Singapore - When Agilent Technologies announced its restructuring plans, what its CLO did was rethink the role of L&D in the likelihood that training will be put on hold.

That's even though learning and development programmes has remained unaffected for now since the measurement solutions company announced last month that it is streamlining its businesses and retrenching 2,700 workers worldwide. But Christopher Goh, director of Agilent Technologies Asia Pacific's global learning and leadership development, admits neither has training gone up due to the retrenchments. "We are doing more with less. There is no time for training. We are out there chasing for orders."

So the question for him was with all these retrenchments, what is the role of L&D during a restructuring? Goh says, "As a CLO (chief learning officer) now, you have to think about a performance consulting model. How can we partner the country and business HR to facilitate the whole change process and intervention level?"

He believes the partnership can be achieved in two levels. First, focus on the individual which means training the managers on how to do an effective separation meeting. "How we treat our separated employees is as important as maintaining morale and engagement. Not many managers are attuned to that. They can say ‘why me, I'm also buried [under stress]'."

Second, the CLO should partner the business GM on talent management issues such as identifying critical roles and selecting the people who are going to be retrenched. Goh says, "You don't want to come out from this scenario not having the right talent to bring your organisation into the next phase of future success."

However, the role of L&D differs from every organisation and the country it's based in, says Goh, as there are "a lot of implications" depending on the stage of business growth. "If your company has a global outreach, there is more to consider about. You have to think now how your L&D role will shift maybe in two, three, five years."