Terry Ebert Managing Director Tel: 212.889.7788 terry.ebert@ayers.com

Over the years at The Ayers Group, we have forged relationships with the HR leadership in many different organizations. These relationships have grown into partnerships, enabling us to work side by side with our HR colleagues in a variety of settings and circumstances. Whether it is to resolve issues, answer questions, or provide professional support and advice, our objective is to add value in any way we can, according to the client’s particular needs. Following are some thumbnail case studies of the forms these partnerships have taken.

• Two senior HR executives were charged with coordinating a major restructuring that involved the primary product areas of an international bank. The institutional culture maintained a high regard for employees, and management was very sensitive about the significant number of terminations that would result from the reorganization. We became involved with the HR team in the early planning stages and helped develop a termination schedule that provided ample time for our career-transition consultants to meet individually with newly terminated employees on site. This gave employees an opportunity to express their feelings, as well as to receive advice on how best to communicate the news to their families and to receive information about the comprehensive array of resources and services they would receive as they began their transition journey. Most left with a sense of encouragement, and management was extremely pleased with the professional treatment all affected employees received.
  


• A FORTUNE 1000 company that had previously experienced litigation as a result of reduction-in-force actions turned to us to help prevent a recurrence as it prepared for a cutback that would affect several hundred employees. We worked with HR to develop a complex multi-city, multi-day schedule supporting the reduction. In addition, we provided termination training for line management in the various locations. As a result of this planning and excellent execution on the part of the HR and line teams, there wasn’t a single case of litigation.



• We developed a creative solution for a client that was going to close a 300-person facility over a period of several months. The company needed a core of employees to stay in place at the facility, which had a history of serious labor disputes, and maintain productivity while work was shifted to other plants. Our solution provided for carefully managed support of the remaining employees during the work day, including seminars and individual consulting, and a career fair scheduled just before the release dates. Not only did productivity increase, employees who had been part of a class-action suit against the company withdrew, resulting in the suit’s dismissal.

• We partnered with an HR Director who was charged with developing a joint Office of the Chairman. The position was to be shared among three executives, each with different business agendas and operating out of different cities. In addition to helping structure the executives’ roles and establish common goals and operating processes, we provided ongoing guidance as the three business leaders transitioned into their new roles.



• A candidate who was being considered for a senior role elicited very different personal reactions from the line-management team. The HR manager called us in during the interview process because we had an excellent understanding of the business, the function involved, and the unique corporate culture. We brought an outsider’s dispassionate perspective to the process. We reviewed the feedback from the management team, then interviewed the candidate with the objective of reconciling the disparate perspectives. Our assessment was part of the decision to hire. The executive is in his fifth year at the firm and has been recognized as a valuable leader.



• We provided just-in-time current market data on severance policies within several different industries for clients who were reviewing their policies, in some cases as part of a cyclical review and in others as they were preparing for a potential reduction in force.