ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about a story of three graduates, Don, Annette and Rob, entering the human resources field, encounter and deal with workforce management challenges and issues and developing their own professional competence through experience. As the economy worsened, the downsizing tsunami began. Scrambling to cut costs to offset drops in revenues, one organization after another cut their employee headcounts. Rob's consulting firm saw projects frozen or cancelled. There was some work for the Human Resource (HR) consulting practice as organizations pondered how they could cut their people costs without devastating their ability to serve customers or spend all of their time in court defending themselves against wrongful discharge suits. The staff in the HR consulting practice was booked solid, and Rob suspected that a lot of organizations would need creative ideas for reducing costs without endangering the viability of their workforce in the long run.
