Remote redundancy – are you building your respectful resilience?
Covid-19 has the business world on an emotional rollercoaster – the shock of lockdown, the surge of lock-down love, the weariness of virtual connecting, the relief of creating un-lock strategies, the disappointment for many that they could not open their door, the cheer as pubs opened for business and now the huge down is looming. The British Chamber of Commerce is predicting that a third of UK business will cut jobs in the coming three months. USA predictions are for unemployment to surpass the 24% of the Great Depression.
But figures do not give the full story.
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For behind every redundancy is a very difficult conversation and those conversations will not be in the respectful environment of the manager’s office. They will be held in people’s homes through video.
So is your business building the required resilience – both in the managers who have to deliver the messages and the recipients who have to manage the consequences?
Managers
It might seem a little harsh to start with the safer cohort but all too often the emotions of the messenger is ignored. Do this at your peril. For your managers have to hold the line, deliver the message, manage the reactions, live with the discomfort. Their skill in managing remote redundancy will dictate your PR, your morale, your stability and your exposure to litigation.
Managers will need:
- Intensive training in delivering difficult messages and, importantly, how to do this on camera with kindness. Training needs to cover communication skills, EQ, ability to manage an array of reactions and how to stay engaged when they just want to hit the ‘end meeting’ button
- Personal support. In lock-down love, managers have seen their team in their homes, probably met kids and cats who have Zoom-bombed meetings, heard about their lives and, in many cases, their losses. Managers have to make the painful step from pastoral care to closure. Many will feel guilt, regret, embarrassment and even depression though think they have to tough it out. A good business will support and demonstrate the kindness they are expected to show to their team. This is not the preserve of HR – they will not have the bandwidth. It needs to be the responsibility of every person retaining their role.
The redundancy recipients
Some businesses will try to manage people as data – using numbers to justify decisions, using statistics and strategy to satisfy unease, using letters or e-mail to deliver the message. Why? Because when you think of the human being, the life and the family facing the message it gets very uncomfortable. But focus on process will not make the reaction go away and a badly managed redundancy fuels revenge. Revenge will take many forms – demands for money, anger towards management, social media attack and negative PR. Your respect to those facing redundancy will be the measure of your business ethics.
Those facing redundancy will need:
- Follow-up pastoral checks after the message. Uncomfortable, but the decent thing to do.
- Support in focusing forward, writing CVs, getting back on the job market
- In many cases financial advice and guidance in applying for benefits
- Emotional support and training on the natural grief curve they will experience and how to manage the fear and anxiety of unemployment in an economic depression
- Kindness – and that creates the loop back to management training
So three questions for your business:
1. Are you planning for the psychology of remote redundancy?
2. Are you planning the support which will help you navigate ethically?
3. Are you putting kindness at the heart of that support?
Will this cost money? Yes
Will you look back with the knowledge that you did the right thing? Only if you plan now.
