27th May 2010
Mary Hanson

If are one of the many Companies that have had to downsize and re-assign work to remaining employees – you may well be suffering from “survivor syndrome”.

This is when after significant re-organisation employees who remain with the Company become disgruntled due to any number of scenarios, for example:-

Guilt – feelings of loss and sadness for colleagues and friends that have lost their job in the Business.

Resentful – about the way in which the restructuring was handled and communicated.

Angry – about the additional workload and responsibilities that they now have to do.

No Loyalty – they no longer “care” about the Company and are just biding their time until an opportunity arises to exit the business.

All of these negative emotions can have a detrimental effect on the business however there are corrective actions that you can take to turn the situation around and get your employees re-motivated and re-energised.

♦ Acknowledge the situation, invite employees to voice their opinions,concerns.

♦Clarify the current health of the business and explain how the changes that were made have helped even if they were painful.

♦Ask employees for suggestions as to how things could be improved – teach your employees about LEAN – removing waste from the Business and adding value.

♦Organise teams or groups to evaluate suggestions that have been made & implement improvements.

♦Re-define and re-design people’s roles to reflect the new ways of working.

♦Acknowledge the input and contribution of everyone.

♦Put measures and tracking systems in place to illustrate progress and improvements.

♦Celebrate success!

By identifying ways to streamline your business & simplify your systems you remove unnecessary waste and these are often tasks and activities that have been frustrating your employees for years. Employees get a greater sense of job satisfaction from having inputted into the improvements and can see the contribution they make to the business.

Tonic 4 Business can support with Change Programmes in your organisation, through business improvement, job design and employee engagement, if you would like to find out more please contact:- mary@tonic4business.ie.