Redundancy or Takeover…the last words you want to hear no matter what your position in the company. Whether you’re at boardroom level or in the depths of the mailroom it can only mean one thing – trouble and hard times ahead. This fact cannot be disputed.
But something strikes us as rather strange about how these stressful and fraught situations are handled. Or, rather, how they are not handled. For lets be fair, very often there’s every attempt to sweep all the upheaval under the carpet, to handle the inevitable job losses with public silence and sterile letters. Announcements and meetings are quiet, carefully worded and always deeply, deeply depressing.
To some extent this is how it should be – job losses have devastating effects on those made redundant and are a stark reflection of a company struggling to maintain its equilibrium. Likewise takeovers, whilst not necessarily as traumatic as the previous situation, are badly understood and tend to fill employees with dread as they try to work out exactly what’s going to happen to them.
The aftermath in both situations is exactly the same – massively increased levels of stress for the workforce leading to decreased productivity. In short, exactly what you don’t want if you’ve just gone through a takeover or round of redundancies.
So, what can be done about it?
Well, the first – and we think most important – thing is to get it all out in the open. Keeping quiet will only lead to rumours. The rumours will never be good. And this, in turn, will lead to more unrest. So, make a point of taking time out to address people’s fears and questions.
And do it outside the office! By this stage your place of work will be feeling oppressive – after all, it’s seen some unpleasant events in the previous days and weeks – so make sure you take your workforce somewhere where they can relax a bit (if they’re relaxed they will absorb a lot more of what you want to say).
There are obvious choices for your pep talks or explanations, though avoid restaurants as people will start referring to the event as “The Last Supper” no matter what the outcome! On a slightly more psychological note, people tend to feel uncomfortable eating in front of others – to an extent – and you want to be placing them in a situation where it is paramount that they are comfortable. It’s best not to take the risk.
Try organising events where it’s possible for excess energies and frustrations to be taken out with physical exercise before your planned speech. However, it’s slightly more tricky than taking the workforce to a run of the mill paintball game or karting event. You have to personalise it in order for your employees to recognise that it really is aimed specifically at them. This can only increase morale.
To give a couple of examples using paintball and karting;
Take the staff out for a day of paintball prior to your address. However, for a personal twist, announce during the preparation chat that you understand the frustration of the past weeks and that somebody has to take some responsibility so all members of senior management (or all of management) will be wearing red boiler suits with targets painted on them for the duration of the day – and that they are fair game at any point no matter what side they’re on.
With a karting event (this works for takeovers) arrange for a Kart Grand Prix to take place and hire someone as an observer to count the number of overtaking manoeuvres during the race. Announce that, in addition to the normal trophies, a special prize – a bonus day of holiday perhaps – will be given to the racer who completes the most overtaking actions during the race…in honour of the recent goings on.
The key here is to find the humour in a tense situation and give your staff a physical outlet in relation to it…essentially a very subtle and targeted form of experiential marketing – only in this case you are marketing yourself and your company to your own employees.
When thought of like that it’s possible to apply the principle to all sorts of activities; so we won’t go further into them here. Suffice to say that experiential agencies like us specialise in this kind of thing as well as more publicly targeted affairs.
Earlier we mentioned that your workplace is, in times like this, a rather oppressing place – obviously this needs to change if there is to be any return to normality (and, by extension, normal levels of commitment and productivity), so how do you go about doing this?
Here too an experiential agency’s nous can be extremely useful. The central ideas in this situation are to instil calm in the face of upheaval, bring laughter back to the workplace and let your employees know that you value them and share their concerns – and on these themes there are things that can be done.
One idea is to transform your office overnight – have turf laid down (and, as a result, replace all chairs with bean bags for the day), install giant, verdant plants everywhere, have a variety of free standing ponds with fish in them placed around the workplace. Finally, have soothing forest noises played over the intercom and a banner hung from the ceiling stating; “Relax; This Office Is An Oasis Of Calm”. The effort, care and attention required to make this kind of statement will resonate with your staff – and hopefully allay a few fears.
Another option is to hire masseuses, comedians and magicians to entertain and relax your staff – encourage them to take a break from their desks and watch a magician making a member of management look foolish or hear a comedian telling risqué jokes at the expense of the board (but be careful there…). Make sure they all take advantage of a soothing massage to ease their strain. In short, pamper them and make them laugh; it’s not a cure all but it does have a significant effect.
Once again, ideas here are limited only by what you or your chosen agency can come up with (and that can be done on budget!).
The main thing, whether it’s indoors or out, is that you – as an employer – make it clear to your staff that they are valued as individuals and professionals. By doing something just for them you can prove that it’s not always about the profit, and that kind of gesture goes a long way.