Studies have shown that downsizing can negatively impact employees who remain with the company. Decreasing the workforce by just 1% has been found to increase turnover by up to 31% in the following year1.
Following downsizing, employees who retain their position will often experience significant declines in job satisfaction, organisational commitment and job performance. As redundancies happen around them, they will evaluate the performance of leaders on the degree to which they step up to their responsibilities and live up to the company values.
When remaining employees know their leaders have acted with professionalism and empathy during a time of change, their sense of trust in the company is reinforced. As a leader managing an organisational restructure, it’s important to ensure you provide your employees with support during and after the redundancy process. Here are some key areas for leaders to be focused on during a redundancy process.
Planning an organisational restructure
As a leader managing an organisational restructure, it is important to spend time planning the announcement and how you will support everyone impacted by the change. After the change has occurred, it is critical for leaders to refocus and re-energise their employees for the future.
Communications
Employees will be more open to change if they understand the reasons behind it and are provided with an opportunity to share their feedback. Here are a range of tips for communicating change and redundancies through your business.
- Be clear and transparent
- Communicate early and throughout
- Get the timing right
- Use the right channels
- Be supportive and available
- Keep the conversation open
Protecting your brand and reputation
Redundancy processes can be an anxiety inducing time for the organisation. Outplacement services can help to reduce this by providing employees with the support they need, both those who have been made redundant and those who will be staying with the company.
By providing this support, communication, and the way a company manages redundancies will have a significant impact on how outgoing and retained employees view the organisation. It goes without saying that if leaders demonstrate empathy and understanding during a challenging time, they will be able to protect the brand and reputation of their company.
Rebuilding morale
The phase following organisational change is the time to upskill your workforce and reboot engagement. With sufficient focus on rebuilding after redundancies occur, you can minimise your loss of talent, mitigate low morale and get productivity back on track.
Some ways to do this include –
- Assess how your workforce and teams are coping with diagnostics
- Hold team-building workshops
- Undertake career resilience sessions
Supporting leadership
While leaders are supporting employees during change, leaders also need to be supported. A seasoned outplacement provider can support management by aiding decision making before, during and after the redundancy process.
- At an emotionally difficult time, support can help leaders to reconcile their decisions with their personal values.
- By relying on the experience and insight of a trusted advisor, leaders can ensure they are making the best business decisions for the company moving forward.
Contact People Solutions
For over 20 years, our team at People Solutions have been dedicated to supporting businesses and individuals through redundancies and career transitions. Our directors have worked with leaders across many key industries and can share their wealth of experience with you.
If you are facing organisational change or redundancies, please get in touch to find out how we can help.