Why is it important to communicate restructuring to employees?

You might find that restructuring your business is necessary due to financial pressures, and the only way around the issue is by changing the way it’s run in order to reduce financial harm and make it more profitable in the long term. Another time when a restructure could be required is if you are planning on selling the business, have agreed on a merger, or are transferring the company to new ownership. 

Restructuring a business will often affect your employees’ day-to-day experience. It can involve laying off staff or making them redundant (because of downsizing), which means that some of your employees could find themselves taking on some of the work left behind by their ex-colleagues. 

The way that you communicate a restructure to your employees will be similar to the way that you communicate any organisational change. This means looking at whether your employees have the necessary skills in place to deal with the change, and whether they have the morale to take on any major changes. Restructuring a company can be a particularly challenging time, which is why it is often useful to make sure that you are still on the same page as your employees. 

How to communicate a restructure

Firstly, you’ll probably need to choose the right moment to announce that your company is undergoing a restructure. During this preparatory period, it’s useful to consider what questions your employees could have about the changes, such as how their role will be affected. It’s a good idea to communicate the restructure as soon as possible, as you may find that this information ends up being shared anyway before you have had the opportunity to confirm or deny the exact nature of the changes you plan to put in place. When discussing restructuring a company with employees, it’s worth going over the following points:

• differences in how the company will operate
• what the timeline will be for organisational change
• how employees will contribute and adapt to the changes
• whether there will be any incentives or rewards for employees who are involved in the restructure

Meetings about restructuring

You might decide to hold a meeting or several meetings with employees so that they know what your overall change management strategy will be. It is useful to keep them regularly informed about any continuous changes to that plan, in a way that’s clear and as easy to comprehend as possible. An open dialogue is likely to help your employees feel included and relevant. Transparency and being honest about what your employees can expect should also make them more likely to trust your motivations as their employer.

As a result, they’ll hopefully have a better understanding of why the changes are necessary. You could also set up a shared folder of information regarding organisational changes at your business for employees to refer to if they need to familiarise themselves with your plans. This could include a document including any frequently asked questions that your employees might have.

Even if you are working with your employees on a remote basis, talking to them face to face via video conferencing tools is important in order to communicate a restructure effectively. It will probably pay to have an in-depth conversation with them, both as a team and perhaps individually as well, in order to find out whether they have any questions or concerns. 

This is regardless of whether you are meeting with them in person or virtually. You’re more likely to come across well to your employees if you are open to a genuine and transparent conversation with them.

Being clear about your new vision

When restructuring a company involves a merger or a transfer to a new owner, you might find that you need to re-communicate your company’s vision. You’ll probably need to address any concerns that employees have about changes to the business strategy or the direction of your company. They will probably need reassurance that the company still has the same values as it did before the restructure. Being honest and clear about this will help them to find their place in the company during this period of change, as well as enable you to obtain feedback on any changes to the company vision.

When restructuring a company involves lay-offs

Because restructuring can involve downsizing and lay-offs, one of the most crucial points to consider is how your current employees will feel about or react to this news. It is likely that they will be losing members of their team who they delegate tasks to or are important to certain parts of the workflow. This will probably be a blow to your team’s morale, but how you handle this can help ease the transition period and help you equip your employees for future plans.

At the end of the day, you probably don’t want your employees to hear about layoffs via unofficial channels like social media. In all likelihood, you will want to be able to discuss the reasons behind the lay-offs on your own terms. This could involve asking your communications team to write an email or letter to your current employees about why you’ve made the difficult decision to let some members of the team go.

Helping employees to manage new workloads

Another factor to consider is that your current employees might find themselves taking on much more work than before. Ways to help them cope with an increased workload could include streamlining processes by updating equipment, training them in the right skills and talking to them about any support they think would be useful if their role and responsibilities change. They’ll probably need some convincing that staying put at your company will be worth their while during this complex transition period, so you might want to consider offering them additional perks or bonuses if your budget allows for it.

Offboarding

When it comes to offboarding the employees you’re laying off, it’s useful to discuss with them the reason for their lay-off or redundancy respectfully and in private. This can help preserve the reputation of your business during a crucial time, as well as potentially help your former employees to find work elsewhere.

Communicating a restructure effectively involves considering how your employees will feel about the huge organisational changes ahead of them. They might be losing close friends as well as colleagues, meaning that morale might not be at its highest during a restructure. Handling restructuring a company sensitively while listening to your employees’ concerns will potentially make the process smoother for both you and your team.