How businesses handle redundancies is a leadership choice, now is the time to show your true values
“Businesses notoriously don't handle redundancies well. After the tough decisions of having to reshape, rethink, redirect resources, they think their work is done. But that’s just where it starts. When the news breaks its not just a communication team’s issue. It’s a leadership issue, it’s an operations issue, a brand issue, a strategic choice about how redundancies are handled, and the impact on future success.”
Ask your friend who has just been made redundant? How did it go for them? We all have the stories, the text being sent on a Friday at 8pm, the news being delivered in a car park, on a fire escape, a pretend meeting titled ‘Annual Review’, not being told at all and only realising when you got blocked trying to log in.
So is there a way to handle redundancy well?
Yes. And it feels simple. Be fair. Be kind. Be a Human.
When redundancies are being made there is usually already an increased tension internally. Changes are in response to performance, and when senior managers aren't delivering the rest of the business feels it. So on top of the pressure to make changes and restructuring the business; the people involved gets lost in a process.
Some businesses do better than others. Some CEOs do outstanding, compelling messages to all staff. The recent announcement from Brian Chesky at AirBNB was a masterclass in communications from the centre.
But that's not usually where it hurts.
It hurts at local level. It hurts when it comes to how an individual is told and treated.
It’s always a shock to hear the news you are being made redundant. The way someone is treated when being told they are being made redundant becomes part of that business infrastructure and legacy. People might be leaving, but they leave with an opinion. And the ones left behind watch how people have been treated. The ones that had to deliver the news are carrying the guilt and now the paranoia it might be them next. The ones picking up extra work load, unfinished projects, no handovers - they might have a job, but how are they feeling about it?
And those who are departing are now future brand ambassadors, customers, consumers. They are future employees when you need them back, future suppliers.
Making people redundant is not just an HR process.
It’s a reflection of the organisation as a whole, its values, its purpose, its leadership. It’s about brand values, wellbeing and mental health, operational excellence and customer experience. All those headlines that we see on business plans are not excluded when it comes to putting those philosophies and ethos into practice during times of redundancy.
This is the time to truly test those brand values
Do you really live them, believe in them, deliver them?
Even when the pressure is on?
The best brand values help you through the storm, but how often do we see them tossed overboard when the first wave hits?
When businesses put people in the centre of redundancies everyone wins.
When businesses put cost reduction, panic and productivity in the centre, they weaken their infrastructure, they make it harder to fight back, harder for future success.
The ripple effect of how restructuring is handled leaves waves long after people have moved on.
Everyone needs care & attention.
The managers who are breaking the news need support
The people leaving need support (no matter what part of the organisation they are, outplacement is not just for senior managers)
The people left behind need support
And don’t forget customers!
And don’t forget yourself!
Now is exactly the time to turn to your values and ask yourself what do we stand for? Who do we want to be? How can we be that organisation now? How do we take this opportunity and grow into the space it’s created - and take people with us?
We are heading into a period of change, reforming and reshaping. The best organisations will recognise that their issues are a small part of the greater global challenges we are all working through. Their communications will acknowledge the global community, but not blame it, it will be clear why they have to make changes, but it will feel fair to individuals. We all understand the marketplace has shifted. But that doesn’t mean care & kindness disappears as well.
Making redundancies is never going to feel great. But it is worse to hide, to avoid, to be a coward, to not be fair to your employees.
We can reduce the horror stories of how people get made redundant.
It is a leadership choice.
We know redundancies will happen but how they are handling is a strategic decision.
If you are making redundancies & you want support we are here to help.