Page 131 - Socially-responsible-restructuring-Effective-strategies-for-supporting-redundant-workers

Socially responsible restructuring
Effective strategies for supporting redundant workers

personnel adjustments. Siemens was one of the first industrial companies to
establish an internal transfer company.
Siemens beE started with a small core team in 2002; since then, the
department has been growing constantly. Today it has 90 employees and further
external job consultants. The beE staff consists of HR specialists, psychologists,
pedagogues and lawyers. It is located in 17 German cities with its headquarters
in Munich. Today, Siemens beE is part of the department Placement services,
making it the only human resource department, located at Siemens Global
Shared Services. Siemens beE can be seen as an internal business partner
providing its services to different Siemens branches if requested.
Different forms of personnel adjustments exist at Siemens. One lay-off option
is a cancellation agreement with a redundancy payment for the employee.
Another option is a cancellation agreement and the subsequent entrance into a
transfer company; in this the redundancy payment is given to the employee after
he or she leaves the transfer company. Restructuring processes provided via
transfer companies are only one part of the human resource strategy of Siemens;
others include engagement in initial vocational training and continuous training.
Recruiting plays a major role. When the case study was carried out, Siemens had
approximately 1 500 vacancies to fill. These different parts of the HR strategy,
restructuring on one hand and recruiting on the other, are important to stay
competitive.

6.8.2. Restructuring and job losses
Since 2002, Siemens beE has taken charge of 6 500 former Siemens
employees. The majority of job cuts took place in the telecommunication branch
where transfer companies were set up for ICN networks, COM Information and
Communication networks, COM carrier and enterprises, as well as Nokia
Siemens networks (NSN), with around 500-700 employees each. As a
consequence of the new business structure of Siemens, the transfer company
Sales general & administration was started. The merger of several departments
led to redundancies of employees who were then supported by Siemens beE.
All kinds of employees, regardless of occupation and educational background,
are affected by lay-offs; most beE candidates have a higher education. In most
cases, participation in the beE is voluntary. Siemens beE provides counselling for
executive managers on how to inform their employees about the redundancies
and the option of the transfer company. When an employee is asked to enter a
transfer company but does not want to, he/she can change place in the beE with
another employee who was not laid off and who possesses comparable skills.

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