Change is inevitable. How you communicate it isn't.
The impact of rising costs – whether high inflation and rises in taxation, or the impacts of global events such as those surrounding the Strait of Hormuz – as well as adapting to AI-led ways of working has meant that across sectors, businesses and organisations have had to change in response, oftentimes putting a burden on staffing costs to help ensure the bottom line.
Before I go further, it’s important to remember that decisions such as cost savings and on personnel are never taken lightly. We are all human, doing the best we can in the face of difficult challenges and circumstances outside of our control.
Last year, I sat across the table from a couple of Directors of a charity, and they shared with me the news that, due to the US administration’s decision to cut funding streams, which their organisation had come to rely upon, they were in the difficult position of having to weigh-up cost savings.
Earlier this year, during the local elections campaign in Southwark, it was revealed that the council itself was facing an £85 million funding gap. Without a new funding settlement with central government, the council will have to find ways to make cost savings.
And more recently, a friend of mine shared a story of how a number of colleagues in his team, when faced with the potential of redundancy, came together collectively to suggest an alternative that saw each move to a four-day week rather than losing an individual entirely, whilst the organisation worked its way back to the black.
Clarity, trust and compassion.
Humans are, for the most part, resilient. But the contract between employer and employee relies on three things when facing uncertainty: clarity, trust and compassion.
Clarity in the reasoning as to why cost savings need to be made in the first place. Have funding streams not delivered the expected income, or have they dried up entirely? Are profits down compared with expected, planned budgeting? Is the reason easy to comprehend, and have colleagues felt these pressures too?
It's easier when external pressures can be pointed towards: the covid-19 pandemic was a comprehensible, clear and concise reason that organisations needed to reach difficult decisions on budgeting, often for their own longevity. For some sectors and markets, the long post-pandemic recovery continues, with demand still not having returned to pre-pandemic levels. This scenario presented a clear, rational reason as to why costs needed to be interrogated and reduced.
Trust is linked to clarity and boils down to whether colleagues believe the reasons set out by the organisation as to why cost savings have to happen. Is it obvious (like the pandemic example) or a more nuanced reason, such as direction from shareholders? Is it future proofing, or securing the bottom line for now?
For me (and of course it’s only my take), the best organisations are upfront on this and treat their colleagues as engaged, informed and intelligent – trusting that colleagues will return the trust. Where this happens, whilst the conversations are still not easy, there is at least a shared understanding of why.
My friend's story above is a good example of genuine two-way dialogue in action: not just well-worded announcements, but actually listening to and acting on the voice of employees.
The alternative? An underlying sentiment of distrust can set in, eroding faith in senior leaders’ decision making, and that of the organisation at the same time. This becomes more damaging when recovering from significant layoffs – how do you rebuild after a considerable loss of headcount, where those who were fortunate to retain their positions are asked to pick up additional workload? This can only happen if staff are brought into, and themselves buy into, the decision making around cost savings.
Compassion is the human side, and – whether directly impacted by the risk of redundancy or not – it’s important to remember that everyone in an organisation is impacted in some way or other. We each spend a significant part of our lives at work, building relationships with colleagues that can feel personal as well as professional.
Yet the language I’ve seen used during these processes can quickly default to cold and factual, pushing colleagues to feel like a consumable resource rather than the backbone of an organisation. Instantly, employee branding efforts can be lost and rebuilding company cultures takes years, not weeks.
So, whilst processes must be followed, both from a compliance and legal perspective, warmth needs to continue to permeate through communications and engagement. And there’s a relatively easy solution: empowering line managers to have the capabilities to not only receive the message, but to know which tools they can use to cascade to their teams with confidence.
Five key points to consider with any change communications programme
- Set out and agree clear reasons for why the changes are happening, as well as what the organisation is proposing
- Map out stakeholders, timings and sequencing to ensure everyone knows at the right moment.
- Empower and enable line managers to have confidence – and the tools – to cascade this to their team members
- Genuinely listen to the voice of employees – and where active, the voice of trade unions too – who may suggest great alternatives
- Retain the warmth, humanity and compassion, so that colleagues continue to support the objectives of the organisation regardless of whether they’re directly impacted, or not.
If you take a look at any jobs board right now, a significant number of roles are specifically focused on change communications. It’s a reflection that organisations are continuing to adapt to contemporary challenges with AI becoming much more embedded in the workplace, along with a rebalancing of the global economy. Organisations that don’t change will only face more uncertainty in the months and years ahead – and in these times, the only certainty is uncertainty.
Ultimately, we must never be afraid of change. Whilst the reality can feel personal, it’s much more strategic with organisations preparing for a multitude of future scenarios. That said, change, when communicated well, could actually be empowering for colleagues, rather than scary as we might have thought.