Dealing with the uncertainty associated with a company restructure can be tough. The lack of control that staff experience often causes people to feel disorientated and powerless. This can result in strong emotions, high stress and negative feelings towards the company – from both those who are ultimately made redundant, and those who end up staying.
When staff are asked to go through a change that is potentially difficult and which may result in redundancy, most companies are, thankfully, keen to do the right thing these days. There’s a moral and professional obligation to ensure employees are well supported and remain active and engaged throughout the process. After all, the company’s reputation is on the line.
So how can organisations approach and implement change – sensitively and sensibly?
This was the brief from one of New Zealand’s top dairy exporters. They asked Changeability to help them mentally prepare for a company restructure that would affect several staff at various levels of the organisation.
After an initial briefing from the Human Resources team, Changeability created a tailor-made readiness workshop.
The workshop – which catered for small working groups of 4 to 16 people – gave staff the opportunity to think about the approaching change. Employees were encouraged to acknowledge and express their emotions evoked by the uncertain future. For some, this enabled them to voice their concerns – many of which had previously remained unspoken.
The programme provided staff with some simple tools and techniques to assist them in navigating the process successfully. For example, they were invited to ‘chose an attitude’ that they could use ‘as a rudder’ through the process and to focus on taking a proactive approach to managing their own experience of the change.
A Senior HR Manager at the high-profile company said of the outcomes:
“I’ve been involved in many restructures but I’ve never seen people deal with the uncertainty as well as they have this time.”
“Staff are focussing on what they can influence. They are taking proactive steps to support themselves and each other and colleagues from other departments have been commenting on how well our team is coping with the change and how people are still so focussed on business as usual”
Dick Downing, Enterprise Manager at Changeability, who facilitated the programme, said:
“The development of personal action plans for each person was central to success. The plans helped individuals prepare for the process and focus on what they could influence. They also provided people with a tool to use to help them to positively navigate the change process.”
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