????匯豐銀行（HSBC）的股東們眼下可能正偷著樂呢！2011年上半年，匯豐銀行的稅前利潤達115億美元，同比增長4億美元。這是幾個收益期以來，匯豐銀行的表現首次超出預期。同時，銀行CEO斯圖亞特?格利佛眼下似乎正在按部就班地執行今年五月宣布的削減成本和關注增長市場的計劃。

????但是匯豐銀行的約30萬員工無論如何也高興不起來。匯豐銀行將主要通過精簡員工來削減成本：計劃在2013年之前共裁員3萬人（在過去的半年中，已經有5，000名員工被裁），這還不包括因出售或處置公司的部分資產而導致的減員。

????匯豐的瘦身大計也許已經走上正軌，但是由于大量員工面臨著下崗的壓力，如何穩定軍心就成為它必須處理的一個棘手問題。市場似乎很樂意看到大型銀行“瘦身”，最近幾家銀行在這方面也確實有所行動。周二，巴克萊銀行（Barclay）宣布，計劃今年裁員3，000人，而且，公司的稅前利潤同比下降約33%。此外，匯豐銀行昨天在宣布裁員計劃的同時，宣布了利潤增長的利好消息。受此影響，匯豐銀行的股價上漲了5%。

????證券分析機構Canaccord Genuity的分析師科馬克?利奇表示，裁員在預料之中。這與匯豐銀行CEO格利佛在昨天上午的季報電話會議上的觀點不謀而合。他說：“如果我們要想削減10%的成本，我們就需要精簡10%的員工，這一點不足為奇。”

????利奇稱，因為裁員代表著具體的行動，而且是比匯豐銀行的競爭對手更有效的行動，因此有希望取悅股東。他說：“每個銀行——我覺得特別是巴克萊銀行和勞埃德銀行（Lloyd’s）——已經制定了雄心勃勃的戰略目標，而且，他們正為實現目標而努力。”

????但是，在股東歡呼裁員是一個不錯的商業戰略時，員工卻面臨著可能會被裁掉的擔憂，這無疑就制造了緊張氣氛。成本削減從數據上來看是有利的，但是裁員也會嚴重挫傷員工的士氣并影響生產效率。

????美國職業生涯管理服務機構Right Management的高級副總裁莫妮卡?莫羅表示，很顯然，擔心被裁的員工工作效率會降低。

????她說，公司處于這種重大變動時必須謹慎應對，同時加強與員工的溝通。她建議，計劃進行大規模裁員的公司應該在實際開始裁員之前，與可能被裁掉的員工討論安置計劃，并向他們明確被辭退之后仍然能享受到的福利計劃。

????“通常情況下，員工希望知道被裁的原因，這正是溝通策略的第一部分：討論可能發生的事情、可能的程序以及裁員消息將由誰發布等。在這種時期，無論怎么溝通都不為過。”

????這一方法適用于離開的員工，同樣也適用于留下來的員工，學術界通常把他們稱為“幸存者”。

????賓夕法尼亞大學（University of Pennsylvania）沃頓商學院（Wharton School）管理學教授彼得?卡佩里說：“我們知道，自從裁員開始，幸存者通常無法好好工作。公司發生的一切讓他們心生恐懼。”

????他說，如果幸存者對自己得以幸免的原因不夠了解，他們就會對未來焦慮不安。

????卡佩里說：“他們開始胡思亂想，認為裁員是隨機的，想象出最糟糕的情形。”

????康奈爾大學（Cornell）工業暨勞工關系學院（School of Industrial and Labor Relations）薪酬研究院（Institute for Compensation Studies）的院長凱文?哈洛克稱，為了避免恐慌，這些公司需要向幸存者解釋公司留下他們的原因，他們在公司全新愿景中的位置所在。這樣，可以幫助緩解在裁員后產生的“幸存者負罪感”的心理。

????哈洛克表示，這是人性的自然反應。員工會懷念被辭退的同事。如果他們不明白為什么自己的朋友被辭退，自己卻安然無恙，工作氛圍就會趨于緊張，特別是裁員往往還伴隨著工作負荷加重。

????莫羅說：“任何處于過渡階段的人都強烈希望所有程序能夠照顧到人的尊嚴。”如果被辭退的同事能夠得到尊重，留下來的員工工作表現也會改善。

????裁員的負面效應使匯豐銀行面臨的挑戰更加嚴峻。同時，匯豐銀行股價上漲對CEO斯圖亞特?格利佛的影響也比表象更深遠。

????哈洛克對《財富》500強（Fortune 500）上榜公司歷年數據的分析顯示，“如果裁員帶來的市場反應良好，CEO一般會繼續留任。如果市場出現負面反應，CEO的位置在接下來的幾年可能就會易主。這一規律并非鐵律，但是通常情況下，事實就是如此。”

????如果這一規律再次奏效，至少現任CEO斯圖亞特?格利佛能保住飯碗。

????（翻譯 喬樹靜）

????If you're one of HSBC's shareholders, you're probably stoked. For the first time in a couple of earnings periods, the bank exceeded expectations, netting a $11.5 billion pretax profit for the first half of 2011, up from $11.1 billion a year ago. CEO Stuart Gulliver also looks like he's making good on his plan to cut costs and focus on growth markets, announced this past May.

????But if you're one of HSBC's approximately 300,000 employees, it might be hard to join the celebration. Much of the cost savings in the company's strategy will come from shedding a total of 30,000 jobs before 2013 (HSBC has laid off 5,000 employees over the past six months), not counting jobs lost from selling or disposing of portions of the company.

????While HSBC may be on track to slim down, it now has to handle the tricky situation of maintaining a productive workforce when plenty of its people are facing the chopping block. The market seems to like it when big banks slim down these days, and several are doing just that. Today, Barclays (BCS) announced that it plans to cut 3,000 jobs this year, and that the company's pretax profit dropped about 33% from the previous year.HSBC, on the other hand, announced its job slashing plans along with an increase in profits. Its share price rose 5% after yesterday's announcement.

????The job loss was expected, says Canaccord Genuity analyst Cormac Leech, a sentiment that HSBC CEO Gulliver echoed during an earnings conference call yesterday morning. "If we're looking to take 10% out of the cost-base of the firm, it's not altogether surprising that's about 10% of the headcount of the firm."

????The layoffs may please shareholders because they reflect action, any action, which is better than what can be said of some of HSBC's competitors, says Leech. "Every bank -- and I'm thinking particularly Barclays and Lloyd's -- has provided ambitious strategic targets, and they've been struggling to hit them."

????But HSBC's situation creates tension between shareholders cheering the job cuts on as good business strategy and employees who may be afraid of losing their jobs. Cost cutting looks great on a spreadsheet, but layoffs come at a significant cost to morale and productivity.

????Understandably, employees afraid of losing their jobs can be less efficient, says Monika Morrow, senior vice president of career management services in America for Right Management.

????Companies experiencing a major transition such as this one must handle it carefully, she says, and communicate more than normal. She suggests that organizations planning major layoffs should even discuss plans with employees at risk well before cuts take place, and inform them of the benefits they can still access even as they're preparing to be let go.

????"People always want to know why, and that's really the first part of that communication strategy: being able to talk about what is going to happen, how's it going to happen and who are you going to hear from," Morrow says. "You can't over-communicate during this period of time."

????That goes for employees who leave but also the ones who stay behind, often referred to as "survivors" in the academic world.

????"We know from the downsizing wave, the survivors often don't perform well. They're often petrified about what has happened," says Peter Capelli a professor of management at University of Pennsylvania's Wharton school.

????Capelli says that survivors often don't know why they made the cut, causing anxiety and uncertainty about their future.

????"They start thinking it's random and they make up the worst story they can imagine," Capelli says.

????To avoid panic, companies need to tell remaining employees why they've been spared and how they fit within the company's refreshed vision. This can help alleviate any "survivor's guilt" they may feel following layoffs, says Kevin Hallock, director of the Institute for Compensation Studies at Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

????It's an all-too human response, Hallock says. People miss their coworkers, and it can strain the work environment if they don't understand why their friend was fired instead of them, especially when that sentiment is coupled with a heavier workload.

????"Anybody who's transitioning really needs to experience what I would call a dignified process," Morrow says. Employees who stay will work better if they see their fired friends treated with respect.

????These negative side effects only add more weight to HSBC's challenges. But, in the meantime, the bank's stock jump could carry more long-term meaning for CEO Stuart Gulliver than it may seem.

????According to Hallock's analysis of years of data from Fortune 500 companies, "If you see a layoff and the market loved it, the CEO tends to stick around. If there's a negative reaction, the CEOs tend to turn over in the subsequent years. It's not a law of gravity, but on average, that tends to be true."

????If the trend holds, at least one HSBC employee will be sure to dodge the pink slip this time around.