Motorola had to lay off employees due to closing some business platforms as part of a strategic shift. They partnered with Right Management to provide career transition support. Right Management helped laid off employees understand the job market, improve their resumes and interview skills, and boost their confidence. Their consistent, impartial communication helped deliver the message credibly. Feedback on Right Management's services was very positive.

1. 4 THE RIGHT QUARTERLY
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.

2. CAPABILITY BUILDING 5
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
Preparation –
Under-
standing
Yourself
Research
Your
Market
Focus-In
on Specific
Jobs
Interview &
Negotiate
to Closing
Manage Your
Career
1 2 3 4 5
Landing
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

3. 6 THE RIGHT QUARTERLY
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

4. CAPABILITY BUILDING 7
by J. Karthikeyan
VP - Consulting Services
Ashutosh Kumar
Project 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