Harman Announces Workforce Consolidation

HARMAN Professional Solution is cutting off 650 employees, equals to a significant proportional of its professional audiovisual workforce, as part of a major workforce transformation.

In addition, there will be several facility closures over the next nine months, including its Harman Signal Processing facility in Utah, as well as operations in Indiana and smaller sites throughout Europe. Harman took many of these sites on as part of various company acquisitions during the past 10 years. Notice has reportedly been given to the employees affected.

‘To be clear, the changes we announced are the culmination of a transformation that the Professional Solutions Division has been undergoing for the last two years to better serve our customers, increase our competitiveness, and accelerate new product innovations,’ explained David Glaubke, Director of public relations, global professional solutions at HARMAN International. ‘We have given our employees advance notification of the changes we will make over the next year to assist with the transition and will do our best to mitigate the impact to our employees and their families. Importantly, we also will ensure that the process is completely seamless for our customers.’

Samsung’s acquisition of Harman was driven by its presence in the automotive and consumer sectors, the automotive sector accounting for approximately 65% of Harman’s US$7 billion of reported sales at the time. Samsung stated its intentions upon completion of the purchase to retain the Harman workforce, headquarters and facilities, as well as all of its consumer and professional audio brands.

Also, the company mentioned that it will now enter a “rebuilding” mode and form three “Centers of Competency”: Northridge, CA for acoustics; Richardson, TX for electronics, DSP, and video and control; and Aarhus, Denmark for lighting. “These centers will allow the company’s engineers to focus on critical product differentiations instead of requiring them to develop motors, mechanical structures, and other supporting elements. The job of converting these technologies into competitive products will be for our newly formed New Product Innovation (NPI) teams.”

“We have given our employees advance notification of the changes we will make over the next year to assist with the transition and will do our best to mitigate the impact to our employees and their families,” Glaubke said. “Importantly, we also will ensure that the process is completely seamless for our customers.”

Furthered he added, “I want to emphasise that decisions like this, while necessary, are not easy to make. We are very excited about the future of HARMAN Professional Solutions and believe that, with these changes, we are now aligned and structured to serve our customers better and to return to stronger profitable growth.’