For instance, a chief financial officer with a general management and HR experience stands a better chance in the job market because he has furthered his knowledge beyond his area of expertise. Also, at senior levels, the scope for lateral movement is very little, especially in a downturn industry. You could use your wide range of skills in another industry. In times when business strategies and technology is changing at a rapid pace, it s imperative to keep learning and reinventing one s skill sets. Though actual figures may suggest that downsizing is only happening is small proportions in India, incidents show this is because the prevalent form of retrenchment is veiled.
Companies still don t retrench overnight.
Employees should heed early signs and move on to newer assignments, believe most managers. These signals could be in the form of withdrawal of powers, responsibility or asking a manager to report to someone junior. After the merger between Stanchart and Grindlays, signals were sent out to the older crop, which the merged entity did not want in its new avatar. This lot of senior officials were asked to report to people from Standard Chartered who were junior to them by years, which was not acceptable. Insiders claim a large number of employees from Grindlays left without bothering to appear for re-interviews before the selection committee because they were certain about the outcome.