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Human Resources in the recession

Date: 18 Jul 2011

UCD Smurfit School’s Bill Roche, Professor of Industrial Relations and Human Resources, has led new research that has discovered that the level of influence achieved by people working in HR is without precedent. Professor Roche outlines the team’s findings in an article published in ‘People Management’ magazine.

He notes that the HR profession is  playing a pivotal role in helping firms to survive Ireland's economic crisis. This has come about because firms have often become dependent on HR knowledge and expertise for survival, and for the implementation of HR response measures to chart their way through the recession. This has led to HR becoming "business partners" in the recession, both contributing in a major way to companies' response strategies and working with line managers to smooth the implementation of response measures.

He goes on to chart and detail  the use of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ HR practices within organisations, such as prioritising communications as a ‘soft’ skill and pay freezes as a ‘hard’ skill.

He concludes that there are no compelling  indications that  the recession is acting as a catalyst for lasting changes or transformations in work and employment patterns.

The research was conducted by a team from UCD Smurfit School of Business in University College Dublin and Queen's University Management School in Belfast. It was funded by the Irish Labour Relations Commission and supported by the CIPD, the Irish Business and Employers' Confederation and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

To read a full copy of the article which was published in the web base magazine People Management click here

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