Advertorial: "It has become a recent trend amongst companies that the first refuge in an economic recession is to look at reducing costs in the quickest and easiest way possible. Invariably, one of the main methods of doing this has been to reduce human capital cost and to cut training and development budgets. This method however, contains a hidden cost, especially related to key personnel, key specialists and high performing talent.In the process of out- placing key personnel, many companies fail to take stock of what they are allowing to be lost from their organization; customer relationships, intellectual property, company specific know-how and industry knowledge, not to mention the investment already used to develop those staff members throughout their career.
The loss of this knowledge and the attached customer relationships leaves the company needing not only to re-hire post-recession, but to also re-double its development and training efforts in order to catch up when the market recovers. At the moment the new growth starts, the employment market will become more competitive and companies can possibly find themselves re-hiring old staff, often at a higher wage than before.
In order to offer companies an option other than losing key staff, CEU Business School has formulated a „Safeguarding Talent in the Recession program which seeks to offer an alternative solution for employers by helping them hibernating companies’ key talent. Instead of releasing key people and terminating their contract, the School suggests companies to offer their employee on a one year un-paid or minimal salary sabbatical.
During this year from work, these employees can join the full-time MBA program (11 months, starting September 2009) at CEU Business School which would be financed by the employing company. Since the classes are scheduled not for whole days and not for every day of the week, some working hours can also be scheduled by the employers as appropriate. If a company feels the need for the full-time working capacity of a particular student already during the year, CEU offers the person a chance to switch directly to the Executive MBA (weekends only) program.
“Our aim is to accommodate the needs of the current financial climate, so that the companies can also be flexible in their approach and offer employees more than just one option. Maintaining your key talent during difficult economic times, while not having the pressure of their full wage costs on the balance sheet is a tremendous asset for companies in order to emerge stronger out of the recession. The market feedback to this program has been very favorable” - says Ewout van der Schaft, Assistant Dean of External Relations.
“One of the leading investors in Hungary and the CEE region, KÉSZ Holding PLC are also facing some challenges in the current recession. In order to protect its employees, the company has decided to participate in the newly developed CEU Hibernation Program. "According to management forecasts, we believe that the current market situation will get better in about a year, so our aim is use this time to create a young and dynamic group of new managers together with CEU Business School.” - says Szabolcs Lénárt Director of Operations.
“Undoubtedly the hardest decision will be to enroll our most talented young colleagues, whose professional experience is invaluable during the recession and will be missed. But when they are back after their year at CEU, I believe we will be better placed to take advantage of the recovering market than ever before.
Therefore, the company will cooperate very closely with the School, so that the MBA students will still get an insight on the board meetings and all managerial decisions. Our long term plan is that, when they graduate, they will be well prepared to take part in the leadership of the company.”
More information from Noemi Sidlo by clicking here, +36 1 887 5180
26.06.2009