Fund a feelgood factor

We all know that attracting good people into the food manufacturing business is not always easy, so once they are in it seems only right that they should feel they are valued, even if they are made redundant.

Indeed, many think that this is crucial in food manufacturing, as any upheaval can have a disastrous effect on production levels.

"Outplacement can help maintain performance and motivation throughout a difficult period where targets and standards need to be maintained," says Ellie Hughes, head of outplacement at The People Development Team (PDT). "For many companies, the organisation has to move forward and outplacement demonstrates not only fair practice towards those leaving but it can give substantial support to those staying to ensure the company moves forward successfully," she says. "Also, individuals receive help if they need it - from building new teams to helping employees with internal role moves and career transitions.

Consultants believe that providing outplacement services to 'separating employees' is not only the responsible thing to do, but that it also makes sound business sense. The quality of their experience with an outplacement provider affects how the company is judged by the individual being made redundant, the remaining staff and the community. And a positive outplacement experience can thus pay off in many ways.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development defines outplacement as: activities designed to enable individuals to develop a greater awareness of their capacities, potential, skills and limitations to help them to pursue the career opportunities open to them and to manage the transition through career change or into re-employment following the loss of a job.

Food Manufacture talked to one individual who is using outplacement services provided by his former food-manufacture sector employer to find out how it has worked for him. This person, who prefers not to be named, held a senior management position and had the benefit of a one-to-one mentor.

He says is it is important for every individual to decide what they want to get out of the outplacement experience and that if they don't put the effort in themselves it won't be successful.

"Consultants don't do the work for you in terms of physically finding you a new job but they will give you the tools to help you do this," he says. "In no way is outplacement the solution. But it is a very effective tool to help you in many ways."

He talks of the seminars, lectures, networking opportunities, the office to work in and the general resources that outplacement consultants can offer. "It certainly eases the transition period and gives you some structure during it," he says.

"I would certainly advocate outplacement for senior people, as finding a similar role takes more time and the mentor can help you keep your focus and confidence during this period," he says.

Having someone who can be objective, and is not a friend, family member or an employer, can be a real benefit, he argues, and they can also facilitate life-changing behaviour.

Everybody understood the business reasons behind the closure of Young's Ram brewery in Wandsworth, London, last year after an unbroken 425 years of brewing on the site. But, in the inevitable round of redundancies, the Young's human resources (HR) team, supported by Ellie Hughes and other outplacement specialists from PDT, had to ensure production was not undermined by the upheaval and that as many as possible of those with food and drink industry skills stayed within the sector.

Young's beers are now produced in Bedford by a new business, Wells & Young's Brewing Company, a joint venture with the independent brewer Bedford-based Charles Wells. But there were challenges in the transfer.

For instance: "The labeller at the new Bedford brewery couldn't handle our bottles, so we had to build stocks of bottled beers to give us the leeway to transfer our own labeller to the new plant," explains Ken Don, Young's head brewer.

"We had three months to build up an extra month's stock, which meant increasing production levels by almost 25%." At a time of low morale this was a very tall order, he says. "To motivate people we offered them a generous bonus linked to percentage increases in efficiency levels - and we met our targets."

The pressure was on for HR, which put the deal in place while managing the people side of the redundancy process, making sure that people were looked after and that they kept the business running smoothly despite such major upheaval. "We don't like losing people," explains HR manager Gail Khan. "We had to be very sensitive to the fact that many of our employees had never worked anywhere else and everything in their lives was connected with the brewery."

Careful planning and management, a generous redundancy package, early consultation with union representatives, strong communications and professional support from PDT were critical to the success of the closure of the Wandsworth site and transfer of production. Most important was a determination at executive level to 'do the right thing' and treat people fairly and with respect.

Last year, British Sugar announced that beet processing would cease at its Allscott and York factories, reducing its production facilities from six to four. However, the company decided to handle the process of losing about 200 people in-house.

"The big thing for us is getting involved with individuals and their needs so we can help them as much as possible," says communications manager John Smith.

"As well as a series of one-to-one interviews for everybody, training was provided in topics such as job seeking and CV writing and the HR team also produced a comprehensive A4 booklet to help everyone.

"We have been able to retain more than 50 of the 219 people affected by the two site closures at our remaining sites."

Food manufacturing has been hit by more than its fair share of redundancies and factory closures this year, but outplacement can help soften the blow for individuals and the company itself.

Shareholders, customers, staff staying on - and future recruits - will see it as indicative of a company's values and standards. And, in the long run, it may help firms to recruit more talented people than their rivals. FM

Universities have much to learn from china

At the end of last year the gauntlet was thrown down to the food industry by a leading UK academic who asked: "What exactly do you want from food science graduates?"

Andy Taylor, professor of flavour technology and head of food sciences at the University of Nottingham, is an experienced research scientist. But he is also a pragmatic individual who recognises that tertiary education must offer courses that meet market needs.

He is so concerned about declining interest in food science that he is willing to consider radical changes, as he believes this might be the result of a failure by the educational system to meet the needs of the UK food industry.

When he addressed Food Manufacture's HR Forum, Taylor called on manufacturers to get involved in the debate and support new training schemes once they were up and running.

Since then, Taylor has continued to discuss new types of degrees but said the process had got bogged down by admin. "We really need some funding to employ someone to fully research the topic, but it is slow progress," he says.

This is certainly not the case in China, as professor Jeya Henry, of Oxford Brooks University, found on a recent DTI-sponsored trade mission to look at functional foods. "The scale of academic training in food science is truly breathtaking," he says. "The Chinese are looking ahead 50 years, not five years, in their plans."

Henry talked about the Chinese government's massive investment in education and just how seriously it is taken by the country.

"The University of Agriculture in Beijing has a food technology centre that is huge," he says. "It is producing more than 500 undergraduates a year in food technology."

He says that Britain should not be frightened by this because we are still at the forefront of innovation and have a long tradition of creative thinking. But he believes that our system of educating food scientists needs shaking up.

"We cannot be complacent. We need to excite young people about the global possibilities available today to food science graduates," he says. He also says that food science should be combined with study of nutrition because health will be a key driver for the industry and technology will have to deliver in this area.

Applications to join Reading University's food bioscience courses were up 30% last year and look set to increase by a further 12-15% next year. Reading's Glynis Jodrell says greater publicity of food and health issues has created a wave of new interest in the industry among students.