They will do bench management instead.
In the UK, there will be >100 people let go at end of April.
The consultation period starts next week. In other countries, there’s barely anyone left locally in GBS other than in Germany and they can’t get rid of the glut of people that easily.
Natural attrition will prevail until all of GBS is based in India...
I work in GBS NA and have witnessed my colleagues were put on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) because they were on the bench, unable to get on a project and were terminated because they did not fulfill their PIP.
It’s my understanding that GBS NA bench management = PIPs (Performance Improvement Plans) that will lead to unattainable goals. As a result, PIPs are walking papers for job termination without any severance pay.
IBM threw all of their eggs into the “this stuff just sells itself” basket when they adopted the channel philosophy. The channel had relationships that absolutely helped IBM, but IBM throttled back on the face to face relationships and they reaped what they sowed. Just take power sales over the last 10 years. Down every year and continuing down. People buy from people they like (especially when the HW and SW is viewed as a commodity). IBM has never valued the face to face writing it off as a cost of sales, and the results speak for themselves. Now that services has gone offshore we should expect more of the same trajectory as Power sales. Down and down. IBM streamlined sales at the expense of the rep face to face relationships, and now they are questioning why sales are down. IBM exec’s ask this question on your next sales call. Ask the customer who their rep is. There is a 50/50 shot they will not know, if the customer is a fortune 1000 customer. There is a 99% shot they will not know if they are a sub fortune 1000 customer. People rarely buy from people they don’t know
More pressure on NA to perform of which we know they are not capable. Also a cautionary tale- business is dead in most countries in Europe because no local staff is left. You can’t sell business when everyone is based in India . NA is already doing bench management. My manager just tipped off my entire team individually about who will get on PIP and is trying to get us all coverage. Many clients closing their doors to nonessential contractors like IBM. We don’t have the client relationships to keep things going through such a huge global crisis. It’s going to get real ugly. GLTA
Thanks.
How does what happens in GBS Europe affect GBS NA?