Jaguar Land Rover cuts 450 staff

[robert.saunders]

Jaguar Land Rover has announced it is cutting 450 staff.

Three hundred managers will be made redundant while 150 salaried agency staff will also lose their jobs.
The firm, which was bought by Tata from Ford for £1.7bn last year, said the action was to combat the credit crunch and a "severe reduction in demand".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7828201.stm

More doom & gloom

 

[grober]

I do get the impression that there are "fashions" in management just like any other human activity.
Cue the HR department of big multinational with big profits.
" I hear that -------- ( substitute nearest business rival) are letting 400 of their junior management go! What are we doing about this "crisis" ?

"Well Sir we've looked at the figures and with a little judicious adjustment to expenses and overtime we'll be fine. Senior management might need to downsize from their BMW's to FORD Mondeos but we'll manage."

"NO NO you don't understand--we've got to be seen to be "downsizing" or the board will start asking questions- especially if they take the MD's Bimmer away!!! I know lets close the factory in Scunthorpe".

"But Sir they're making a profit-albeit a small one."

"It doesn't matter the shareholders need to see we're a lean mean fighting machine. Shut the factory. If production demand picks up again we can always outsource to China- might even save us a bit of money.

Thinks "Sorted!! (and my BMW is safe too)"

 

[Dryce]

I do get the impression that there are "fashions" in management just like any other human activity.

Yes.

However I think at the moment it's surprising the car manufacturers didn't act quicker. It's like they've been watching each other to see who blinks first.

 

[davidjpowell]

You have to wonder just what 300 managers are managing if they can suddenly be no longer necessary?

 

[verytalldave]

...........think of a big circle..........
The man behind the man in front manages the man in front.............
and so it goes on all round the circle..........
Not quite a true analagy, but fairly accurate for the most part.
Most middle management can take quite severe pruning and still work. Maybe even better if the pruning has been done skillfully.
Its when you get down to sacking the men who get their hands dirty that you have real problems.

 

[Dryce]

You have to wonder just what 300 managers are managing if they can suddenly be no longer necessary?

The word 'manager' in the title can mean many things.

Significantly JLR have already dropped 850 agency/contract workers last year. If the 150 announced today are additional then that's 1000 less to 'manage'.

 

[stumpy1]

How much of this 'reporting' is painting a true picture I wonder. Years ago I worked for a major airline and they went through many 'downsizing' episodes but many of the redundancies were through natural wastage anyway.

The one that does shock me is the part time weeks at JCB. I always though they, along with the Black Cab people were bastions for UK manufacturing

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Making people redundant is surely never taken that lightly - or at least it shouldn't be. Some people find it less difficult than others, but you'd have to be a hard and thoughtless person to do it simply to be seen as doing something.

In my experience, the best way of justifying it to myself is that you have to focus on how it maximises the chances of survival for those who remain - carrying the cost of too many people will eventually bring the whole company to it's knees - just look at the US big three car manufacturers if you want an example.

As has been pointed out, in many businesses headcount can be reduced without too much immediate impact - especially in management grades - but it's something which has longer term consequences.

For example reducing time spent on performance management can probably be sustained in the short term, but eventually productivity, efficiency, motivation, etc will slide.

At the moment though, many businesses consider long term survival to be the next quarter, so a very short term view is being taken.