Job cuts are one of the most painful tasks. Finding a way of dealing personally with it, enabling a good farewell and at the same time creating perspectives for remaining employees are the biggest tasks.
One of our customers wanted to downsize the IT department through outsourcing and give the remaining IT a new role. We supported with change management and the development of a virtual and international change network.
Customer concerns
- Managers should communicate new goals in such a way that they can be transferred into daily work
- Saying goodbye to colleagues and seeing the future
- Team should understand new processes and be able to fulfill the new processes
- Support the change from “door-to-door ad hoc support” to an outsourced structured process
- Open and cooperative work with outsourcing partner
Noticeable change for the customer
- Stakeholders involved: Barriers removed, tensions and internal contradictions regarding outsourcing and job cuts addressed
- Managers prepared for dealing with dismissals and farewell
- Consistent communication stabilised and improved: definition and communication of consistent messages and information via different channels, coaching for difficult communication situations, content committed and clearly communicated
- Farewell and perspective combined: creating an appreciative farewell for colleagues, let colleagues choose, how to be farewelled, creating perspectives for remaining colleagues by devolping a concrete vision and picture
- International and virtual change agent network established: Change Agents empowered, virtual as well as on-site support, virtual workshops designed and implemented, local moods taken up, measures derived for the countries, compliance with new processes supported
- Future picture concretized: Away from ad hoc support to proactive IT consultant
- Cultural change initiated: necessary cultural change defined, new methods cocreatively developed, tested, adapted and established, idea board with pull approach internationally established, training content defined
