The Hindu Business Line : Layoffs not in thousands, but in smaller batches

Bangalore, July 2 In what could be an indication of early stages of a job market recovery, outplacement services firms that helped India Inc in massive clean-up operations in the last three quarters are sensing a tapering-off of the trend in the last one month.

“We sense that companies are going easy on mass downsizing exercises, and are doing it in smaller numbers,” says Mr Rishi Das, CEO, CareerNet, a recruitment and outplacement services firm. Though mass clean-up drives are becoming less frequent and layoffs happening in smaller numbers, outplacement services, however, are here to stay.

“Companies want to have long-term partnerships with outplacement services for periodic organisational restructuring which may result in outplacement of a few people,” he says.

Ms Anita Belani, Country Head, Right Management, sees a ‘tapering-off’ in the downsizing exercise. There is a lot of restructuring and redeployment happening. She agrees with Mr Das that companies are looking at partnering with outplacement firms for re-skilling and redeployment of its employees.

Right Management, a global HR consulting firm has launched an outplacement service that supports individuals in transition and also helps organisations “do the right thing for former employees and ensure positive relationships are maintained should they want to hire them back in future.”

“Employee reduction is not happening in thousands, but in smaller batches and companies would rather give severance packages than help them find new jobs as there are very few jobs going around,” says Ms Aanal Bhagwati, Director, CareerValue Solutions, another outplacement services firm. Some of them are even seeking help in redeploying employees within the organisation in other roles, she points out.

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