During Company Reorganizations, Keep Your Employees Involved
By Jennifer Blanchard, HRTools
As companies grow, reorganization is inevitable, but how you deal with it says a lot about you and your company.
One of the biggest mistakes employers make during reorganizations is not taking into account their employee’s reactions. According to the article, Make the Best of Company Reorganization, by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, there are three main reactions employers will have during times of reorganization:
- Uncertainty about what to do next
- Anxiety about the future
- A feeling of no control
All of which, Mercer says, can lower morale and affect productivity. It can also cause employees to be resentful and sometimes even start looking for a new job.
Don’t let this happen at your company. Show your employees how much they mean to you by keeping them involved at every level.
Reorganizations can be dealt with a lot better, and will get you a whole different reaction. Here are the three most important things to keep in mind:
- COMMUNICATE—during a period of reorganization, clear, frequent communication is the utmost important thing. Immediately after announcing a reorganization, employees may start freaking out a little and worrying about how it’s going to affect them, which is why employers should make a point to involve employees as soon as a decision is made, and not a minute later.
Involving employees from the get-go will allow them to be part of the reorganization process, and keep any anxieties or feelings of no control at bay.
It’s also important to make sure communication is two-way, allowing employees to ask questions and get answers.
- Have a Clear Plan—Once a reorganization is announced, there will be a lot of questions and anxieties, so to avoid getting bombarded and having no answers, create a clear plan of action. Before you implement any changes, be sure you have descriptions and duties for what each new job will entail or exactly how many people will be laid off or who each employee will be reporting to, etc.
You never want to make huge changes before you have a plan.
- Help Employees Embrace the Change—Employers are better able to help everyone get through the transition if they understand that a wide-range of employee responses is completely normal, according to Mercer. Although some employees may embrace the change on their own, for those that have a timid or negative reaction, employers should make it their business to help them also embrace it.
Employees will feel a lot more comfortable with the changes if you explain to them your vision, the reasons for the changes, and anything else that will help them understand it better.
“You can help them see the big picture by communicating business reasons for the change as well as the advantages to the company and to them,” Mercer says. “This can help take away the sense that the change is directed against them personally and might lead to greater acceptance on the employees' part.”
Next, it’s best to give them time to adjust. Most people don’t deal well with change, especially when it’s sprung on them at the last second. To help your employees embrace the change and react less negatively, involve them as soon as a decision is made so they have some time to adjust to the changes.
For example, if you call employees into your office on a Friday afternoon to let them know they’ll be part of a different department and have a new workspace on Monday morning, they’re going to react a lot differently than if you told them about the changes a few weeks in advance.
Keeping everyone in the loop will make for a better, smoother transition.
<p>As companies grow, reorganization is inevitable, but how you deal with it says a lot about you and your company. </p>
/training_performance/during_company_reorganizations_keep_your_employees_involved.aspx