Holden staff exodus begins

[burnz]

http://www.motoring.com.au/news/hold...s-begins-41317

Aussie engineers on the shopping list for GM international operations
General Motors has started the process of plucking the best and brightest from Holden ahead of the end of local manufacturing and engineering and its conversion to a marketer of imported cars.


Consolidated international operations chief Stefan Jacoby confirmed offers were being made to Australian-based personnel ahead of the closures and the death of the locally-built Commodore, which will occur no later than the end of 2017.


Jacoby, who revealed at the Detroit auto show this month that it was his recommendation to cease manufacturing in Australia, has been in charge of Australian operations only since August.


Jacoby would not say who, how many or from what areas the staff being cherry-picked would come from.


“I can’t make any statement about that,” he simply said.


At Ford Australia, which closes its manufacturing facilities and kills off Falcon no later than October 2016, the reallocation of staff internationally is also under consideration.


However, because Ford is retaining its local design and engineering business, including the You Yangs proving ground, there is much less movement anticipated.


Australians travelling overseas to work for other subsidiaries of the automotive company they are employed by – be it Holden, Ford, Toyota or others – is no rarity.


But the closure of Holden’s substantial engineering as well as manufacturing facilities means GM suddenly has a glut of talent to choose from across a number of fields, including lean production, logistics, supply chain and finance to name a few.


The one area that is safe throughout this process is design, which will continue to have a presence in Melbourne after the end of local manufacturing.


But Holden’s design department – now known as General Motors Design Australia – has long provided talent to the GM world.


For instance, Australian designer Andrew Smith is in charge at Cadillac, while fellow Aussie Max Wolff sits in the same position at its direct blue oval rival Lincoln. Both learned their craft at Holden.


Another Aussie, GM international operations design director Michael Simcoe (pictured), who oversees both the Melbourne studio and GM’s Seoul (Korea) design centre spent six years in senior roles at the Warren technical centre in Detroit.


He says the lessons learned in the local industry make Australians attractive for international postings.


“Even if the Holden brand wasn’t going through the turmoil it is at the moment there would still be that movement,” Simcoe told motoring.com.au.


“If you go back to basics, people who have found their way inside a fairly specialist community inside Australia have to be kind of special, fairly talented, fairly ambitious and driven individuals.


“You have a tradition inside Holden particularly – but I think it is also true with Ford and other companies inside Australia – because there is not many of you, you get a lot of experience very quickly.


“Most of the people we have sent have been successful.”


Simcoe confirmed that the end of manufacturing meant more effort would be required to keep a flow of young and talented designers coming into the business. An important part of that would be communicating with universities, colleges and design students and alerting them to the opportunities.


“We demonstrate what we have to offer... and a nice piece of that now is being able to say to them ‘you are joining GM Design Australia and by the way we are part of a big and international organisation’.”

[Nikked]

So Holden/GM won't do any design or engineering here? That really knocks the "here to stay" yuck that they carried on with.


If Holden are really only going to be a Import only company with absolutely no product development here...then I don't see any point in the name sticking around.

[GASWAGON]

The smarter ones will leave now and take on new positions instead of waiting for the day that the gates close forever....

Mind you it would **** me right off having to move overseas just to find/keep work!

[nuthin' fancy]

Originally Posted by EF_6

The smarter ones will leave now and take on new positions instead of waiting for the day that the gates close forever....

Mind you it would **** me right off having to move overseas just to find/keep work!

But they put at risk a sizable redundancy if they leave early. A mate of mine works at Alcoa and talking to him on Thursday I suggested he get his name out to every employer he can think of. They will have a 'road show' from potential employers, I was trying to explain to him that he will be much better served if they know who he is when they arrive, rather than just being one of the spoon fed mass who can't think outside the square.

I'm in finance and have been self-employed for 12 years after 20 years in banks, I don't envy those who have the need to retrain and reskill forced upon them, there is never a right time.

At least the Ford, Holden and Toyota guys are getting lots of notice, the Alcoa guys haven't had that.

[GASWAGON]

Originally Posted by nuthin' fancy

But they put at risk a sizable redundancy if they leave early. A mate of mine works at Alcoa and talking to him on Thursday I suggested he get his name out to every employer he can think of. They will have a 'road show' from potential employers, I was trying to explain to him that he will be much better served if they know who he is when they arrive, rather than just being one of the spoon fed mass who can't think outside the square.

I'm in finance and have been self-employed for 12 years after 20 years in banks, I don't envy those who have the need to retrain and reskill forced upon them, there is never a right time.

At least the Ford, Holden and Toyota guys are getting lots of notice, the Alcoa guys haven't had that.

Very true. Alcoa people should be starting looking for new work ASAP!

Much less time for them to put resume's out and go thru all the interveiwing process's etc all in a climate that really is'nt looking to good for Geelong.

[GASWAGON]

I have posted on this site already a few times before that the Oz economy will start changing since the Ford/Holden/Toyota and now even the Alcoa news.

These companies have been employing people for 50-60 years and soon it will ALL be gone.

Consumers are going to start spending less on new cars and the Asian products will get the business not the locals.

It really scares me to think where some local workers will end up in a few years time?

[Kieron]

Originally Posted by Nikked

So Holden/GM won't do any design or engineering here? That really knocks the "here to stay" yuck that they carried on with.

The article mentioned GM will still have design here but yes, engineering is gone.

If Holden are really only going to be a Import only company with absolutely no product development here...then I don't see any point in the name sticking around.

On the contrary, Holden is a marketing brand and has value in the market which is something that takes a long time to build.

[P6LTD351]

Originally Posted by Kieron

On the contrary, Holden is a marketing brand and has value in the market which is something that takes a long time to build.

Holden is a now defunct saddlery company that later progressed to putting together cars of various makes including Ford.

The name 'Holden' has really been an illusion for all these years since the first so called Holden car in 1948. It's been GM. Now that GM won't be making 'Holdens' anymore, they should ditch the name. Chev has more street cred anyway.

[UberKnee]

Nothing against Holden, I'm not a bogan brand slave but Chevrolet is a more exciting brand name than Holden. May as well dump the Holden name.

[Nikked]

Originally Posted by Kieron

On the contrary, Holden is a marketing brand and has value in the market which is something that takes a long time to build.

It will make Holden the only brand in the GM empire that doesn't engerneer or produce cars.

[82XD393.3v]

empire lol chop shop