Nokia cuts another 300 jobs, is set to outsource 820 more

Just as things were looking up for Nokia, the company has announced that it’s going to cut another 300 jobs and will potentially outsource a further 820.

The struggling Finnish phone manufacturer says the cuts are part of the new focused strategy it announced back in June 2012. That plan calls for it cut at least 10 000 jobs in its mobile division by the end of this year. These planned cuts follow on from an earlier plan to eliminate about 14 000 jobs worldwide, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The news comes in the wake of some better than expected handset sales for the company. Last week, Nokia reported a sliver lining in its dark cloud when it released preliminary fourth quarter figures that indicated that it had sold more than 4.4-million units of its Lumia Windows Phone devices.

The former king of the mobile world has slowly found its popularity overshadowed by the growing popularity of Samsung’s range of mobile devices and Apple’s iPhone, in an increasingly competitive smartphone market. Cost cutting and outsourcing may be Nokia’s only way to survive.

“Nokia believes these changes will increase operational efficiency and reduce operating costs, creating an IT organization appropriate for Nokia’s current size and scope,” the company said in a statement.

See the full statement below:

Nokia outlined a range of planned changes today to streamline its IT organization. Nokia believes these changes will increase operational efficiency and reduce operating costs, creating an IT organization appropriate for Nokia’s current size and scope.

As part of the planned changes, Nokia plans to transfer certain activities and up to 820 employees to HCL Technologies and TATA Consultancy Services.

Nokia also plans to reduce its global IT organization by up to 300 employees. Nokia will offer employees affected by these planned reductions both financial support and a comprehensive Bridge support program. These are the last anticipated reductions as part of Nokia’s focused strategy announcement of June 2012.

The majority of the employees affected by these planned changes are based in Finland. Nokia is beginning the process of engaging with employee representatives on these plans in accordance with country-specific legal requirements..