芬蘭式裁員：看看 Nokia 如何照顧待走路員工 |
| 作者 藍 弋丰 |
而在此過程中，Nokia 也免不了裁員的陣痛， 在2012 年以前，Nokia 都是芬蘭最大的雇主，2000 年時，Nokia 在芬蘭有 2 萬 4,000 名員工，到 2013 年年底，只剩下 1 萬零 600 名員工。若再加上芬蘭以外的員工，人數就更驚人了。
那麼 Nokia 是怎麼對待這些員工呢？
就在裁員的決定一開始，Nokia 從董事長到資深主管們，就開始規劃轉職銜接計畫（Bridge programme），他們認為，要對離職的員工，做到職業道德上的最大照顧，而非只達到法律上的最低標準。
轉職銜接計畫適用於 1 萬 8,000 名 Nokia 全球裁員員工，幫助他們找到新的工作，包括為了幫助他們轉職到全新工作所提供的教育訓練，以及如果員工打算創業，則協助他們成立新創事業。如電視錄影及分 享 App，Tellyo 就得到 Nokia 投資 2 萬 5,000 歐元。
在芬蘭，轉職銜接計畫幫助了 5,000 名員工，並協助成立 400 家新創事業。許多 Nokia 專業人員，產生無數新創事業，如開發 App 遊戲《部落戰爭》（Clash of Clans）的 Supercell，也是前 Nokia 員工所創辦。
除了投資以外，Nokia 也授權員工 Nokia 的技術專利，如新創事業 PulseOn 就取用了 Nokia 的運動脈搏測量技術，5 個股東中有4個是前 Nokia 員工，而 Nokia 不但投資數萬歐元，還幫助新公司取得銀行貸款，這筆資金讓 PulseOn 撐過了前 10 個月的草創時期，之後獲得創投的投資，規模擴大到 13 人，將於今年推出產品。
甚至若 Nokia 已不需要的部分，如 MeeGo 作業系統，則直接由員工帶去創業，為它開創新機會。MeeGo 由前 Nokia 員工創立的新創公司 Jolla Mobile 取用其中的元素後，改寫為 Sailfish 手機作業系統。Nokia 大可拒絕授權，或是要員工簽下競業禁止條款，就可活生生的扼殺 MeeGo的 新應用，但是 Nokia 卻是鼓勵而非阻止。
Nokia的人才與轉職資助，使得芬蘭新創企業百花齊放，不僅沒有讓芬蘭因為 Nokia 倒下而「亡國」，許多芬蘭人反而認為 Nokia 的衰退，使得芬蘭經濟結構更為健全，由眾多新創公司簇擁，不再只依賴 Nokia 單一支柱。
而 Nokia 的裁員方式，更成為「芬蘭作風」的典範，Nokia 過去以經營上的成功成為芬蘭驕傲，現在雖然衰退，對待離職員工的高規格待遇，闡揚了芬蘭人道精神，一樣是芬蘭的驕傲；過去 Nokia 本身是芬蘭經濟支柱，如今化為數百新創企業，一樣支持著芬蘭的永續發展。
雖然 Nokia 強調，這個轉職銜接計畫，第一要務，是要照顧離職員工個人的利益，第二要務，是善盡對社會的責任，至於公司的利益，不在考慮範圍之內。但是，誰說這樣的作風，最後許多有形無形利益，不會回歸到 Nokia 身上呢？
（圖片來源：BBC）
31 January 2014 Last updated at 02:14
The upside to being let go by Nokia
Staff leave a Nokia building in Finland in 2012, after a briefing to announce thousands of redundancies
During
the years of Nokia's decline, culminating in the sale of its mobile
phone division to Microsoft in September, thousands of workers were made
redundant. But the ex-Nokians have now created hundreds of new
companies - thanks partly to a very Finnish level of support from the
employer to its departing staff.
Like many university graduates in Finland, Kimmo Koivisto
only wanted to work for Nokia - the country's biggest and most
successful company. He fondly recalls the four years he spent working in
its research strategy team in Helsinki."Working for Nokia was my dream job. It was good fun, having the geek inside me enjoying all the geeky stuff that was happening," he says.
Nokia once dominated the worldwide mobile phone market. It also dominated Finnish life.
Up until 2012 it was Finland's biggest employer, with more than 24,000 workers at its peak in 2000 (and another 36,000 overseas). It had an operating profit of 8bn euros and accounted for 4% of the country's GDP.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
Ari Tulla Founder of BetterDoctorPeople knew they were going to be laid off and were able to stay at Nokia - with a Nokia email address and laptop - and spend time applying for new things”
But in 2007 Nokia found itself losing ground rapidly against Apple and Samsung, and their hugely successful smartphones.
By the end of 2013 the number of employees in Finland had
fallen by over half to 10,600. Its operating profit in 2012 was minus
2.3bn euros.Kimmo left Nokia of his own accord, but he says it has been hard for him to watch the company's change in fortunes.
"Nokia gave us so much. You really grew there, learning so much and taking the opportunities it provided," he says.
"Then, in a few years everything is disappearing. It's very sad and difficult to see that happening."
In February 2011 Nokia announced that it was replacing its operating system with Microsoft Windows. The company restructured, shedding staff.
But about the same time, the company launched the Bridge programme, a scheme offering financial help and training to the workers who were about to leave.
"The company decided - all the way from the board to the senior management - that we wanted to do career responsibility as well as we can, beyond what the legal minimum is," says Matti Vanska, the head of the Bridge programme.
Ex-Nokian Kimmo Koivisto (left) and Matti Vanska, of Nokia's Bridge programme
In Finland 5,000 people received help and 400 new companies have now been created by around 500 entrepreneurs.
Kimmo was not eligible for Bridge funding because he left Nokia voluntarily. But he launched Tellyo - an app which allows people to instantly record and share TV clips with friends - with two other ex-Nokians who were.
Jakub Majkowski and Justyna Kowalska each received the maximum grant amount of 25,000 euros (£20,770) which was immediately invested in Tellyo.
Since it started up in January 2012, it has signed deals with broadcasters in Finland, Spain and Poland.
"The company would never have started without the Bridge programme," says Kimmo.
Nokia's headquarters in Espoo, near Helsinki
Nokia is not prepared to reveal how much the Bridge programme has cost but says it is "in the tens of millions of euros".
Some new companies have - with permission - taken licensed technologies from Nokia. Others - like Jolla Mobile - have given new life to ideas which were no longer considered part of Nokia's strategy, such as the MeeGo operating system.
Continue reading the main story
Five ex-Nokian startups
- Tellyo - allows users to instantly record and share TV clips
- PulseOn - claims to make the most accurate sports heart-rate monitor
- BetterDoctor - allows users to find suitable local doctors based on their insurance plan and type of care needed
- Runteq - measures, analyses and interprets running technique with two small wearable sensors
- TreLab - manufactures wireless measurement systems and localisation devices
"We saw this perfect opportunity
to take the people, the asset and the know-how to create something new,"
says Jolla's co-founder Marc Dillon.
Dillon had intended to work at Nokia for the rest of his life
but was made redundant after 10 years working for the company in San
Diego and Helsinki. The majority of Jolla's 90 employees also worked at
Nokia. Based in a former Nokia research centre in Helsinki, Jolla used elements of Nokia's MeeGo system to create a new operating system called Sailfish, and launched its first mobile phone in November.
Dillon says "agreements and things" don't allow him to say if his company received money from Nokia. But he says that Nokia is not an investor in Jolla.
"The most important thing was that they encouraged and they did not block. They could have said No, citing anti-competition or something like that.
"Instead we were open with them and they were open with us and we were able to take MeeGo and do something with it."
Another company that was allowed to take technology out of Nokia and develop it is PulseOn, which claims to have created the world's most accurate and easy-to-use sport heart-rate monitor.
Nokia has allowed some companies to use its technologies
"We saw a fantastic opportunity to commercialise a technology where the foundations were developed within Nokia," says Tero.
Continue reading the main story
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Nokia gave the company a grant of tens of thousands of euros, and helped arranged a credit guarantee from a bank.
The grant enabled PulseOn to fund itself for 10 months,
allowing it to further develop the technology before getting venture
capital investment. The company now has 13 employees and will launch its
first commercial product this year."It would have been very challenging to start it from scratch," says Tero.
"We're extremely grateful that this opportunity was given to us."
Some may argue that Nokia has done all this for its ex-staff to generate good publicity. This is denied by Matti Vanska.
"We said the individual priority is first, the community priority is second and the Nokia interest is third. I believe that when you do the right thing, Nokia will also benefit - but that was not the primary driver."
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
Ari Tulla Founder of BetterDoctorIf you think about the Finnish psyche, it's a very fair culture”
Ari Tulla is another one who
benefited. He was Nokia's Head of App studios, working in Helsinki and
San Francisco, but opted to leave when Nokia decided to switch to the
Windows phone in February 2011.
He and Tapio Tolvanen - who also took redundancy - set up a
company called BetterDoctor in San Francisco. Its app allows users to
quickly find a suitable local doctor based on their insurance plan and
the type of care they need.Ari says the Bridge programme gave BetterDoctor "a few tens of thousands of dollars" but believes the gesture was about far more than money.
"Nokia has been - and is still today - a Finnish company and if you think about the Finnish psyche, it's a very fair culture," says Ari.
"When we do something we always want to see it through. You don't see Finns bailing out, that's not part of the culture so I think you would expect that from Nokia.
"For workers in America, if you worked at a company like General Electric it's more like you get the package - a month's salary - and go. They lock the doors on the day you are fired.
"At Nokia there were people who knew they were going to be laid off in six months and they were able to stay at Nokia with a Nokia email address with the Nokia laptop and spend time applying for new things and Nokia helped them. That's pretty fair."
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