Across the lifespan of any organisation, workforce change is inevitable. The past few years are a testament to this. With global economic and political turbulence, the rapid advancement of generative AI and automated technology disrupting industries, continued supply chain turmoil caused by the pandemic, and ever-shifting local labour market conditions, organisations across all industries face uncertainty.
From undertaking larger changes such as implementing cost-cutting measures, undertaking mergers and acquisitions, or redesigning organisational structures, to smaller changes that see some staff redeployed or a consolidation of processes to improve efficiencies. Change remains the only constant for organisations.
“Organisations that are not properly prepared are at risk.”
In order to be prepared, organisations should have a career transition and outplacement provider on the books. In doing so they have a trusted partner who can provide advice before any workforce change occurs, and in the case when support is needed, they will provide support step-by-step through the process.
Just like how wearing a seatbelt will likely save your life in the case of a crash. Similarly, organisations need to proactively prepare themselves for workforce change so that when that day arrives, they are in safe hands.
At JobAccelerator by Hudson, we’ve worked with thousands of organisations over the past 35 years to help them navigate workforce change to ensure their people, reputation and organisation are protected. Here’s why your organisation needs to engage a provider before it’s too late.
Career transition and outplacement providers such as JobAccelerator only charge organisations when they activate the service. That means your organisation can engage a provider today without having to pay a penny. By doing this proactively now, it means your organisation is future-proofing itself for inevitable change.
With a provider on the books, this will give your HR team confidence to know when change occurs they have a trusted partner ready to go with strategic advice and guidance.
This allows your organisation to effectively prepare and implement workforce changes with industry-leading advice to ensure you mitigate reputation and legal risks, while looking after your people.
It goes without saying that navigating any workforce change is stressful, whether it’s redeployment, restructuring, or especially redundancy. By having a provider on hand, your organisation is better placed to effectively undertake these transitions, communicate the change, ensure compliance, and rebuild faster.
Organisational restructuring is one of the hardest undertakings for HR teams and senior leaders, it can lead to stress, anxiety, and burnout.
Any changes to your people's employment status will impact your team’s cohesion with co-workers engulfing other’s workloads, individuals feeling uncertain about their future, and emotional turmoil and guilt for those that remain, among many other side effects of the change.
To mitigate these negative consequences of change your leaders need to be properly prepared. Leading through change resilience is one of the most in-demand leadership skills. Can you say with certainty that your leaders are equipped to effectively lead your organisation through wide-scale change?
Your leaders need to be able to authentically communicate change, lead with authenticity and empathy, prepare for effective separation conversations, and create an environment of psychological safety. If you’re in doubt that your leaders can do this, engage a provider to support them with these foundational skills.
Workforce change can lead to roles being made redundant which carries an enormous emotional burden on the employees affected as well as the leaders making the decision to terminate roles and the staff that remain.
In these instances, your people need to be treated fairly. With a provider such as JobAccelerator, impacted employees receive one-to-one coaching with expert career coaches to finesse their resume, optimise their LinkedIn, improve their interview techniques, rebuild confidence, uncover job application strategies, and more.
In enhancing these job-ready skills, candidates with JobAccelerator secure new roles twice as fast as the national average. Not only does this ensure your impacted people smoothly transition into new employment, but it shows those who remain that your organisation cares for the livelihoods of those impacted by the change.
Beyond looking after impacted employees, trusted providers help HR teams navigate the process of making roles redundant ensuring they too are supported through the complex process with training, advice and guidance, such as handling effective separation conversations. Ultimately, this helps create a smoother process for all those involved.
All organisations are susceptible to workforce change. Those who are not prepared are at risk of poorly implementing change processes that lead to reputational damage, legal implications, disgruntled employees, lack of productivity, burnout, and ultimately poor financial performance.
A simple, preventative step organisations can take today is having a career transition and outplacement provider on the books.
Not only is this free, but it also ensures that when any organisation needs to undergo change, it has a trusted partner on hand who can provide expert guidance on how to prepare and implement the workforce change, alongside post-change support to help the organisation rebuild stronger.