Painless Partings

'Soon after Citigroup let go of 100 employees across India last month, many functional heads received an unusual brief. They were asked to scout for jobs for those who had been terminated. Counsellors were also roped in to soften the blow and professional services firms were hired to make the career transition of the terminated employees - some of them star performers - smooth. At this moment, Citi is not the only company trying to find jobs for the people it has let go. A few others, including Bharti Airtel and DLF, are also doing it right now or have done so in the recent past, officials at these companies said. India Inc, now in the throes of its second round of layoffs since the Lehman Brothers collapse in late 2008, is slowly learning to treat executives well, even as they are being led up to the exit door. Job cuts are inevitable. But the cold, insensitive and sheepish way of handing out pink slips is slowly being replaced with responsible and supportive approaches. HR gurus say how a company parts ways with employees will have a significant bearing on the morale of the remaining workforce and also on the company's ability to attract talent in the future. Managing layoffs well is important for the sustainability of the 'employer brand'.

"Citi provides services of global outplacement firms to employees displaced during any review," says Stephen Cronin, managing director, human resources, Citi South Asia. It helps such employees with coaching on job search skills, interview techniques, placement support and even basic application letter-writing skills. The bank foots the bill. GE is another example. "In the past, we have either absorbed the affected employees in other GE businesses/roles or engaged outplacement agencies to help them get suitable opportunities externally," says David C Lobo, senior VP-HR at GE India. Bharti Airtel, which has made hundreds of jobs redundant in recent months after a restructuring exercise, now works with an 'ecosystem of partners to identify suitable placement opportunities' for employees it lets go. "We do our best to facilitate the career transition," says an Airtel spokesperson.' (Source - On layoffs, India Inc still leaves employees in the lurch, Saumya Bhattacharya, The Economic Times, Feb. 9 , 2012)

The article goes on further to show how in India outplacements is an exception rather than  a rule. Companies tend to think why should they care for a person who is leaving anyways! I remember I had written an article 'Keep them in Fold' in Outlook Business (Aug. 2009 issue) as well as in a column in 12th June 2009 issue of Business Line titled 'Lay off the lay-off idea' on the perils of letting-go people in the worng way and the alternatives that companies might have in either seeking better utilisation out of them or letting them part in a way that smoothens the rough edges, normally associated with layoffs. The impact of lay-offs is not only on the employee who has been asked to leave but on the other employees who have been asked to stay. Further more the impact is on their families. Treating people with respect is important even when they are asked to leave. Resulting enagagement of the employees, who stay back, is amazing for they will always have at the back of their minds that their companies shall never short-change them, even in the worst case scenario.