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Far be it from me to wantonly disagree with experts, but I have just read a review of a book by a group of New York academics, which, if the reviewer has conveyed it properly, cries out for criticism. The authors, professors of human resource management, argue that hiring and promoting people on the basis of past experience and past performance is not enough. Instead, companies would be better advised to plan more rigorously, identify where and when particular talents and skills will be needed, and then find, train and develop the right people for the right posts. Human resources requirements must be subordinated to strategy, they say.

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Several times a day for the past few weeks Career Energy has been receiving calls from HR professionals, all of whom have the same question: “My company is making people redundant. We would like to offer them outplacement. I have not done this before. Can you tell me about it?” Clearly outplacement is being talked about in HR circles as a new and essential component of the redundancy process. But why has it become essential now? (more…)