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The Governments Furlough Scheme ceases as of the end of October 2020

Is your business ready for the next steps?

 

 

Are you considering?

  • Downsizing

  • Restructuring

  • Redundancies

       If you are considering any of the above here are some tips to support your decision-making process:

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Downsizing: 

  1. Do you have a plan in place?

  2. Be as honest as you can?

  3. Listen and remain objective?

  4. Stay organized?

  5. Take a hit as well?

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Advice:

  • Let employees know in person, rather than email or telephone

  • Meet with employees privately

  • Give employees your undivided attention

  • Be compassionate

  • Make sure you have a fair process in place

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Restructuring:

  If you are planning to restructure your business or make changes to your structure in the near future, here are five things to consider     before you begin:

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Communication – communication is easily the most important piece of restructuring and business change – change is difficult and can leave the business uneasy.

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Plan Ahead – change requires careful planning ahead of time before introducing anything to the business, look at each change you plan to make and evaluate the impact on your business.  Here are 7 questions you should ask yourself:

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  1. How will the changes impact the business?

  2. Are others impacted by what you are planning to change?

  3. Does your financial reporting structure need to change?

  4. How will your customers be affected?

  5. How will your employees be impacted?

  6. What are the alternatives?

  7. How did you get here, and how can you avoid it in the future?

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Unfortunately, many business leaders get trapped in thinking just about the benefits the renewal will bring but forget to conduct thorough impact assessments of core processes and do not map out timelines for implementation.  Failing to do these fundamental things may reduce some of the efficiency improvements offered by the new structure.

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“How the business actually goes about making the changes is just as important as the changes themselves”.

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Establishing contingency plans is also wise, as unforeseen challenges will likely emerge.  Do your homework before you make the decision to restructure public knowledge.  How smoothly you implement the changes will impact how quickly and efficiently it goes.  Announcing changes before figuring out is “bad practice” and is likely to lead to problems down the line.

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Meet in the Middle – when you are simply realigning teams and employees to make your business more effective, don’t forget to talk to your employees.

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“How well does your business communicate?”

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  • Talk to your employees get their input

  • Set up a small focus group (if appropriate) – select key employees to meet your ideas

  • Gain feedback

  • Actively encourage employees’ suggestions, listen to them

  • Often your vision combined with their ideas will lead to the best solution

  • Employees live in the new structure daily and will be best placed to identify challenges you may not have seen

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Structure for Success – keep in mind a virtue in the world of business management your structure must bring you success.

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  • struggling with technology growth – separate a team to focus only on technology

  • If your customers feel neglected – create a team dedicated to customer service

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There are many ways to create a business structure and all have merits.

examples include:

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Product based teams

Process based teams

Regionally based teams

Functional based teams

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The key is to find the sources of pain and weaknesses and centre your efforts around addressing them.

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Follow Up – Once you have announced that a restructure is coming:

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- Talk to your employees on an individual basis

- Set up a focus group

- Listen

 

Here are 5 questions to ask employees after a restructure is announced:

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  1. Do you understand why change is needed?

  2. Do you understand the changes that are coming?

  3. What concerns do you have?

  4. Is there something that needs clarification?

  5. How do we minimize the affect these changes will have on customers?

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There will possibly be areas where your communication is not clear.  Following up will help you address concerns and gain support.

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Redundancies:

If you are considering redundancies you should prepare, below is information to help you avoid challenges:

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  1. Prepare your business case for the need for employee redundancies

  2. Follow a fair and legally compliant process

  3. Decide on selection criteria for your redundancy process

  4. Identify the potential selection pool (if appropriate)

  5. Prepare your consultation process

  6. Check how much notice should be given (this will differ according to numbers to be made redundant)

  7. Calculations of redundancy payments (whether statutory or enhanced)

  8. Do you have a support package for those effected?

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Every business situation is different.  You need objective, business focused advice to help navigate the rules of the redundancy correctly.

At Acorn HR Services, we can deliver a full redundancy, restructuring and downsizing support package, that we can tailor to your businesses needs which we can set at a budget that you can afford.

 

For more information contact us:

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