The brief
Sonus needed to make some difficult resourcing decisions. The EMEA region was targeted to be downsized by 12 positions in 6 countries while ensuring that local country employment laws were followed and all affected individuals were treated with respect and dignity throughout the process.
Sonus needed a flexible and reactive HR partner who could support the business and hit the ground running to help them achieve their ambitious downsizing exercise in order to realise significant cost savings quickly. As the internal HR team were relatively new in post, they required additional support to ensure that ‘business as usual’ activities could take place when the project was underway.
Why Connor?
Connor had already completed one project for the client – which entailed running the UK HR department whilst recruiting for an EMEA HR business partner – this project was successfully completed within the deadlines and they were keen to secure our services for the second project.
The approach
Our approach was to be both flexible and responsive – ensuring that we listened to the concerns of the management team and helped them to find pragmatic solutions that delivered the cost savings whilst minimising the risks to the business.
We had sound commercial experience of dealing with complex people issues within EMEA. We also had a good understanding of the sensitivities around the commercial and cultural differences between Europe and the US which enabled us to have a credible influence on the senior management teams.