Staff Restructuring in the New Economy

In times of recession, survival for most businesses means to do more with fewer resources. It is necessary to encourage policies that will help a company to become more efficient, like staff restructuring. This policy encompasses many decisions, from laying people off to relocating employees to other positions as a consequence of the deployment of a more rational structure, which in turn answers to a change in strategy caused by the turn in the environment. This chapter explains the concept of staff restructuring in detail and offers several methods to carry it out. Afterwards, the potential problems that may arise from implementing this strategy are discussed, and, finally, some clues on how to avoid such problems, or, at least, mitigate their consequences, are presented. It is also made clear that a short-term approach in this regard will lead to a future lack of competitiveness, and therefore, endanger long-term survival.