Ruko Kuga

The world is a turbulent place today. There are political, economic, and social volatility. It is moving fast with advancement of technologies. Many jobs are lost almost everyday, whilst new jobs are created at a speed of light. Large companies, and the government are changing fast to respond with those external changes. However, for an employee inside an organisation, ‘changes’ and ‘restructuring’ can mean an insecure future, broken trust, and unreliable support. For organisations, the workforce with a lower morale can be detrimental to their productivity, innovation and reputation.

My interest in the topic arose from my own experience of witnessing a restructuring at an organisation. My direct observation, interviews, together with my secondary research informed me to build a following mission statement.

How might we build a comprehensive service to transform a corporate downsizing program to become more effective for business, minimise damage for staying employees, and provide a smoother transition for leaving employees?

Harbour is a comprehensive service for large organisations, providing employees with a proactive, 'human' support during and after a downsizing, through a network of peers, partners and with a little help of technology.

For employees: Harbour will connect you with your peers through a difficult time and support you to find a new job through the organisation's network.

For managers/HR: Harbour will enable you to support employees more effectively, through providing you with resources and facilitating peer support.

For organisations: Harbour will facilitate a better communication and a dialogue with your employees, to help re-build trust and maintain your workforce productivity and top talents.