Workforce Reductions

Reductions in force can occur for many reasons market changes, technology changes, and other drivers can influence the size of the workforce. Be aware of your PSSR administrative procedure and how it assigns duties. Often management and technical positions may disappear or be renamed. 

A general consideration is the overall availability of personnel. If your PSSR program requires PSSR teams to be of a certain size, a workforce reduction may guide the revision of that aspect of the procedure. 

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Some people have the privilege of choosing their retirement date others have it forced upon them by ill health or workforce reductions. 

In sum, the massive Soviet NBC weapons program is currently fragmented among numerous countries and employs only a fraction of its former workforce. Despite these major dislocations and workforce reductions, its residual personnel possess substantial weapons-critical expertise and are potentially attractive to potential proliferant states and non-state actors seeking to acquire NBC weapons. Whether the scope of the personnel of concern is large or small has important policy implications. While even a small number of people who illicitly transfer their expertise can create a serious security problem, it is much easier to contain the threat of a smaller, easily identified group of people than the threat of a larger, more diverse one. 

One particularly troublesome issue to do with workforce reductions is that, when cuts are made, it is often the personnel with more experience who leave. Such people, being older, are more likely to be qualified for early retirement or the package. Also, their departure leads to a greater reduction in costs because they are paid more than the younger employees. Unfortunately, this means that the newer people have fewer gray-haired mentors to monitor their actions and decisions. This loss of experience problem is not new— indeed it is the theme of Trevor Kletz s book. Lessons from Disaster—How Organizations Have No Memory and Accidents Recur (Kletz, 1993). 

Employers must develop a screening process to ensure that they hire only contractors who can accomplish desired jobs without compromising process and employee safety. In the past, contractors w ere a weak link in the safety process. As outsourcing increased with the workforce reduction, contracting became a very crucial issue. Contract personnel must be thoroughly familiar with the site safety policy and should be trained in the key safety aspects of the process unit equipment and chemicals used by the unit. Site personnel are... 

The CAIB judged that there is a broken safety culture at NASA (CAIB, 2003 vol. 1, 184-9). Other factors included schedule pressure (CAIB, 2003 vol. 6, 131-9) related to the construction of the ISS, budget constraints (CAIB, 2003 vol. 5, 102-5), and workforce reductions (CAIB, 2003 vol. 5, 106-10). The CAIB concluded that the shuttle program has operated in a challenging and often turbulent environment (CAIB, 2003 vol. 5, 118), and that it is to the credit of Space Shuttle managers and the Shuttle workforce that the vehicle was able to achieve its program objectives for as long as it did (CAIB, 2003 vol. 5, 119). 

Conduct a workplace violence risk assessment to identify potentially violent situations. Take a look at environmental conditions, such as physical conditions at the work site organizational issues, such as recent restructuring or workforce reductions drug and alcohol use in the workplace and bullying or intimidation. Evaluate each potential risk and develop a plan to address those identified as high risk and those most likely to cause serious injuries. 

As discussed earlier in this chapter, the main requirements to ensure an appropriate safety culture are similar to those which are advocated in quality management systems. These include active participation by the workforce in error and safety management initiatives, a blame-free culture which fosters the free flow of information, and an explicit policy which ensures that safety considerations will always be primary. In addition both operations and management staff need feedback which indicates that participation in error reduction programs has a real impact on the way in which the plant is operated and systems are designed. 

The first area focuses on the cultural and organizational factors that will have a major influence on the effectiveness of a human error data collection system and how well the information derived from such a system is translated into successful error reduction strategies. Regardless of how effectively the technical issues are dealt with, the system will not be successful imless there is a culture in the organization which provides support for the data gathering process. No data collection system aimed at identifying human error causes of accidents will be workable without the active cooperation of the workforce. 

High labor costs In processes in which excessive handling is required, such as in batch operation, bulk quantities can often be handled at lower cost and with a smaller workforce. Revised layouts of facilities can reduce costs. Sometimes no direct reduction in the labor force results, but the intangible benefits of a lessened workload can allow the operator to assume greater responsibility. 

Despite the clear focus on cost reduction, due regard should also be given to product and process safety. For PV to become widely adopted at the Gigawatts (GWp) scale with a large production workforce and components distributed on millions of commercial and domestic roofs, then safe systems must be inherent in future products. Safety must start with the materials, equipment and the process of manufacture, and include the product safety for system installation and, most importantly, any long-term fire and health aspects of unattended PV systems. 

At the very least, an HR office will usually verify (1) that the individual did work there, (2) the dates of employment, and (3) the job title. The company may or may not release salary information or why an employment relationship ended. However, many organizations verify or refute data that you provide to them. Therefore you can ask questions such as, This person says her final salary was 30,000. Is that consistent with your records or This person indicates his employment ended due to a reduction in workforce. Is that what your records show The respondent can then simply answer with a yes or no. 

The next stage in the model is the reduction of risk by having known adverse agents of injury or illness controlled or removed. The reduction in risk leads to the final stage, which is an improvement in health and safety status of the workforce. This general model leads to a more specific approach that can be applied at specific workplaces. 

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