Managing: Scripting Grateful Exits

MANAGING
Scripting Grateful Exits

The trend of outplacement is catching on in India, even though it is an expensive option to simply asking retrenched employees to leave. Check it out.

By Vinod Mahanta

Just another routine meeting,'' thought Kirthi Vasan, a programmer at Third Agenda, a Chennai-based e-business services company, as he and his colleagues gathered in the Chief Technology Officer's room. He realised it wasn't the minute he saw Ganesh Mandalam the company's CEO in the room too. And his worst fears were realised when Mandalam, and P. Rajendran, the CTO, spoke about swelling manpower, falling utilisation rates, and a slump in business. But Third Agenda wasn't laying off people, yet: take pay cuts, suggested the two executives, or find jobs elsewhere. ''We'll help you do that.'' The company created an outplacement cell. After a counselling session at the cell, Vasan was offered the option of a technical course or an aptitude training programme (both paid for by the company). Vasan chose to brush up his interviewing skills and landed a job at Polaris Software Lab as an associate consultant. ''The whole outplacement process was an eye-opener,'' gushes Vasan. ''Thanks to it, I actually got to work with a large company.''

There's no shortage of companies cutting headcount. From Standard Chartered Grindlays to Crompton Greaves, ACC to Rallis, Reliance to RPG, Yamaha to Hindustan Motors, and Ashok Leyland to HCL Perot, everyone is doing it. The mechanism (and the name the companies ascribe to these efforts) differs from case to case, but shorn of everything else, each effort essentially revolves around letting people go. Only, some don't think it's right on their part to do so. And somehow, a hefty separation payment doesn't seem to justify asking someone to leave. Enter outplacement agencies. The trend of hiring an agency to outplace employees is just catching on in India. ''In most parts of the world it is an established practice, but it is still in its infancy in India,'' says Sonal Aggarwal, Director, ABC Consulting.

Companies have been known to use outplacement agencies to get rid of employees they wish to, well, be rid of painlessly. But the most significant beneficiaries of any outplacement initiative are employees. ''They get access to paid-for consulting time,'' says Rahul Tanjea an executive at Consindia HR Services, which has just managed to outplace two executives from Enron's Indian operations. Better still, outplacement agencies are equipped to deal with traumatised employees, and most people who have been told their company is letting them go belong in that category. One HR consultant describes an incident where the regional manager of a telecom company broke down while discussing alternatives. ''Our first task is to ensure there is no depreciation in the self worth of the individual,'' says Sharmila Ganguli, Director, Spenta Consulting.

Professional outplacement companies are also far better at finding openings than individual employees. And the process helps the employee avoid sticky questions relating to why he or she was asked to leave his or her previous job-something prospective employees are sure to pose. Consultants can also help with the basics: most employees don't have a clue on how to write out resumes. ''The CV of a CFO who was being outplaced,'' says a Delhi-based outplacement consultant, ''listed maintaining the books of accounts as a core result area.''

Outplacement helps both employer and employee avoid the pangs of separation. But it is an expensive option to simply asking people to leave. Few consultants will take on an assignment that just involves finding jobs; most outplacement agencies insist that role extends from assessing the client's manpower needs, to identifying the people who need to be outplaced, to the actual process of outplacement. That's the kind of package People-One, a Bangalore-based consulting firm is offering two of India's software majors. ''We were called in to develop a transition management product,'' explains Ajit Issac, CEO, People-One. Typically, an outplacement exercise could set a company back by 20 per cent of the employee's cost to company. Some companies believe that's 20 per cent too much: the amount payable to the consulting firm comes on top of the separation package payable to the employee. ''Companies show more commitment to the programme once they know it is going to cost them,'' says Ganguli of Spenta. That may well be the case, but try telling CEOs their retrenchment drive-estimated to save the company a certain amount of money-is now going to cost 20 per cent more.

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