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Last year was a trying time for all businesses including Motorola. What are some lessons for leadership with regard to Human Resources?

When it comes to HR actions during a downturn, especially on right-sizing the organisation, leaders need to show consistent and impartial behaviour to message credibly. We need a rationale/ parameter for a decision. This rationale has to be communicated consistently. In Motorola the parameter was not non performance of an employee but closure of some platforms. You had employees who were highly talented and rewarded recently now being laid off.

At Motorola, we had to take this difficult decision since we had to rationalise/unify the platforms based on strategic intent towards “Technology for Future”. We were aware that certain mobile platforms would not exist in the long run as we decided to exit such platforms. All employees irrespective of performance or levels or functions in such platforms got impacted. Suddenly your status changed from highly employable to unemployed.

In countries like India one’s employment and employability is looked up by society and so a company has to make sure that there is:

• Support mechanism at place when an employee loses his / her job and cushion this impact

• High level of preparedness / readiness of impacted employees toward finding another job in the market which is in a state of flux

While we could have done this internally it was important to partner with a company like Right Management who could handle this in a professional and a very objective fashion. Right Management, being an expert in this area could connect with the impacted employees, and also help them understand the current reality including the fact that other companies were taking similar decisions and trends in employment etc. This approach brings in more authenticity in the message being conveyed by a third party.

Motorola, the Six Sigma pioneer and innovator is a global communications leader powered by a passion to invent advanced ways for the world to connect. It was one of the first global telecom companies to enter India. Motorola partnered with Right Management to support employees in managing this transition effectively on account of global decision to exit certain lines of businesses and technology platforms. In conversation with V. Ramachandran, Senior Director-HR, Indian Sub Continent & Regional Lead, HR Governance, Employee & Labour Relations.

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You mentioned that while exiting certain businesses you continued to invest in other emerging areas? How did the right sizing decision impact employees within the firm?

We were able to manage the employees within the organisation on account of regular, contextually and authentic communication to both impacted employees and employees who were retained. The involvement of line managers and not limiting the communication to the HR managers also helped. Senior leaders along with Local HR were mandated to be present physically for any communication made to any exiting employee. If the leaders were out of country, then they were required to be

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Right Management’s Approach to Career Transition

available on phone. It was communicated very clearly and consistently. Hence what really helped was:

• Communicating contextual relevant messages such as “we are exiting windows mobile platform” and not keeping messages at a 30,000 feet level

• Ownership and communication of the decision from the employee’s manager

• Message being authentic and credible for example, it was clear that if we are exiting Windows Mobile platform and unifying it to an Android platform and it was not contained to a particular

geography that is “it’s not about only ‘you’ but all employees working on this platform irrespective of country, function, level etc.”

How did you manage the situation where at one side you were right sizing and on the other side still had to hire candidates for the new set of projects?

We had been going to campuses to hire top talent. We had offered jobs to 100 talented engineers when the down turn hit us. We had to hence defer the joining date and keep the new hires on stand by. In all likelihood such hires would look for other jobs. We realised that and kept in touch with the these candidates

through e-mails, personal letters, phone and communicated that the offers would have to be kept on hold on account of adverse market conditions. However, when market revived, we got in touch with these 100 candidates and have been able to get 35 – 40 candidates. Some of them had actually joined other companies, but decided to come on board with us. All this was possible because the Recruitment Team and Business HR were in constant touch with these candidates. Many a times our employees from a particular campus would end up becoming brand ambassadors for the next batch. Probably since such employees witnessed sensitive

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handling of the outplacement, we were able to attract the talent from the campus.

What are the key areas where Right Management made maximum impact in the right sizing process?

Right Management created maximum impact on exiting employees towards:

• Cushioning them after notification i.e. bringing them from a state of denial to a state of commitment

• Making them gain insight on their strengths & weaknesses

• Enhancing their résumé

• Imparting skills to present themselves

• Simulating interviews they would face

• Building their self-confidence

• Giving insight through subject based articles

• Customising approach based on needs for e.g. imparting training for managing financials since we have noticed our employees are not very good at it

What difference do you see in the openness towards Career Transition Service in India vs. other geographies?

It’s difficult to manage in India as people try to internalise pain. In our society, job loss has some stigma attached to it. If an

individual has lost his/her job or got laid off due to business or other reasons, it is very difficult for him to open up unlike US and Europe where people try to find immediate solutions such as taking up a project based arrangement or taking up an interim executive kind of role. Such things are yet to evolve in our country. Our standing and identity in India at one level is defined by our job and the company we work for.

Do you see employees in different age groups reacting differently to a career outplacement decision?

We do notice a difference. The older employee internalises the pain as mentioned before. However, the youngsters seek support from their peers and want to get over and move on in their life. They take things as it comes. They want to be just as what Peter Drucker said “Individual Agents”. They always look forward to learning experience and growth opportunities. They are also well connected with each other.

How do you see today’s leaders connecting with younger generations?

There are lots of challenges ahead for the leaders as: younger generations come with very high aspirations. We also notice a shift in the way people communicate

CAPABILITY BUILDING 7

by J. KarthikeyanVP - Consulting Services

Ashutosh KumarProject Leader

with each other thanks to technology and social networking. The younger generation is not as patient as the older generation especially when it comes to earnings, career growth etc. There is a shift in hiring as well, such as why only Monster or Naukri and why not Linkedin be leveraged for hiring.

Under such circumstances few things become very critical for leaders. Leaders need to be adaptive, be socially aware and adopt effective methods of organisational communication. Organisations need to ensure to maintain high touch even in the era where we are high connect. The information we provide needs to appeal to the end user and be relevant. I see the HR services transform from a push based approach to a pull based service with intelligent search based systems to address the needs of the end user.

What is high on people agenda for leaders as economy is recovering?

Leaders need to find new avenues for growth. What was normal prior to the downturn is no longer relevant. Leaders need to adapt to the new normal. However, while looking for growth, leaders will need to be prudent on cost . They need to ensure that money is being spent on right business activities. Leaders also need to be sensitive to global issues and challenges such as going green etc. They need to assess the impact of their decision not only on the traditional stakeholders but also on the larger community. HR will have to play a key role in ensuring that ‘Leaders of Tomorrow’ are well equipped to handle such issues. Such shifts will require an agile and adaptable organisation. HR can partner the business on building organisation capacity for managing this change and ensuring employees adapt to the required change.

What made you choose Right Management over other career transition service providers in India?

We evaluated several career transition service providers but chose Right Management. I have known Right Management for a long time and their

ability to understand what career transition means is really good. Right Management has an effective framework for handling career transition services in India & abroad.

In a time when market was too tough and our own requirements on career transition front were too much, Right Management agreed to attach part of their professional fees to meeting the end objectives of the engagement. Right Management has the ability to become a strategic business partner at global level and at the same time tactical at local levels based on the need of the client unlike some other global consulting firms that are inflexible. Motorola has had three waves of outplacement last year and on each occasion; Right Management provided customised solutions and showed flexibility to Motorola’s needs. Right Management also took client feedback to make mid course corrections as required. The relationship between Motorola and the Right Management team was rich and operated at all levels from the strategic to the operational day to day.

What kind of feedback do you receive from the impacted employees about the career transition service provided by Right Management?

We have been receiving very good feedback not only from candidates but also from our HR Business partners and the market. Even Motorola HR has been praised in several forums on the way we have been handling career transition. Several ex- Motorolans have acknowledged the approach we have taken that gives us immense satisfaction. Overall feedback has been excellent. n