UK managers are ill-equipped to handle job cuts, says survey

Citation

(2003), "UK managers are ill-equipped to handle job cuts, says survey", Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 27 No. 8. https://doi.org/10.1108/jeit.2003.00327hab.008

UK managers are ill-equipped to handle job cuts, says survey

UK managers are ill-equipped to handle job cuts, says survey

Redundancy programmes can be distressing for employees and legal mistakes can be expensive. Despite this, many employers are not equipping their managers with the skills to deal with the emotional, legal and motivational fallout of job cuts, according to data from the Work Foundation.

When companies are making redundancies, managers tend to be the first people that employees go to with their concerns, and have an important role in maintaining employee morale, commitment and performance. However. the survey, Managing Redundancy, found that 48 per cent of responding organizations provide no training to help managers to handle potentially sensitive situations.

Nick Isles, at the Work Foundation, said: "Although employment levels are high, the economic downturn is forcing many employers to cut costs. Some 148,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in the UK in the last three months of last year alone.

"Companies know that badly handled redundancy programmes are bad for the business, but may be unsure of how to improve the process. How employees respond may depend largely on the way the workforce is treated before, during and after the changes. Recognizing and preparing managers to break the news, be available to provide advice, information and emotional support, as well as help the process to move forward should be an integral part of any organizational restructuring."

Of the organizations that do, or plan to, provide training for their managers, most popular is training in how to let people know that there will be redundancies (65 per cent), how to listen (60 per cent), the legal processes and pitfalls (59 per cent) and how to deal with the strong emotions of their team (46 per cent). Just over a quarter (27 per cent) provide training in how to build morale, and 24 per cent on how to cope with feelings of guilt.

Organizations overwhelmingly recognize that downsizing works only if the remaining staff are prepared psychologically to contribute fully to business objectives – 90 per cent agreed with this.

However, less than a third (31 per cent) had a strategy for managing staff who remained with them, with 11 per cent saying they plan one. Important support services are not always available to redundancy survivors – for example, 26 per cent never supply emotional support, 30 per cent never offer career-management assistance, 48 per cent do not provide support groups facilitated by the organization.

Unsurprisingly then, the survey showed that job cuts were likely to have a negative effect. Responding HR professionals say that morale (84 per cent), commitment and loyalty to the organization (66 per cent) and productivity (64 per cent) go into decline immediately following a redundancy programme. More than 80 per cent also agreed that survivors go through a grieving period.

Further down the line, when the changes have had time to bed down, 36’per cent believe that productivity eventually goes up, 28 per cent believe that commitment and loyalty to the organization are strengthened, 26 per cent say that morale goes up. However, some respondents believe that the damage goes deep, with 15 per cent saying that staff turnover increases, and 9 per cent that morale goes down.

Although employers recognize that morale goes down after jobs cuts, relatively few organizations monitor changes over time. Some 38 per cent say that they do, with 6 per cent saying that they plan to.