The pandemic has wreaked havoc to business around the world with governments reacting by supporting their economies through various. and very costly, schemes.
The decision makers discover that their organizations don’t need people in the office, and that more effective working practices come from working from home, possibly in a hybrid model.
Job losses are reported even while there are one million vacancies: wrong skills, wrong time, wrong place again.
The plight of the newly job free is widely understood. The condition of the survivors, the ones still at work, is my subject.
Reorganizations and job cuts are a common occurrence in the UK in the third decade of the 21st century.
Moving people to different jobs rips apart their work friendships and demands they learn new skills, make new friends, and, may even have to accept lower status roles.
This is not the place to discuss the rights and wrongs of reorganization. The executives have a responsibility to the owners and the staff to make the best of the situation.
I want to draw your attention to how long it takes, if ever, for the organization to get back to the performance effectiveness it once had. I point out some key things that are needed to help your organization recover quickly from these deeply wounding, radical, changes.
The survivors of reorganizations or job losses will lose their performance, possibly permanently, unless properly managed.
There is always a grieving period because of the action. People mourn their lost friends; share their worries about how they will cope, and, often feel guilty that they have survived.
Clearly the management didn’t value those people, so I wonder, do they value me? Am I next? Do the changes make sense to me? Are the changes fair? What are the signs that they value and care about me? Am I going to lose this job? Is there any reassurance in the eyes of my manager?
These questions must be addressed by the manager: addressed in person, not by email. It’s about personal relationships.
The survivors’ natural reaction is to grieve, then to keep their heads down. Nobody wants to be noticed. They want to dig a deep hole and hide in it until things get better.
These consequences are best described as “presenteeism”: being at work but not working much.
Most organizations of any age have people practising presenteeism. Sometimes so many people have behaved like that for so long that management assumes that is the normal level of performance.
Management, the management of people, is about getting work done.
To do that managers must make their people want to work by managing their people’s motivation.
Frankly, nothing else works well enough. Bribery and targets are management abdicating their job. You are fortunate if you work in a sector that commands a high premium. Your poor leadership is covered up by your over-paying Customers.
Managers must make people feel cared about, both personally and corporately.
People must be involved in what is going on, management practice must be inclusive.
To be inclusive means to share information. If you won’t trust your employee with some monthly sales figures how much effort do you think she or he will put into achieving them?
If the management gets this right, then the survivors will jump back to work very quickly – in a few hours even.
Your staff will do their best to achieve everything that is asked of them. They will be free to think of new ideas to make things better and not frozen, terrified of being noticed.
People are sensible if you treat them like adults. They know and understand business issues. They are aware that long-term reductions in funding or sales have to be balanced somehow.
All they ask is that management behaves sensibly, make the best decision, and treat everyone with care.
Too many organizations never recover from painful reductions in employee numbers.
Management has not managed the people in the past and now that lack of people management skill has terrible consequences.
A good salesman will tell you people will buy from people they like and trust. An employee will work hard for a manager that they like and trust. Both salesman and manager have something to sell.
How will you show today that you manage sensibly, make the best decisions, and treat people with care?