Ideas to take to 'cost savings meeting'

LadyC

Hello all,

I work for a small charity and there is wind that we may be put under notice of redundancy (but we haven't yet been, and we may not be, depending on various pending grants which we may or may not receive).

Anyhoo, I have been asked to attend a meeting tomorrow and to bring along some ideas of how we can cut costs/raise funds as an organisation. Short of suggesting pay cut/ cut in hours, I am stuck for any blinding ideas. Has anyone got any?!

P.S. I am prepared to cut my hours/pay to some extent but am due to return to work after mat leave next week and have just signed contract with childminder for the baby and also have older child in nursery so would be unable to cut back too much (prob not any more than 20%) Unpaid leave would be difficult for me due to childcare costs, but obviously I realise if I'm made redundant, this will be a bit academic anyway!

In essence I just wonder what other people's companies have done in these situations, and if it was successfl in keeping everyone employed?

Googlewhacker

I would ask them to look at cutting costs in all other areas before staff and you would like to help them cut costs in areas such as waste disposal, energy costs etc.

Also make sure that all unneccersary computers and equipment are turned off when not in use.

Are you buying your office supplies from the cheapest place? We found at work that it was cheaper to goto a supermarket for alot of products rather than buy from a office supply company.

Insurance- Are you getting the best insurance deal?

Company Vans etc (if you have any). Are these absolutely required? If they are are they comparing insurance costs again, is the fuel only for company use or are people taking the vans home and if they are should the be allowed to carry this on?

I'm only guessing here but this is my train of thought and where I would expect someone in your situation to go.

Imagine your workplace and ask how it is paid for and then ask if costs can be cut.

Chartered_Eng

It would help if you could indicate the type of charity you work for as it would affect the way funding could be raised. Money raising can be direct approach to companies down to tin rattling in the street or sponsorship in running events etc. Cost savings can range from shifting work hours to make the most of daylight (less power). Switching power contracts to a lower cost supplier. Trying to shift fundraising communications to on-line methods to save postal costs etc. The first thing to do is itemise the expenditure areas, list by priority and examine ways of reducing or eliminating the low priority areas.

crazygal27

If you currently receive any benefits then it is always prudent to suggest some of these go or are reduced before reducing staff. Do you get subsidized gym/canteen etc which it could be suggested could be stopped?

Can homeworking be considered? And would it be sufficient to maybe reduce the floor space of the building you rent or own and thus reduce costs there or rent out the space to someone else?

Finally, if you get to the stage where redundancy notices are given, could people in pools get together and between them agree to reduce their hours by enough to cover the reduction the charity would make by making people redundant?

Any suggestions that you give could turn in to a cost saving so look at the charity and see what they currently do that they could stop doing or do differently.

unholyangel

Giving up overtime pay rates if you are entitled to those.

However i would suggest that if you are agreeing to a cut in hours/pay etc that to make sure it is for a specified time, to be reviewed at the end of that time. This way if the situation improves, you can go back to your original contracts.

LadyC

Hello all,

Thanks very much for your ideas, some of which I took along and were well received so that's really great. As a team, we came up with quite a few, which if implemented straight away might buy us some more time before the possibility of redundancies.

I can't really tell you what sort of charity it is, at it's quite specialised and we have been asked not to give any indications of possible problems as this could directly affect our working relationships with some partner organisations.

There is already quite a lot of control over spending on rent/utilities etc. so we weren't able to identify much in the way of savings there, but some people agreed to taking some unpaid leave and other will do more time for the same money in order to maximise our income in some areas. As many of my colleague work part-time, it didn't make sense for some to cut their hours or we wouldn't actually be doing anything and that would have an impact on our income.

I think ultimately our survival depends on certain funding coming in from the government, and this we will only know in April/May time so I think we are just going to see how that pans out.

Thanks again for all your suggestions.
Laura