of the world as well. If the picture is compared in India, this scene can be very well understood if the scenario of the banking system is taken of India. There was a time when the 80 per cent of the staff that was working in the public sector bank was not young and the working style was such that they were not at all ready to accept the changes that were coming in there way of the working. But the time has been changing very facts as in the past few decades the technology has moved a great leap by coming in to the picture the mobile phones and the computers. These have been the great 2 kind of the changes that have taken the world to the new kinds of the heights as the work now has become a lot easier and accurate and also at the same time very fast in the nature of the working. But with the coming of the computers in the banks all these people were not at all ready to accept the changes and there ways of the working and this made it very difficult for the management of the organisation to survive as the management was spending a lot on all these things but then also the results were not at all coming. The result of all this was that the staff was reduced in the various kinds of the ways and in the case of the public sector banks, the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) was brought in to the picture with the lot of the more kind of the features and facilities to attract the staff members to leave the organisation.

The result of all this was that as with the coming of the computers, the requirement of the staff decreased as the amount of the work that was in fact being done by 3 staff members could be done by a single computer and hence the result of all this was that instead of getting 3 people, only 1 people to use that computer was required and the result of all this was that 2 people were almost extra and the other issue was that the generation that was working in the banks was old and was not that quick to learn about the changing environment involving the computers as well and the result of all this was that the banks went for the downsizing of the human resources as the requirement was in fact lesser now and also to get the new generation in to the picture so that the technology that is coming in to the working now can be handled in a much better way. So it was that time all most a decade back when the public sector banks were in to the phase of the downsizing to fulfil the various requirements of the banks and now after getting out of that the banks as of now are in to the process of the heavy recruitment for the various types of the branches. Now as discussed above the process of the downsizing is not always carried on as a result of the reduction in the work and hence the same must not be mixed with that as the process of the downsizing can be made or brought in to the picture when both type of the scenes may prevail, starting from the reduction in the work or there may be increase in the number of the work. The process of the downsizing is good for the organisation but it does not leave a good impact on the reputation of a organisation in the eyes of the staff members or the people who are in the wait of getting the job as when the staff members are made to leave, these set of the people are not satisfied with the organisation and as a human nature will never speak good for the organisation and it also becomes a concern for the staff members who are retained by the organisation as all of these staff members will feel bit of the insecurity in the nature of the working and will have a feeling that the organisation is not at all there and when there requirement will be over, they will also be shown the doors and all these type of the feelings have a great amount of the affect on the working of the staff members in an organisation and the affect of all this is also that the people who will be having the wait of getting the jobs will try to avoid such kind of the organisations if the need is shown or if given an opportunity. Hence the risk of the reputation for the organisation is always there and hence it is very necessary for the organisation to gain the trust and the confidence of the staff members as then the organisation will be able to get the best out of the staff members and as the whole the organisation will be benefited. So it can be said that the practice of the downsizing must be avoided and in the case if the same is done, it is very necessary to carry on with the things in a very planned way.