Eaton’s Truck Component business unit was the founding business of Eaton Corporation in 1911, when Joseph Eaton and Viggo Torbensen began building axles for the fledging commercial truck industry.
They built all of seven truck axles –by hand – in that first year. By 1917 they were the world’s largest builders of rear axles for trucks in the world.
Today the Eaton Corporation is a diversified power management company and is a global technology leader in electrical systems for power quality, distribution and control; hydraulics components, systems and services for industrial and mobile equipment; aerospace fuel, hydraulics and pneumatic systems for commercial and military use; and truck and automotice drivetrain and powertrain systems for performance, fuel and economy and safety.
Eaton has 81,000 employees and sells products to customers in more than 150 countries. The Challenge
When Eaton Trucks decided to close its site in Walkden near Bolton in October 2006, Capita was asked to provide outplacement support to help its staff make the transition to new employment. Richard Haswell, HR Manager for Eaton Truck Components, decided to appoint Capita because of a previous successful outplacement programme at another Eaton site in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham in 1999 as well as other several major employers in the North West. Proven experience in working closely with various government task forces and regional support agencies in the area gave him every confidence that “all expectations would be met.”
Our Solution
On site support services at Walkden were immediately set up, providing consultants and administration facilities to assist up to 290 employees leaving the site, initially over a phased stage from October to December 2006 and then from January to May 2007. Support services ranged from awareness seminars and practical workshops covering self-marketing, job search, CV preparation, interview techniques, self-employment and retirement planning, one to one support from Capita consultants and administration facilities.
It was soon realised on commencing the project, Capita would be dealing with a long standing workforce whose average age was in the mid forties. Consequently, the on-site Resource Centre was vital to help employees adjust to the current jobs market, identify and ‘sell’ their transferable skills and to provide administrative facilities to support all their activities.
A dedicated workforce support agency network, co-ordinated by Capita, was also set up to ensure that staff would benefit from all local and national resources, including local specialist training schemes which were successfully pursued and implemented for the benefit of all employees.
Results
At the end of May 2007, Eaton was pleased to announce that an 87% resettlement figure had been achieved.
‘Capita have always impressed me with their responsiveness and flexibility. On both occasions that I have worked with them, they have offered a competitively priced service with the delivery programme tailored to the specific local requirements. Without question, the outplacement programme helped our employees hugely as they made the transition to new employment.’
Richard Haswell, HR Manager, Eaton Trucks |
