The painful part is that over the last year (and continuing this year) all of us have had to go through redundancy processes, which is not only emotionally difficult but sets our cost basis to a new level. Some of that shift in financials is healthy but some of it is also critical, as people are more stressed out with smaller teams and lower budgets. As HR leaders, this is an area where we can continue to support the business.

Conversely, sometimes cost-cutting and cost savings can spark creativity, so there are some healthy aspects to it all. If you look at other functions (for example, marketing), when you have a smaller budget you need to think about what you can do to achieve the same results but in a more innovative way. That is the same for our function – if, for example, we can’t afford to spend money on big training seminars then we can start to introduce more masterclasses which we host internally. That path to profitability is, of course, also linked to people costs and you do need to make sure costs are kept in check and that you do not over-hire. An interesting solution to this is employing models such as “stay interviews” with current employees to find out what skills they have and how to develop them to keep them in the business. The interviews themselves are really very similar to when you assess someone for hire, so why not direct those interviews internally instead of letting current employees go and rehiring for them?