Publishing giant hits delete on internal IT staff
Job cuts ahoy
Steps to Take Before Choosing a Business Continuity Partner
Business publisher Reed Elsevier is outsourcing its IT support staff. Their jobs will go to HCL Technologies, a leading Indian offshorer.
The move has not gone down well, in part because TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings Regulations - essentially moving staff from one employer to another) will not cover staff's increasingly rare final salary pension scheme. Reed's pension scheme is a particularly nicely gold-plated, copper-bottomed example of the genre.
Staff who contacted us complained that the process, billed as a review, actually aims to get staff moved by 1 October. The email sent to staff also warns that some people will lose their jobs.
The review of help desk functions aims to move to one global support unit for the whole business. The email, which talks of "open dialogue" and "sharing as much detail as possible", said a decision should be reached by 18 September.
Two senior staff - Hank Hamilton and Ray Raggi - "have decided to pursue interests outside the company", according to the email.
The mail says that Reed is still considering external partners but our source named HCL as the likely recipient of the work. HCL is also named in the FAQ sent to staff. The document says HCL staff will soon start attending weekly forum meetings to discuss the move.
It also answered the question, Why did you choose HCL? Answer: "HCL best met the needs of the business and its strategy. They are leaders in infrastructure operations and are one of the few vendors approached that were prepared to TUPE staff to themselves."
About 60 people in operations, systems administration, business systems and infrastructure services will be affected by the move.
Desktop support, another 60 people, is a possible future target, according to our source. They added that the announcement had sent morale to rock bottom because most believed redundancies last year were the end of a difficult period for the company.
Reed refused to comment on the plans. ®
Requirements Checklist for Choosing a Cloud Backup and Recovery Service Provider
COMMENTS
same old, same old
here we go again. cut headline costs - perhaps sell the company on at an inflated price/maybe just to impress shareholders/maybe to make up for losses else where - execs and consultants get fat bonuses - a few people eventually lose their jobs to cheap staff shipped in from India/people reading a script in a far off call centre - the company stores up problems for some future date where the pretty paper reports were in way based in reality.
I worked there in 2006
The merger with HCL was ongoing even then.
The head of IT said that before HCL it was a mix of permies and contractors, totaling 60.
After HCL it totaled 100. With a straight face he says the logical conclusion from that is that before we were understaffed, but didn't realize it!!
Elsevier management have always hated their IT, as they imagined all the profit came from the business, with the IT as nothing more than a cost. The permies were more than happy to dig their own graves with KT (Knowledge Transfer), then jump into them.
Eventually I had to go as politically it looked bad for me to do all my work when we had pair programming Indians wondering around in a daze getting nothing done.
No redundancy option under TUPE
Under TUPE you don't get a redundancy option - your options are go to the new company or resign!
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
Requirements Checklist for Choosing a Cloud Backup and Recovery Service Provider
Cloud based data management
Enabling efficient data center monitoring
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
