What is restructuring?

Restructuring is the process of reorganising a company’s structure, operations or workforce to improve efficiency, adapt to market demands, reduce financial pressure amid economic uncertainty or achieve strategic goals. You may also need to restructure if you plan to sell the business, agree to a merger or transfer the company to new ownership.

The process often involves redefining job roles and teams, changing reporting lines and sometimes temporarily or permanently reducing staffing levels (through lay-offs or redundancies), all to free up resources and better align with the company’s future direction.

Why is it important to communicate a restructure?

Restructuring often requires employees to take on additional work or move into roles where they lack experience. They may also be struggling with uncertainty, feeling anxious about their job security or wondering what the changes mean for their future career progression or development opportunities.

Communicating a restructure is often similar to communicating any organisational change. This means assessing whether employees have the necessary skills to handle upheaval and the morale to take on new challenges. Restructuring can be a particularly challenging time, but transparent communication can significantly help your staff cope with major changes and feel like they still matter to the company.

How to communicate restructuring to employees – the basics

Choosing the right moment to announce a company restructure is key. Having a communication strategy in place helps maintain consistent messaging throughout the process. During the planning stage, consider what questions employees might have about how the changes affect them. Sharing the news promptly is important, as it builds trust, prevents rumours and allows you to manage the restructuring process with care.

When deciding what to cover in your restructuring announcement, consider the following:

• What the timeline will be for organisational change
• Differences in how the company will operate
• How employees can contribute and the important role they’ll fill
• What leadership will focus on at each stage
• Whether there will be any incentives or rewards for employees who are involved
• A basic overview of the restructuring plan

When preparing your announcement, consider the needs of all parties, including leadership, change owners and trusted team members, to ensure everyone is informed and aligned.

Holding meetings about your restructuring plans

Holding meetings with employees is a good way to inform them about your overall change management strategy. These could be either group or one-on-one meetings. You might also want to keep them updated about any updates to the change management plan as the restructuring progresses. An open dialogue helps your employees feel included and relevant and enhances communication throughout the period of upheaval.

As a result of effective change communication, employees will hopefully gain a better understanding of why restructuring is necessary. You could also consider setting up a shared folder of information regarding the organisational changes at your business for employees to refer to.

Being clear about your new structure

When restructuring involves a more drastic change, such as a merger or new owner, you might need to re-communicate the company’s vision to your existing workforce. The leadership team can play an important role here, guiding and supporting employees through the transition. You’ll probably also need to address any concerns that employees have about changes to the business strategy or the company’s future direction.

Employees often require reassurance that the company still has the same values and is committed to maintaining the workplace culture. Being honest about this can help them to find their place during the restructuring while also enabling you to obtain feedback about the changes. It can also help to maintain morale and overall employee wellbeing.

When redundancies are involved

Unlike lay-offs, which are temporary and can be useful in a restructuring, redundancies are an unfortunate but often necessary part of the change process. Workforce analysis during a restructure often leads to the elimination of certain job roles. Managing this thoughtfully and responsibly can help to minimise negative impacts on both departing and remaining employees.

Before finalising any redundancy decisions, it’s a good idea to come up with a redeployment strategy, in case any current employees may be able to fit elsewhere within your new structure. Redeploying employees also means redefining roles, so you may want to involve team leaders in creating a plan that aligns with your broader strategic goals.

Let’s review some of the key considerations when redundancies are involved in your restructuring process.

Delivering the bad news

Delivering news about restructuring-related redundancies requires careful handling and direct communication. It’s important to announce changes internally before they spread through unofficial channels, such as social media. Transparent, compassionate communication helps employees understand the decision, maintain trust in leadership and view the restructuring process in a more positive light.

Here are a few steps to follow:

• Choose a quiet, private space to communicate the decision to any employees who are being let go in the restructuring
• Outline available severance packages and outplacement services and provide reassurance about next steps
• After allowing some time for affected employees to process the information, send an email to the whole team to let them know about the redundancies. You may want to ask your communications team to assist with this.
• Emphasise that it was a difficult decision and try to reassure remaining employees about their job security

Offering other resources and sharing examples of successful corporate restructurings can also help employees understand the process and identify the potential positive outcomes.

Offering outplacement services

Offering outplacement services provides support to employees affected by job losses during your business restructuring. Aim to provide tangible support for employees navigating restructuring, including career coaching and wellness resources. These support services can be varied, but include the following key ideas:

• Career coaching
• Job-search assistance
• CV building
• Interview preparation
• Mental health resources

Providing outplacement helps ease the transition and demonstrates compassion. It can also help preserve your business’s reputation, which may otherwise suffer once news of the restructuring is made public.

Helping employees to manage new workloads

Another factor to consider is that existing employees might find themselves taking on more work than before. Ways to help them cope with an increased workload could include streamlining workflows by updating equipment, organising training sessions to prepare them for new or expanded job descriptions, facilitating upskilling and introducing any relevant AI tools to boost efficiency.

Your team may need some convincing that remaining at your company is beneficial during this complex transition period, especially if they’re grappling with a sense of uncertainty, so you might want to consider offering them additional perks or bonuses if your budget allows for it.

Offboarding with sensitivity

When laying off employees, discuss the reasons for their job loss respectfully and provide details about available support upfront. You may want to offer them a day off to process the news. This could give you an opportunity to communicate the redundancies to the rest of the team.

Try to handle the offboarding process as efficiently and kindly as possible, reassuring each person that they were a valued team member and that they can always reach out in the future for assistance, recommendations, references or anything else your company can offer.

Procedural requirements

When proceeding with redundancies, consult UK employment law, including areas such as notice requirements and other redundancy protocols. Before making any decisions, try to carefully review the job roles you’re thinking of eliminating, including the contract terms of any employees who are involved. It’s a good idea to work with your HR department to create a redundancy strategy that’s both legally compliant and compassionate.

Tips and best practices for communicating a restructure

Transparent, timely communication is key to maintaining trust and morale during a business restructure. Being open about the reasons for change, involving employees where possible and providing clear information help prevent rumours and resistance. Delivering prompt updates also ensures staff hear news directly from official sources rather than through informal channels or speculation.

Here are our tips and best practices for effective communication during the change management process:

• Aim to develop a clear, consistent message from a single, authoritative source to prevent confusion or misinformation.
• Familiarise yourself and other leaders in the company with UK employment law ahead of drafting your strategy.
• Train managers and senior leaders to communicate your restructuring plans effectively and support their teams with accurate information.
• Deliver sensitive announcements in person where possible, showing empathy and understanding towards those affected.
• Anticipate employee concerns by preparing an FAQ document outlining the business’s reasons for restructuring and available support.
• Hold town halls or one-on-one meetings to explain the changes, followed by an open Q&A session for further discussion.
• Create ongoing feedback channels, such as anonymous surveys or open forums, to encourage transparency and trust.
• Prepare managers or team leaders to answer difficult questions about job security, timelines and the impact on daily operations.
• Conduct regular check-ins with remaining employees after the restructure to address concerns, provide reassurance and boost morale.

Communicating a restructure effectively involves considering how your employees may feel about the significant organisational changes ahead of them. They might be losing close friends as well as colleagues, meaning that morale may not be at its highest. However, handling restructuring sensitively while listening to employee concerns can make the process a lot smoother for everyone.