February 2024 Issue No. 20

Career Transition &Outplacement:
Are our jobs safe anymore?

In continuing the conversation of “Transforming Leaders into Coaches” in theprevious White Paper No. 19, let’s take a look at the other end of the spectrum:The exit of the displaced employee is often a challenging and sensitive topic for
HR to broach.
This paper serves to examine the trends of layoffs or rightsizing (politicallycorrect) in the year 2023 for Singapore companies and employees. It serves tolook at the fears, thoughts, and feelings of the impacted employees. It alsoseeks to report the motivations and reasons behind the employers of thecompanies who adopt this move. It attempts to forecast the relevant skills(competencies) that employees should possess to avoid such drastic situations.
And lastly, to “screenshot” what traits of a company you should foresee ordetect and avoid if it is prone to such rightsizing activities.

Copyright 2024. PERSOLKELLY Consulting. All rights reserved.

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Question 3: “Do you get different
responses from different levels ofseniority (manager to seniormanagement) or different agegroups?”

Fears, Thoughts andFeelings (Employees)
The following is an interview conductedwith Coach Yin, who has been doing theCareer Transition & Outplacement (CTO)
programme for PERSOLKELLY
Consulting for the past year.

Coach Yin: “The difference is thematured group that has not done theirresume finds it very helpful as theyalso did not know of the advanced
screening technology adopted by HR
nowadays when applications for jobs
are received. The executives, such as
the Heads, appeared to prioritise
career planning and networking overother activities. There are some whoare considering entrepreneurship as
an option. The more junior ones willgo through the whole menu and pickthe topics that apply more to theirsituation.

Question 1: “What are the common
feelings and thoughts of thesecandidates when they first know of
their retrenchment?”
Coach Yin: “The first reaction isdenial for some, then shock because
it came so soon and they loved theculture and the organisation. But forcases when they realise that thecompany is laying off all theemployees together, there is a no“Why me, not you” mentality.”

Question 4: “Are there any emotional
and/or mental stress faced by different
groups of employees?”

Question 2: “What are their feelings
now going through the CTO process?”

Coach Yin: “Young ones don’t feel
any stress as they change jobs quite
frequently. Older ones have a lot morefinancial commitments i.e. kids, apregnant wife and a family to support.
The urgency to find a job is also astressful point. Plus, their (senior) age
comes as a disadvantage when it
comes to job searching.”

Coach Yin: “The younger ones arequite mobile, not very affected as they
are very agile and tech-savvy and thecycle of looking for a job is not thatdifficult for them. So, some young
ones are even coming together to doa start-up and pitch to angel investors
to fund their new venture.

Copyright 2024. PERSOLKELLY Consulting. All rights reserved.

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Question 5: “Do they know how toavoid the same type of employers
again or do they know the reason for
the retrenchment and will they be able
to avoid within their means the same
type of employers in their job search?

A lot of Chief HRs and CEOs justify thereason to right-size as the practical way tocontain costs, even if they currently are
profitable as they forecasted that theirbusiness demand will not be sustainable
based on their current manpower size.

Coach Yin: “Identifying thecharacteristics of employers who are
more likely to lay off their employees
can be a challenging task. Moreover,in today's economic climate,downsizing and restructuring arebecoming increasingly common,
making it difficult to avoid suchcompanies altogether.”

There is also a strategic intent to cut
middle managers and senior managers toallow the company’s top management tocontrol and monitor the business activities
better, as evidenced by the recent
exercise by foreign banks. This structuresimplification is believed to be theenterprises’ preferred modus operandi
in the future.
There is also a sentiment of companies
especially tech ones, racing to catch up in
the generative AI race. Every techcompany wants to justify their lay-offs
to recruit or invest in the generative AI
push so that they will not be left behindin the race for innovation.

Motivations, Reasonsand Justifications(Employers)
A lot of companies who over-hired
during the digital boom in thepandemic are now trying to right-size
their companies’ structure as theyknow that it is not sustainable in thelong run.

Is this a wise decision?
Is this a good calculative movein terms of future profits?
A grounding of foundation towelcome the new generative AI
technology and achieve that“quantum jump”?

According to the press articles publishedin Singapore, you can tell that althoughmost of them come from the technology
sector and some are start-ups that could
not sustain their businesses, even foreignbanks and manpower-intensive
enterprises like manufacturing are notexempted from this fate.

Copyright 2024. PERSOLKELLY Consulting. All rights reserved.

3Retrenchment
The table below shows the retrenchment figures tabulated by the Ministry of Manpower,Singapore.
Source: Labour Market Survey, Manpower Research & Statistics Department, MOM

Year

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

Annual

11,56012,93015,58019,17014,72010,73010,69026,110

8,020

6,440

n.a.

1st Qtr

2,120

3,110

3,500

4,710

4,000

2,320

3,230

3,220

2,270

1,320

3,820

2st Qtr

3,080

2,410

3,250

4,800

3,640

3,030

2,320

8,130

2,340

830

3,200

3rd Qtr

2,710

3,500

3,460

4,220

3,400

2,860

2,470

9,120

1,900

1,300

4,110

4th Qtr

3,660

3,910

5,370

5,440

3,680

2,510

2,670

5,640

1,500

2,990

n.a.

Number ofRetrenchments
Per 1,000
Employees

5,8

6,3

7,4

8,9

7,0

5,1

5,1

12,8

4,4

3,1

n.a.

Latest figures published in: Labour Market Report
Notes:
Data pertain to private sector establishments (each with at least 25 employees) and the public sector.
Data are rounded to the nearest 10. Hence, they may not add up to the totalp = preliminaryn.a.= Not available

These numbers will continue to rise in 2024, and it is expected that more jobs will be cut
both in Singapore and in the US. Due to the depressed economy globally and the glutof hiring during the boom pandemic times, companies are still planning more cutsin 2024 in order to stay competitive and streamline their costs and business
operations.

Copyright 2024. PERSOLKELLY Consulting. All rights reserved.

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Skills Comprehension inthe Hunt for New Jobs

Spot the “Rightsizing”
CompanyThe VUCA world has been replaced by
the BANI world. VUCA stands for volatility,
uncertainty, complex and ambiguousworld. The BANI world is an acronym
made up of the words 'brittle', 'anxious','nonlinear' and 'incomprehensible'. The
creator of this new concept is Jamais
Cascio, an American anthropologist,author and futurist.

They say that you must spot the company
before you join and realize whether theyare restructuring and may lay off
employees in 2024. There is no magic
formula or Harry Potter spell for you to beable to tell this right from the start.
Most people would say it is moreprevalent in the IT sectors and although it
is true that they have the most cases ofretrenchments and layoffs worldwide,
there is no stopping other sectors fromdoing the same. This is especially true for
manpower-intensive companies that
employ a workforce that is at least morethan a few hundred employees.

So, in order to adapt to the new BANI
world, employees who start new jobs in
new companies must be prepared to notjust acclimatise to the new culture andvisions/missions of the organisation, butthey must also be prepared for
restructuring if it becomes a financial
concern of the company when revenues
are not met.

Yet there is an argument that those who
are or were in the tech sector want toremain in the tech sector despite
retrenchments or layoffs.

Even existing employees of their current
companies must be prepared for rightsizing as a very possible businessstrategy to be deployed by their top
management. It will become a norm tochange jobs every few years, whether
voluntarily or being “pushed” to do sodue to restructuring.

There is also the upside of a large-sizedbusiness entity or conglomerate thatfavours more career development andalso, the trajectory potential for any newly
joined employee.

Thus, the greatest skill any employee
can have is resilience. Resilience tolearn new skill sets, adopt new behaviours
and accept new cultures whenever andwherever. And then, the ability toovercome the fear of retrenchment is amental strength to have. The age-old
adage of “no one is indispensable tothe company” rings true more thanever in this new BANI world that wework in.
Copyright 2024. PERSOLKELLY Consulting. All rights reserved.

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“You can run, but you can’t hide”
Joe Louis, 1941
“Every corporate salaried worker will
face at least one retrenchment in his
corporate life journey, no one is safe
from it.”Vincent Goh (unknown), 2023

By
Vincent Goh.
Senior Consulting Manager
PERSOLKELLY Consulting

Copyright 2024. PERSOLKELLY Consulting. All rights reserved.

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Sources
CNA, “Singapore retrenchments rise in Q3, unemployment on a ‘slow uptrend’,” October 26, 2023,
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/q3-2023-singapore-labour-retrenchments-unemploymentjobs-ministry-manpower-economic-outlook-3874091
Crunchbase News, “The Crunchbase Tech Layoffs Tracker,” January 26, 2024,
https://news.crunchbase.com/startups/tech-layoffs/
Business Times, Keyword: Tech Layoffs, February 1, 2024,
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/keywords/tech-layoffs
Business Times, “Tech layoffs continue after ‘Year of Efficiency,” January 17, 2024,
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/telcos-media-tech/tech-layoffs-continue-afteryear-efficiency

Copyright 2024. PERSOLKELLY Consulting. All rights reserved.

7About Us
PERSOLKELLY Consulting is a leading
global human resource consulting andprofessional services company which
proudly spans across the Asia-Pacificregion. We are a subsidiary formed by thejoint venture of PERSOL Group and Kelly
Services Inc., now one of the largest
recruitment companies in APAC. Formerly
branded as BTI Consultants in Asia andIntelligence SMC in Hong Kong,PERSOLKELLY Consulting is built upon arich legacy of expert talent development,
HR management advisory, organisational
effectiveness, and insights-driven HRsolutions. With our single focus on fulfilling
our client's needs, we use innovative
practices to empower both individuals andenterprises to achieve their full potential. At
PERSOLKELLY Consulting, we believe inshaping a future workforce that is able to"Work and Smile".

Learn More:PERSOLKELLY Consulting Group
www.PERSOLKELLYCONSULTING.com

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