Describes changing trends of Career Transition in companies including start-ups. The delay in job landing is on account of (i) stigma associated with hiring a laid off employee (ii) lack of support by organization to build employees confidence (iii) lack of mobility on account of house lock , children education(iv)Lack job matching mechanism. Echoes the research of 2012 Nobel Prize in Economics winners Drs. A E Roth and L S Shapely on labour market inefficiencies.

1. CAREER MANAGEMENT 21
Research Highlights
Career Transition and Outplacement in
Difficult times: The India Story
Testing Times Ahead
As we cross the half year mark of 2013,
it is plain that the recovery from the
global recession continues at a steady but
frustratingly slow pace. Unemployment
remains high in many global labor markets,
and job growth seems stalled as employers
continue to navigate an uncertain economic
environment. With a mandate to do more
with less, organizations are under severe
pressure to manage/reduce costs. While at
one hand investments and job creation has
dipped, employees are also laid off. Landing
jobs is also taking longer since employers
are now cautious about who to choose and
where to place them. But more so, how are
we able to retain the employer brand and
values?
About Right Management Survey
Right Management is a pioneer and a
leading firm offering career transition and
outplacement services. We work across
countries with organizations to support
roughly 100,000 laid-off employees across
the globe every year to deal with the change
and transition successfully.
Given the economic context in India, to
better understand the impact of this solution,
Right Management India conducted a survey
(June 2013) among three unique groups
1. Business & HR leaders 2. Employees
who were offered career transition and
outplacement services referred to as
“Impacted employees” 3. Career coaches
who coach impacted employees. We also
compared the findings for trends from the
previous global survey conducted in 2010.
Key Trends for 2013
#1 Stigma associated with job loss.
The propensity of impacted employees to
advocate the services to others is at only
57%. When probed, candidates respond
that they do not want to be identified
as employees who were laid off. The
employees believe that being identified
as laid off employees could hamper their
employability despite layoffs being mostly
due to organization / business needs and not
performance reasons.
Our experience also suggests that
prospective employers are reluctant to
evaluate laid off candidates. Whereas what
we have learnt from our past assignments
is that non performers are not offered
Career Transition services, but are put on
Performance Improvement Plans (PIP).
#2 Confidence building is key. Companies
invest a lot in hiring the best talent in
an extremely competitive talent market.
Hence being well prepared for interviews is
important. The Career Transition program
aims at ensuring the employee is well
prepared. The survey says that there was a 3x
increase in confidence levels of employees
after they took up the service. This also
indicates a significant loss of confidence on
being impacted as most of the times the
news comes as a shock to the individual.
Fig. 1.1 Key Findings from Impacted Employees

2. 22 THE RIGHT QUARTERLY
#3 Job landing. Since Job search
support is a key need for the employees,
we reviewed the findings on job landing
statistics. The survey shows overall 85% of
the impacted employees have transitioned
successfully, of which 70% have landed a
new job, 12% have been rehired by their
employers, and 3% are self employed. In the
balance, 5% have retired and 12 % are still
in transition.
Fig. 1.2 Career Development Model
Ending
Neutral
Zone
New
Beginning
Shock & Stress
Feelings such as
anger, frustration
and confusion
Ambiguity and
discomfort
Creating a vision
Acting
Optimism
Risk-taking
Influencing
New Ideas
Acceptance
#4 Networking through social, personal
and online channels is the mantra. The
networking approach works in the India
Job market. We firmly believe job landings
will be faster with networking, and this
is a priority coaching area for us in the
Career Transition Programs offered. This
was confirmed as well from the survey,
where it was observed that 43% of the
employees landed jobs from networking
(39% from traditional networking, 4% from
online networking) and 18% from directly
approaching companies. Also only 31%
got jobs from traditional sources (agency
recruiting firms (13%), internet based job
boards (18%)). 8% of the employees secured
a job from referrals and none (0%) from
newspapers and periodicals advertisements.
#5 Family ties. 48% of the employees
relocated to another city for their new jobs.
Career Coach Insights:
• “Employees need emotional support in face of the company’s decision to layoff. Providing them a career coach
allows them to vent out to a confidant, who is ready to listen to them and share an unbiased opinion (as a neutral
third party) on how to move on, thereby driving acceptance of the decision.”
• “Once the career coach has established a rapport with the employee as an emotional anchor, he/she is able to
help the employee to identify their unique strengths and suggest a customized approach on planning the next
steps.”
• “Networking and negotiation skills are usually the most critical parameters which influence the employee’s ability
to find a suitable role.”
In our experience job landings could be
higher if the employee was mobile. We
understand that personal reasons including
children’s education, working spouse, etc.
are paramount. This delays job landing.
#6 Flexibility is key. We coach impacted
employees on how to leverage their
transferable skills to increase the range
of opportunities they can explore. Of the
employees who took up new positions, only
35% of impacted employees changed their
sector and only 22% changed their function.
We often note that employees who have
high adaptability and learning agility, are
able to land a job into a new function, and
importantly land jobs faster.
#7 Layoff is not the end of the road.
We build confidence and skill in employees
on how to negotiate for the next role.
Using these abilities, a good 39% of the
employees were able to negotiate a higher
position, while 57% were able to maintain
the same position and only 4% had to
take up a lower position. This clearly
tells us how employees can get a role of
their choice and liking, if they are able to
showcase their strengths.
#8 Offering career transition service
preserves employer brand. We believe
that given the shortage of skills and an
extremely competitive market, it makes
business sense to offer a Career Transition
program. In the survey, 74% of the
impacted employees view the previous
employer’s brand as favourable on
account of the career transition services
provided to them despite having lost the
job. Considering that these impacted
employees will continue to be your
organization brand ambassadors even
after they step out, it is critical that they
have a positive experience throughout.

3. CAREER MANAGEMENT 23
Triggers for Transition and
Outplacement
We had polled the sponsors of career
transition program on what triggers career
transition and outplacement activity in
firms. The Top 3 reasons mirror economic
sentiments.
Reasons to Offer Transition and
Outplacement Services
#1 Companies offer this service for
right reasons. 80% of the program
sponsors agree or strongly agree that it
is the right thing to do for a responsible
employer – matching organization values.
This mirrors our global research (2010)
where 71% had agreed. Only 10% of the
program sponsors agree or strongly agree
that everyone else in their sector/ industry
is doing so (peer pressure to do it), hence
they must as well.
#2 Engagement of retained
organization is key 62% of the program
sponsors agree or strongly agree that the
outplacement program helps maintain
the morale and sends positive signals
to the remaining employees. Our global
research reports 69% agreement. We note
organizations we have worked with are able
to also hire fresh talent for new technologies
despite a layoff for this very reason.
#3 Employee need skills to transition
62% of the of the program sponsors also
agree or strongly agree that partner support
ensures impacted employees receive
necessary skills needed to transition quickly.
Our global research reports 67% agreement.
Fig. 1.3 Coach Insights: Skills needed across levels
Reinvent themselves,
introspect using
psychometric tools
Positioning in the job
market, networking skills
Exploring a second career
with coach support
Financial
Planning
Coaching on transferable
skills (to explore wider
options)
Personal branding &
Role Negotiation
Reflection on
leadership style
Competency based
interview practice
More emotional
anchoring to build back
confidence
Support with basic skills
like resume writing,
interviewing
Peer
Networking
Senior Management Middle Management Frontline
Effective
communication
Triggers for Downsizing
Trigger for Rightsizing
48%
45%
21%
Weak economic forecast and hence change in growth
Product or service is no more competitive/relevant –
leading to redundancy of skills
Decline in business due to change in government and
/or policy decisions
52%
48%
48%
Rationalization of employee costs
Reduction in product demand due to changes in market
dynamics
plans
62%
52%
Global imperative to reduce costs /head count across
the board (across locations and levels)
Merger / Acquisition of Joint Venture Lead, e.g.
industry consolidation leading to redundancy of
positions
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Trigger for Rightsizing
Fig. 1.4 Triggers for Rightsizing

4. 24 THE RIGHT QUARTERLY
Conclusion
The Manpower Talent Shortage Survey
2013 shows that India is among the
top 3 countries with a talent shortage.
Despite the slowdown in hiring, talent
shortage is actually up 13% from the
previous survey. It is no surprise that the
work on matching talent pools to jobs is
a significant area for governments and
companies.
1. Given the skills shortage, if
prospective employers consider
the impacted employees they can
really overcome this issue. We are
promoting inefficiencies in the job
matching market by not considering
a sizeable pool of highly qualified
and employable talent pool of laid off
employees or perhaps not fast enough.
2. Impacted employees need to deal
with the change, show flexibility
and willingness to relocate as job
matches will take longer and be more
challenging.
3. The survey indicates one of the top
reasons to offer career transition and
outplacement services is to retain
engagement and retention of talent
in the survivor organization. Given the
skills shortage in India no organization
can afford (a) of loss of employer
branding and ability to attract talent
and (b) leakage of critical talent.
Importantly as the survey suggests,
the employers see the best ROI from
career transition “as the right thing to
do for employees who are impacted
as responsible employers”. As is seen
in the client testimonial, acceptance
of the practice over time makes it part
of the corporate value of responsible
business leadership. by J. Karthikeyan
Vice President - Consulting Services
Bangalore, India
w We could have handled the outplacementprocess internally, but the employeesneeded an expert to build in them thecapabilities required to transition out
w Partnership is key between the clientand a Career Transition partner. We wereable to speed up the landing process byproviding leads and connections in theindustry to our partner, and share skills andinterests of impacted employees. Regularreviews and support on progress helped usmitigate issues
w The partner’s expertise in candidatepsychometric skills assessment andmatching this to job interests helped theprocess even more.
w ROI (Return on Investment) is not so muchabout reduction in litigation risks andopportunity costs saved on ER (EmployeeRelation cases), we believe this is the rightthing to do as a responsible employer
w In the first wave, managers said this isdesirable over and above severance, inthe second wave having experienced itmanagers said we need it. By the thirdwave it became institutionalized, witheveryone agreeing this best reflects ourcorporate values and culture.
Krishna Bhagavan
Director and
Country Head HR
Motorola Solutions
Client
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