Layoff, Downsizing, Cost Cutting, Cutbacks and Lean Methodologies giggles around us in today's economic environment. The global economic downturn finally hit IT industries by routinely filling the headlines with the lay off announcements and unemployment numbers rising.

Companies discover that the only way to survive is to dramatically cut back, often that includes lean the resource size. It's the classic layoff problem. Relief from bottom-line, pressure on the one hand; and low morale, bad publicity, and the loss of talented employees on the other.

But there are ways to bolster your business's bottom line without handing out pink slips.

Here are the few strategies to avoid the layoff bomb:

1. Cautious Hiring Strategy

Hiring appropriately leads to escape of lay offs. When you can afford more hired hands, should not step into overboard. Bottom line the starting salary for an employee based on what you have.

So that, when work slows to crawl, workers and your company won't be overloaded in overhead.

2. Employee - Exchange Strategy

Employees can be placed in temporary jobs with other companies for a set period, usually not longer than six weeks, during slowdowns. This program allows providing improved job stability. Though might reduce the payroll when necessary, but to still have trained workers available when needed.

3. Shared Work Strategy

Shared Work is a voluntary program that provides employers facing a temporary decline in business. Rather than laying off a percentage of the work force to cut costs, an employer can reduce the hours and wages of all or a particular group of employees.

4. Corporate Welfare Strategy

Corporate Welfare deals with cutting down the several percentage of monthly pay and saves towards future. When economic heads down, avoid laying off by utilizing corporate welfare funds as employee's monthly salary. If no layoffs, pay back the savings when employee quits the company.

5. Future Force

Encourage domain based R&D group in your company. Get all the high profiled benched employees to R&D group based on their domain expertise and their interest. R & D Technology group foresees the future technologies to satisfy an ever growing market demand.

6. Patenting Ideas

The role of patents in technology market is huge. Anyone can be innovative if they put their mind to it. It may not happen overnight; anyone can become an inventor ! So tune up your employees to solve your own company's problem and use a little bit of innovation. If you can come up with a solution for those problems and get a patent on your idea, you will be the one to capitalize on it.

7. Trim down the perks
   Before you take the knife to regular benefits, take a hard look at office extras. Perks should be the first thing to go, unless employee morale is going to plummet. Skipping a year-end bonus can save your company money. If it\'s a question of getting a bonus and getting a pink slip, most employees will thankfully skip the extra pay if it ensures their long-term employment.

8. Early-out Options

Companies also can save jobs by offering severance to senior employees who are close to retirement. That's how a majority of human resource professionals surveyed by the Society for Human Resource Management said they were cutting back without laying off workers.

9. Salary Cuts

People understand company is in a very extraordinary set of circumstances, and extraordinary times require extraordinary measures. Taking a pay cut is preferable to losing your job. Depending on the company's business status, certain percentage of pay cuts can be announced.

10. Limits offices

If your company has remote offices, consider closing them and sending your employees home to work. In today's world, most of the companies has facility work from home. Employee's prefer it that way, and it saves the company money on real estate.

11. Increase Your Businesses

During Market slowdown, businesses would gradually reduce and the number of staff (resources) would increase. The problem isn\'t that you have too many staff for the business you have, but too little business for the staff you have. Puts a different perspective on the problem. This creates an imbalance between the amount of business and the number of staff. To set this balance, Companies should bring in more businesses. This could be done by training the benched employees in presales of their domain in the market and encourage more sales or service. Thereby bringing in more businesses, which would set the balance of business and staff.

I think, the most important part when you\'re trying to avoid layoffs is communication. Ask your people for help. Involve them in the process.

If we keep on thinking, we still get more ideas which can avoid layoffs.

llenor Solutions, one of the Indian Business Consulting Firm has designed and successfully implemented a systematic and effective approach to help companies to effectively reduce lay offs and to maximize their IT efficiency. llenor also explores knowledge towards solving your business issues. For more details contact support@llenor.net.

-Rajshekar, Think Tank Group, Llenor Solutions, Bangalore.