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BT: Career Corridors

8 January 2007

While reviewing its approach to how it deals with surplus resource and redeployees created by business unit major change programmes, BT has come up with the concept of Career Corridors.

Career Corridors is an attempt to put momentum in the redeployment process and how redeployees are helped into substantive posts. There are two options or pathways. One is for individuals that express an option to explore leaving BT and covers a range of support mechanisms from re-training for external activity, through to getting experience in other companies, all of which lead to applying for a Newstart Package. This is supported by advice on seeking employment externally, together with finance and pension briefings.

The second option is the internal pathway. To have access to the internal pathway a member is:

1. already a redeployee,
2. the function/group becomes affected by a major change initiative or
3. a business unit opens the facility up, for example due to headcount challenges.

An individual can elect to use the internal pathway.

For those in the internal pathway a range of well known and tried means of placement is available, such as agency displacement, placing individuals into other roles through the Effective Deployment of Displaced Individuals (EDDI) process or by job applicants being successful for bulk moves from one function to another within the BT Group. Although not new the facility of secondment has been suggested, as has sabbaticals. Together with outplacements, these concepts never really took off in the past and in addition, contract and employment issues were never resolved. Such issues as hours, salary increases, leave arrangements and ownership of the contracts of employment for continuity purposes were never resolved. Along with the process for reduced hours with an incentive payment, these issues have still to be adequately addressed and resolved with BT.