Our department manager just told us that the CEO wants cost-cutting ideas from each department, and she wants each of us to submit some suggestions.  Does anyone have ideas  beyond copying on both sides of the paper?

Also, should I be nervous about my job as the "newbie"?  Or is the company just trying to pare down expenses?

Cost cutting is a big area and it's hard to give advice without knowing more about your actual operation.  Therein lies the big clue to what your CEO is after: he or she wants you to be thinking about how you get work done.  If the business has a downturn, they may be thinking about cutting head count, too.  WIthout knowing more about your Company and its situation, it's hard to say much.  However, I'll answer your question with some questions and that will get some conversation going about different things you can do.

How large is your company in terms of employees and locations?  In how many states does your Company operate?  Do you use electronic time and attendance systems?  Payroll is done in-house or outsourced?  How many people are in your HR department?  What are their roles?

We tell people that they are to take 3 unpaid days off each summer.  It saves us hundreds of thousands of dollars in payroll and energy costs, and people love having additional days off to enjoy the nice weather.

It's hard to say without knowing your industry, business or geographical location, but here are some things I would look at: 

I would look at overtime costs.  Is that time truly needed from a business productivity standpoint or are (nonexempt) employees just getting to work a little bit too early and leaving just a little bit too late?

Another thing to do is to offer flex schedules. I don't know how your benefit eligibility is defined, but ours is fulltime = more than 30 hours per week. Right now out of 25 employees, 3 of us take advantage of this.  There is a 4th employee who we have offered it too, but she can't financially afford the loss in pay.  And realize that this can possibly also lower your workers' compensation insurance premium along with other premiums that are dependent on pay (such as STD/LTD, Life, etc).

Those are two easy ones. The harder ones move into cutting back on benefits.  Lowering the 401k match (look into profit sharing contributions so that the employer only contributes when the company is making money).  Adding/increasing employee premiums to offset some of the cost of insurance premiums.

Cutback on training/conferences/seminars. Are they truly business-necessary? Is there training closer so travel costs wouldn't be as high?

On other travel, do you limit the expensable reimbursements?  Does your company allow for upgrades? Does your company require the employees to give the company reward points for business travel?

 These are just off the top of my head....

These are some great ideas.

We did an Ineligible Dependents Audit. We found "aged out" children, ex-wives, and other anomalies on our plan.  Taking them off saved a  lot of money.

 

Stay in less expensive hotels at conferences, eat conference food rather than restaurant food when possible, and try to book flights earlier for cheaper fares.

I think most companies right now are looking for ways to cut expenses. If they can cut other things and save some money then the company doesn't have to even consider cutting some of the workforce.

Not an HR item - but we just looked at our office supplies. We were buying printer & copy cartridges from places like Staples or Office Depot. We started looking at prices online from places like Amazon and are saving quite a bit of money on these bigger ticket items.  Just doing a little bit of research before buying has helped us save hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars a month.

HR item - we went to a HSA/high deductible plan during our benefits renewal this year.  The company and the employees are both saving money. It is a lot of work on your part to find the right plan, talk about the differences b/t this type of plan and the traditional plans and also showing the employees how they can save money, but it is worth it.

We have certainly been looking at cost cutting and cost savings over the past several months.  It was a top down driven bus with the cost cutting coming from all departments and divisions.  One of the things that we have identified in our efforts was not only a way to cut costs, but a way to improve the business and our effectivness with customers.  I don't think we are really spending any less money, but we have re-defined how to better use the money we are spending and putting it in the right place towards the right cause.

 For a period of 3 months, we had each employee track thier hours spent each day.  This included everything from simple tasks like "answered emails" to bigger projects such as "processed payroll".  It was a great exercise to see how we spent our days and were we were loosing time and money on people wasting time.  It forced us to account for every minute of the day and assign a tasks, duty, etc. to it.  It cleared up a lot of questions about cutting costs.  People felt the pinch and in a way had to justify what they did each day.  Cost did not go down, but effecency went way up!

Medifast:

We have certainly been looking at cost cutting and cost savings over the past several months.  It was a top down driven bus with the cost cutting coming from all departments and divisions.  One of the things that we have identified in our efforts was not only a way to cut costs, but a way to improve the business and our effectivness with customers.  I don't think we are really spending any less money, but we have re-defined how to better use the money we are spending and putting it in the right place towards the right cause.

 For a period of 3 months, we had each employee track thier hours spent each day.  This included everything from simple tasks like "answered emails" to bigger projects such as "processed payroll".  It was a great exercise to see how we spent our days and were we were loosing time and money on people wasting time.  It forced us to account for every minute of the day and assign a tasks, duty, etc. to it.  It cleared up a lot of questions about cutting costs.  People felt the pinch and in a way had to justify what they did each day.  Cost did not go down, but effecency went way up!

 

How did your employees respond to having to account for all their time?

Speaking of cost-cutting ideas.  Did you see that as of 8/1/08, the state govenment in Utah is going to 4 10-hour days.  Do you think this is going to be a trend that will pick up steam as gas prices and all other prices seem to continue to skyrocket?  I know that a couple of the school systems around my area have been considering going to 4 longer days to save money on gas from the buses and also the utility cost in the schools themselves.

 

I don't think it can be avoided, but certainly not for some time. This is such a new concept (flex schedules have been around since the Dawn of Time, but mandating 4 day work weeks is different) that it will be interesting to see how Utah and others deal with the impact. According to the National School Boards Association (NSBA), a handful of states, with mostly rural school districts, are experimenting with altering their school calendar. I have seen stories of schools in Arkansas, Texas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Nevada, and California making such changes. Studies will be done for YEARS to see how we react to this change.

I'll be interested to see how courts respond to ADA claims from people who cannot do their jobs that long but were fine on the 5 day schedule under which they were hired.  Probably a bigger problem for public employers if it's going to be a problem at all.

We, CA non-profit with international employees, are considering doing the same thing.  With respect to TXHRGuy ADA comment, the CA labor code provides an alternative, (for non exempt) if the unit votes and agrees to the change, an alternative schedule can be set up to accomodate those that can't do the 4/10.   Seems like this would respond to that issue.

  CA labor code, section 511 ( (d) An employer shall make a reasonable effort to find a work schedule not to exceed eight hours in a workday, in order to accommodate any affected employee who was eligible to vote in an election authorized by this section and who is unable to work the alternative schedule hours established as the result of that election.  An employer shall be permitted to provide a work schedule not to exceed eight hours in a workday to accommodate any employee who was hired after the date of the election and who is unable to work the alternative schedule established as the result of that election.  An employer shall explore any available reasonable alternative means of accommodating the religious belief or observance
of an affected employee that conflicts with an adopted alternative workweek schedule, in the manner provided by subdivision (j) of
Section 12940 of the Government Code.

I see another interesting discussion on this same topic on the forum..

Another thing (depending on your industry) is the usage of casual labor. In some of our facilities, this metric can easily become an out of control issue. Discussions around scheduling and staffing can make a significant dent in this cos.