Redundancies are usually inevitable at some point in a company’s life. Whether small scale, perhaps a handful of roles, to large scale, with multiple departments, hundreds, or maybe even thousands of people impacted. Regardless of the size, it’s an incredibly sensitive activity, which must be handled appropriately, with respect and dignity. There have been a number of examples in recent years where this hasn’t been the case – British Airways, P&O and Twitter being some of the most obvious examples.
In my career, I’ve had the displeasure of having to write and coordinate communications around redundancies and office closures. Here are my top 10 tips I’ve learnt of how to communicate redundancies internally.
1. Bring in the right teams
Where some redundancy programs fail, is because they haven’t brought in the right people, at the right time. Alongside HR, Internal Communications and External Communications / PR should be briefed on the situation as early as possible.
Allowing communications teams to be as proactive as possible, rather than on the back foot, means more time can be dedicated to honing messaging, developing a full communications and stakeholder engagement plan, and ensuring alignment between internal and external communications.
Not all redundancy programs will require a full external communications plan, but proactive planning can ensure that reactive messaging and Q&As are crafted should customers, clients or the media have questions (more on this in point 10), and also ensures the right stakeholders are up to speed should they need to handle any queries (more on this in point 2).
2. Map your audiences
1. Immediate impact
Your immediate focus, rightly so, will be on the individuals impacted. Depending on the scale of the redundancy program, it is worth mapping out how many individuals are at risk, which department or team, which office, and location. From here, you can then start to understand any potential knock-on impacts and wider groups of people who may need to be included in your communication plans.
2. Seniority
It is also worth asking the question as to the seniority involved – are these changes part of a wider organisation restructure? And are notable Team Leaders, Managers or Leadership members included which may cause wider concerns for their teams / departments not included in the redundancy program or the wider business?
3. Direct impact
From here, consider the ‘ripple effect’ of others who may be directly or indirectly impacted by the redundancy announcement. For example, what about individuals from immediate teams or departments where the redundancies are happening? Team Leaders and Managers should also be included. Many tend to feel “survivor guilt” – why are they at risk, and not me? And many will be sad about losing friendships within the business. Redundancies can therefore cause huge drops in motivation and engagement for those not at risk, and should be a fundamental part of your stakeholder planning.
4. Indirect
Additionally, consider any cross-departmental friendships, relationships or general water-cooler gossip. People talk and the rumour-mill can spread quickly. Whilst it isn’t always necessary to announce redundancies on a company-wide basis, you should consider who your “on a need to know basis” individuals might be, such as Managers from other departments, who can filter messaging and handle questions reactively.
5. External
This is where aligning with your external comms team is helpful. As a result of the planned redundancies, what are the implications for clients, contacts, customers or suppliers? Will they now have a new team or point of contact going forwards? Are there changes to the organisation structure they should be aware of? Would the redundancies make anyone from this group nervous about continuing business with your company, and would they need any additional communication or support to make them feel more comfortable?
3. Craft the messaging & language
Message
Spend time understanding the ‘why’ and the business rationale for the redundancies, then craft this messaging to be as clear, simple and succinct as possible. Provide the context for the reasons for the changes needed, and why redundancies are the solution.
Equally, don’t drown them in information and rationalising the changes. These are people’s lives, and if the rationale isn’t transparent and communicated as simply as possible, people will feel something underhand is happening and will distrust the information, which can cause even larger issues out of an already very sensitive subject.
Create a handful of core messages which can be used throughout the process to help people understand and come to terms with the business decision. As soon as they’re told their job is impacted, they won’t hear anything else. They’ll be thinking about what this means for them, their partner and their family, and paying for their mortgage and their bills. So repeat, repeat, repeat your core messages so they start to filter through.
Language
Crafting your messaging is half the battle; how you say it is just as important as what you say. Make sure you really spend time honing the language and the words that are used to deliver, what can be, life changing news for some individuals. Whilst you want the business justification up-front, don’t fill it with corporate jargon, and consider how much weighting to your messaging you give to business rational vs what this means for them as individuals and next steps. Help people understand, but perhaps more importantly, help people come to terms with it.
Put yourself in their shoes, be compassionate, demonstrate understanding and put people at the heart of your communications.
4. Focus on the individuals
Which brings us onto our 4th point – focus on the individuals impacted.
Delivering bad news is never easy, but being the one receiving the bad news is even harder. Don’t make the delivery of this news about the manager or person giving the news. It may well be a tough decision, or a difficult conversation to have, but this really isn’t about them, and the person hearing the news that they’re at risk of redundancy won’t care how difficult it is either.
Instead, focus on how you can help and support the individuals at risk. Is there additional wellbeing support the business can offer? Do you have an EAP service? Is there a enhanced redundancy package? Can they take time off for interviews outside of their annual leave? Demonstrate compassion and empathy with actions, rather than just through words.
5. Timing is everything
Although senior manager’s conducting the redundancy programme may want this communicated as soon as possible, Internal Communications can really add value here by questioning the timing. Be sensitive and mindful to anything else that may be happening around the business in the short-term. Are quarterly or annual results due? And if so, are they positive or negative? Announcing redundancies after a profitable report can be misleading and create distrust. Are there incentives happening in areas of the business where redundancies aren’t taking place? You don’t want those impacted to feel like unaffected business areas are rubbing it in their face. Are critical people to the announcement all available? If you need someone involved, make sure there are no annual leave clashes.
Once you have your chosen dates, the timing and speed of rolling out your comms plan is crucial. Go back to your audience mapping and determine which order people need to be told, when, and how closely together between groups. Remember you’ll have inter-departmental and cross-departmental friendships and people talk. You want to get ahead of the rumour mill by making sure all managers are briefed ahead of time and you have a cadence set between each audience, so everyone who needs to know about the redundancies knows as quickly and considerately as possible.
Completing redundancies is often a lengthy process, with consultations often needed. Make sure you share timescales and what’s involved so people know what to expect and no-one feels left in the dark.
6. Plan your channels & delivery
This is a sensitive matter, and where possible the news should be shared face to face, but with remote and hybrid working, disparate office locations and global organisations, sometimes this isn’t always an option. Review your audience mapping in step 2 and consider the most appropriate channels for each group.
Individuals facing redundancy should be spoken to directly – face to face or ideally via a Teams/Zoom call if in-person is not an option. For the initial announcement, email should be avoided at all costs. It’s impersonal and cold, and offers no support or comfort for those who are impacted. However, it is often useful to have materials to refer back to, so consider how email or print-outs can support them after the initial conversation.
For the wider business, remember this news can be just as unsettling, with many losing friendships or wondering if more redundancies are to come or if they’ll be next. Allow an opportunity for Q&A, either with the senior leader(s) driving the redundancies, or via localised Q&As with managers (as long as they’ve been briefed properly). You’ll want to give reassurance to the rest of the business, so go back to your messaging statements to explain the business rationale and be transparent about whether there are more changes to come or if there are no further planned redundancies. You’ll want people to understand that although a tough decision, it was needed for the strength of the business and reinforce the overall vision that people can focus on and support.
7. Brief managers
As we have covered already, people will either need to be told directly, or will find out through word-of-mouth. Managers will be critical to the smooth sailing of the redundancy process, whether their teams are affected or not. As part of your audience mapping and timing plan, determine which Managers need to know, when and in what order. Some Managers and their departments may be closer to the teams affected than others, and as such they may need slightly different messaging compared to other areas and may need to be briefed first, ahead of others.
Do you have different levels of leadership, and should they receive different messaging depending on their grade? Do you need managers to cascade information to specific individuals ahead of the wider teams – perhaps Team Leaders for example?
Consider sharing your messaging document or a Q&A (see step 8) with Managers too. Having Managers fully briefed and in the know creates a better experience for employees, and demonstrates a coordinated and united effort. Having a Manager in the dark can make remaining employees feel unsafe and uneasy about what else could happen down the line.
8. Prepare a Q&A
Once you’ve mapped your channels, audience and messages, take the time to prep a Q&A. Put yourself in the shoes of each audience group and consider the types of questions they might ask. It is worth grouping the questions into themes and working with your stakeholders to determine the appropriate responses.
Other elements to consider as part of a Q&A is whether some of the questions should be published firm-wide, or would it suit your organisation and the level of changes to prep Manager’s with the Q&A document, which they can use reactively, should someone in their team ask the question.
For those who are at risk of redundancy, it’s worth developing a Q&A document just for them, the process and the following steps to come. Within this you can also signpost where they should look for further information – perhaps an email that will be sent to them with further information, your company EAP or any other wellbeing support schemes your organisation may offer.
9. Segment your messaging
You’ve mapped your audiences. You’ve planned your high levels messages, themes and rationale. You’ve nailed your timing and selected your channels. The other important step is how to segment that across your audiences.
Different areas of the business may need slightly different messaging depending on the changes being introduced, the office location and what it means (or doesn’t mean) for different departments. Work with your stakeholders to identify your messaging points for different areas.
Ultimately, it’s important to be honest and transparent. People can see through ‘spin’ and this is the number one way to create distrust and lose engagement in the business if you get this wrong. Remaining employees will look to leaders to help understand and make sense of what this news means for their roles and the long-term health of the business.
10. Align externally
Although an internal business change, there are a number of reasons why it’s important that alignment with external comms teams is handled. Perhaps you work for a high-profile organisation or a listed business, where the media will likely pick up on the redundancy programme. Perhaps the changes are happening in an area of the business which may impact customers or clients? Perhaps you have external stakeholders such as unions or Government officials to loop in? Or perhaps none of that applies but you need a ‘damage control’ plan to be prepped by your external teams in case the news breaks or the rumour mill begins on social media?
Either way, ensure external comms are involved when it comes to shaping the key messages, how that applies to their audiences and ensuring there is synergy between the two.
These are the 10 areas I recommend you consider when working on a project as delicate and as sensitive as redundancies. All 10 points may be relevant to some organisations, but others not so much, and you may only need a handful of these to refer to. Either is absolutely fine, as long as they’re right for your business and the change programme underway. Perhaps you’ve handled redundancies differently in your company? I’d be interested to hear any other recommendations or ideas for how to communicate redundancies. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
