Career Transition Technology for Managing Downsizing

Career Transition Technology for Managing Downsizing

Career transition technology provides a sustainable solution for handling downsizing. It addresses the interests of employees and the strategic momentum building needs of companies

The economic slump is forcing Indian firms to downsize for reducing operational costs. But in many firms the story is different. Downsizing is bringing in more headaches compared to the immediate cost savings. It is diverting the attention of the company from imaginatively navigating through the difficult times. And ironically, it is setting the tone for further downsizing in future. Is there a way out, could there be a twist to the ending? Yes there is! Career transition technology provides a sustainable solution for handling downsizing. It addresses the interests of employees and the strategic momentum building needs of companies. It involves three steps:

Preparing the organization: The first step is to train/coach, HR managers and line managers how to handle the separation meeting, how to emotionally anchor the separating employees, how to stay connected and help them to move on with lives. This process is transformational. From the concept of employee as a legal contract, we move on to a boundary less relationship. Transition management creates a boundary less community of strategic and trusting relationships.

Handholding the separating employees: You cannot build a new life with an old baggage. You cannot realize your true value when you become your biggest skeptic. Typically, this is the mindset of an employee who is asked to go. Handholding him/her involves coaching in groups or one to one for letting go off the negativity, helping the person to define career options through a systematic process, building skills in self marketing, counseling spouse where ever required and assisting the person in taking the right career decision. The coaching typically ends with the person planning how to onboard into the next organization and create the right impact within the first 100 days.

Energizing and aligning the existing employees: Being honest saves lots of time of both the employer and the employee. Tell staying employees what is happening and why it is happening. They will want to know if the management has a strategy beyond down sizing. It’s very funny, but in most cases it's a big NO. Do not worry. Get employees engaged by asking them “If they were a CEO what will they do to turn around the company and put it on the growth path?” Again this process is transformational. From being a ‘meetings manager’, one starts becoming a ‘transformational leader’.

Beyond managing downsizing, Career Transition Technology has varied applications. When you hire laterals, when you promote people into truly new roles, when people retire, when armed forces join civilian world, transition coaching support can actually help people to understand their new role and settle into the same effortlessly. Probably, Career Transition is an answer to effective leadership. After all, the leaders who are trying to address the downturn are also the same people who have created the downturn in the first place.

Ref: Kanti Gopal Kovvali