18 November 2008
Major job cuts – a challenge for internal communication
How to prepare for redundancies - which BT and Citigroup now face.
UK telecoms company, BT, announced last week that it expects to make 10,000 job cuts by the end of March 2009. News in yesterday also revealed that Citigroup plans to eliminate more than 50,000 jobs over the next year.
Here, we look at the media sensationalism that communicators inside BT are currently facing, and seek advice from the Hub's communication experts about how to deal with the aftermath of layoff announcements.
BT has a comprehensive, on-going plan to communicate all key messages to staff about changes that will impact on them.
Employee concerns
BT has already cut 4,000 jobs, with 6,000 more to go, out of a global workforce of 160,000.
Many staff have been speaking to the press about their concerns for the future, saying BT has been “keeping them in the dark”. Some say they found out about the proposed cuts in the media before hearing about them from their employer.
Ian Livingston, BT's CEO, says the cuts aren't a direct result of the recent credit crunch, but because the company is becoming leaner. He doesn't expect BT to make compulsory redundancies.
Legal barriers can restrict communication ideals
The company says the cuts will mainly affect agency and contract staff, including offshore workers – although many losses will be in the UK. But BT has a comprehensive, on-going plan to communicate all key messages to staff about changes that will impact them.
Earlier this year, Mike Love, a communications director at BT Global Services (pictured, right), answered a Hub member's query on how to prepare the organization for tough times. Within the article 
Love advises that "Whatever the difficulty, employees appreciate being treated as insiders. Hearing news first on the TV that your company is in trouble isn’t going to make your people company ambassadors."
But, it's not always possible for news to be revealed internally as early as companies would like. "The barrier may be knowing what can be shared with whom and when, particularly with legal, regulatory or governance restrictions. But outside these, inclusion is better than exclusion as a rule," Love says.
What a BT insider says
We also recently asked a Hub member with first-hand experience of the situation inside BT to comment on the impact of the message internally.
Our contact emphasizes that BT is one of the best employers and it's a very honest, transparent organization.
Keep remaining employees engaged
Aniko Czinege (pictured, right) principal, Workwise Communication, a Hub contributor and author of the Melcrum report: Communicating during economic downturn points out the importance of reviving morale and engaging remaining employees after restructuring.
She has the following advice for communication strategies to adopt during an uncertain company future:
- Adopt a consistent, proactive communication strategy when facing redundancies and site closures. Communication professionals must be well prepared ahead of any looming job losses and closures.
- Focus on the few things people really must know: for example, cost-cutting by closing sites or workforce and product reduction. Ensure people feel the process is being handled professionally, that they're being treated fairly and really understand why the job losses are needed.
- When to release information? Information about redundancies and site closures is share-price sensitive, so it often needs to remain secret until external announcements. But get people mentally prepared by early communication about the company’s difficulties. Make it clear this is partly driven by external factors, not just an internal problem.
- Restore morale: revive morale and engage employees in helping the business achieve profitability. After restructuring, the remaining employees need good reasons to stay. Be upfront with information, rather than having a knee-jerk reaction and send information consistently so people understand progress.
Be upfront and send information consistently so people understand progress.
- Focus on the positives: for example, make the most of a positive share price by getting leaders to visit sites and brief employees about company progress. Arrange social gatherings to give the company a much-needed lift.
- Increase leader visibility: beef up informal and face-to-face communication. Move away from pushing information purely through channels such as an intranet and newsletters. Encourage leaders to increase ad hoc staff communication — for example, site walk-abouts and regular informal update meetings.
- Research the issues: conduct employee research and work with line managers to address site-specific issues.
What to do post redundancy announcement
Like Czinege, Love also emphasizes the importance of increasing leader visibility during tough times.
"Getting senior managers to talk directly with employees in formal or informal meetings to share the latest news – and crucially to give confident messages about the solutions as well as being transparent about the problems – is very powerful in building employee trust," he says.
More job losses in the news
Virgin Media, the cable group, says it plans to cut 2,200 jobs by 2012, about 15% of its workforce in 76 offices across the UK.
But the cuts, part of the company’s planned 4-year savings of £120 million, will not start before the end of 2009. These follow the 4,000 job losses after NTL's 2005 merger with Telewest.
Yell, the UK’s Yellow Pages publisher, plans 1,300 job cuts over the coming year. These are part of its £100 million cost reduction by April 2010. The job losses include managerial as well as sales and admin roles and should leave Yell with around 12,600 staff by September 2009.
This is the second wave, with 1,300 jobs already going during the last year. Yell was originally owned by BT and has already been shifting from print to online as customers are more frequently looking to the web for directory enquiries and other searches.
Internal communication learning points
The learning from BT’s current media experience is to always have a “Plan B” to deal with an unexpected situation.
"Communicators need to take communication skills into the boardroom or relevant decision-making forum early. Preparing for bad times is just as important as being proactively focused on the next promotion, product launch, contract bid or business initiative," Love advises.
Analysts have appreciated the CEO’s honest approach, which is reflected in BT’s increased share price.
For the people at BT, change is perhaps the only constant and BT has experienced many changes in the past 18 months. While the media has hyped-up the story, analysts have appreciated the CEO’s honest approach, which is reflected in BT’s increased share price.
Although internal communication had to be reactive in this instance, it was a great opportunity for them to reinforce previous messages.
Have your say
How would your communication plans stack up if the media decided to hype a story about your company’s job losses? Do you have a “Plan B”?
Are you already preparing people for news of job losses, even if the executive wants to keep exact numbers under wraps? What advice do you give senior leaders who want to keep things quiet internally before they go external with announcements?
Recommended resources:
Helping the organization prepare for tough times – BT's Mike Love
Q&A: What's the most effective way to communicate to improve morale?
Eight ways to maintain confidentiality during change
Q&A: What can we do to boost morale when a large number of employees are made redundant?
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