And that is no small part because coaching is all about change, both external, such as aiming for different results, and internal, looking at self-realisation, beliefs and values.

So here are my thoughts on why coaching is so fundamental to any change programme.

Empowerment

One of the most critical benefits is the opportunity coaching gives individuals to see their situation with greater clarity and from a different perspective. A good coach uses open-ended questions to draw out ideas and unearth new options from the person they are coaching. So through careful questioning – the approach is ask not tell – the coach helps the individual take ownership of the situation which had previously left them feeling trapped or powerless.

Stress and anxiety relief

Kubler-Ross’s change curve illustrates how people experience change. However, progression from shock to denial, anger, testing, letting go and, finally, integration is unpredictable. And it can be even more traumatic where individuals feel they have no control over what is happening to them. Coaching can guide managers through the change curve by helping them explore and tackle the root causes of stress and anxiety at their own pace and in the right way to allow them to move on. The coach is there to make it a smooth journey, not to give the manager the answers. So it is important that managers understand the process and are happy with the choice of coach.

Skills development

When an organisation is going through a change programme, frontline mangers’ skills can be tested to the max. From managing sickness absence, stress and conflict, to improving employee engagement, empowerment and morale, managers are expected to come up with the full package. Yet many managers will not have the whole skill set to constantly cope with the competing emotional and practical demands of a restructure. Coaching is a powerful way to boost managers’ skills quickly and with minimum anxiety through careful action, planning and review.

Focus

In the midst of a change programme it can be easy for managers to lose sight of the larger goal. An experienced coach who understands the overall organisational strategy can help managers stay focused and overcome obstacles and assumptions to learn new ways of doing things. A good coach will also hold managers accountable for their actions so the organisation can be sure they are heading in the right direction. The key is ensuring the coach and the manager know what the goals of the process are.

The future

This change programme might be hard and the end might not be in sight. However, it won’t be the last. To some HR thinkers, learning from change can be more valuable than the change itself. A good coach can help managers learn from their experiences to become stronger and better equipped for future challenges and further change.

So here are my top 10 tips for handling the response to redundancy.

1. Have a clear communication plan

Keep employees informed. All forms of change – including restructuring and downsizing – create uncertainty that impacts on employee motivation. Focus on reducing confusion, even if that means sharing bad news. If you fail to pass on information immediately, the rumour mill will churn out stories that only serve to increase stress and decrease motivation.

And this continues to be the case post-redundancy. Talk to staff regularly to ensure they feel supported in their new roles and reporting structures and they know what they are meant to be doing.

2. Tell the truth

If managers try to relieve anxiety by promising fictitious quick fixes, you will be heading for trouble. Employees need to be taught how to handle change, not to be misled into expecting solutions. It is often the loss of control that increases stress and therefore the level of sickness absence. The only thing that will mitigate this is timely and clear communication – not fabrications.

3. Continue communicating and be available

Managers that spend time with employees and build relationships keep staff longer. If you want to retain your best employees, the organisation’s leaders must be visible. In uncertain times, seeing and hearing from those at the top is important. And this applies to HR too. So make yourself accessible to managers and their teams and answer questions.

4. Cut and simplify work

When times are tough, it is easy to push people to deliver more on reduced resources. But this can lead to burnout and demotivation. Start by reordering priorities on a task-by-task basis and encourage team members to collaborate to figure out how they can achieve them. When doing more with less, there comes a point when it is not only impossible, but demoralising, so be prepared to look at how you can simplify work to get things done or cut out unnecessary stages. (See our Restructuring Factsheet for more)

5. Offer training

Staff and managers may need additional support to take on extra responsibilities. This could mean technical training to do the job.

Also consider managers’ soft skills. Are they equipped to manage their teams’ emotional needs? Many people will grieve for lost colleagues and a style and type of work that will not return. Managers will need help to confidently and appropriately support and encourage staff . (See our Training Needs Analysis Factsheet)

6. Monitor stress

Train managers to look for signs of stress and ensure they have the skills to manage and support remaining employees. Regularly assess the risk of staff developing stress-related illnesses as a result of their work. And ensure managers have the technical understanding and communication skills to manage stressed staff or staff off sick. You will also need to provide mechanisms to support managers and help them positively tackle their own challenges.

7. Monitor absences

Sickness absence can be a problem both during and after the redundancy programme. Follow this closely and be prepared to use occupational input or whatever employee assistance programme you may already have in place. (See our Managing Sickness Absence Factsheet)

8. Consider counselling and coaching

Survivors and their managers will respond in different ways and it is important to look out for those that are genuinely distressed by the changes and need further support. Remember this can include HR as well as line managers. HR people need to be careful not to burn themselves out juggling the emotional needs of the different groups in the organisation.

9. Clarify objectives and reward people

Staff will need additional help to understand and achieve new objectives. Managers need to be prepared and patient and clearly explain goals. Short-term measures will ensure both parties can see progress. Gives lots of feedback and ‘catch people doing things right’ to track progress and grow confidence. 

10.  Be prepared to manage performance

Managing the survivors needs to be addressed with as much enthusiasm and professionalism as the leavers’ programme. However, even where managers are skilled and focus on protecting productivity, team members’ damaged motivation can impact performance. Use your performance management process to focus stragglers on moving forward. And do not be afraid to deal with poor performance using formal processes where everything else has been tried and failed. (See our Managing Performance Factsheet)

Calibre HR & Training has developed a short and redundancy training package to help frontline managers develop the skills they need to manage this difficult process while maintaining morale and motivation.

Part two of this blog (coming next week) will look at what HR teams can do to minimise the dangers in such large-scale change programmes.

Any job cuts on this scale will be a complex task. But it is perhaps more so in the unionised public sector where contractual and statutory obligations have to be meshed with union agreements built up over the years. Yet few public sector HR departments have any experience of substantial job cuts. And neither do frontline managers who will be delivering the programme on a day-to-day basis. And that is a big problem.

Most public sector organisations have large and comparatively well-resourced HR departments, but teams with little or no experience managing public sector redundancies on a large or small scale face the prospect of getting it wrong. And that can be extremely expensive.

One of the biggest risks will be inexperienced managers having to carry out the difficult conversations that are part of the consultation process. But making these conversations meaningful and constructive is essential. Failure to do so can result in Employment Tribunal awards of up to 90 days’ pay.

Such complex negotiations also provide ample opportunities for a variety of legal challenges which could slow down the process and vastly increase the cost.

However, a protracted redundancy process will only serve to further damage already depleted morale and motivation among those who will be staying – and those that will go.

Public sector organisations are of course very much in the public eye. And when service standards slip, it can be front page material. Managers will face the combined challenges of making the redundancies and also continuing to maintain outputs at a time of huge turmoil. How many will be up to the job remains to be seen.

The redundancy programmes about to be unleashed in the public sector will be a hugely costly exercise on every level. PWC in a recent article estimated that every month of delay could cost an additional £100,000 and that the cost of making 100,000 civil servants redundant could range from £5.8 to £9billion. We are talking big numbers.

Given the challenges HR and managers will face in the short to medium term, it is difficult to see the efficiency gains needed to pay for the exercise happening anytime soon.

Calibre HR & Training has developed a short and interactive workshop package to help frontline managers develop the skills they need to manage this difficult process while simultaneously maintaining morale and motivation.

The current round of cost cutting by the new coalition government will require public sector bodies to make tough decisions (see Cuts and Commitment: What Public Sector HR Has to Deliver). In normal situations you would expect leaders to use the rational decision-making model (define problem, identify and weight criteria, generate and rate options, make decision).

However, these are not normal times and the increasing pressure on bosses is likely to push them into behaving irrationally. As Roy Mogg says in his blog Leadership in a Crisis, leaders and leadership qualities are coming under intense scrutiny around the world. We need leaders who can manage a crisis and make decisions in an emergency. But are our leaders up to the job?

Our recent experience provides some alarming evidence.

One huge organisation brought the leadership team together to address its big issues – including a full-scale restructure and redundancies running into thousands. However, those present became so embroiled in how to raise money for a nominated charity, managers spent more than a third of the time trying to out do each other in the philanthropic stakes.

The energy and clarity of thought were there, but totally misdirected. Meanwhile huge business challenges were sidelined. So why the inertia? Is it denial? Or did that senior team seek comfort in the familiar, delaying painful decisions in the process?

A second organisation we know got themselves totally distracted in a board-level argument over a director’s expense claim amounting to 64p. While this was going on they took their eye off the ball and lost a major contract. The drop in turnover has led to widespread cost cutting and redundancies.

So a leader’s inaction can and will lead to a deterioration in an already bad situation. Rather than allowing themselves to become distracted or freeze like rabbits in the headlights, bosses need to get to grips with the situation and act like effective crisis leaders.

The Leadership Trust has outlined three essential ‘grips’ to help in just this situation:

1. Grip oneself to make decisions and take action under stress.
2. Grip the task to clarify and communicate the objective and purpose of the decisions and create strategies to pursue them.
3. Grip the team to empower people to manage the crisis and do what needs to be done.

In these difficult times leaders need robust decision-making skills to handle complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity. They also need to be able to evaluate information, and display clarity of thought, judgement and decisiveness under severe pressure. Today’s leaders need perseverance, endurance and tenacity to follow a course and pursue organisational goals – however tempting it may be to do something else instead. Coaching and mentoring can help leaders stay the course and do the right things at the right time – rather than get distracted and retreat into their comfort zone.

Some years ago I moved into public sector employment – since back again. Having come from a large blue-chip who had the corporate finger firmly on the pulse of conspicuous expenditure, I was at first reassured to hear the words: “We must be careful, this is public money we are spending.”

But it soon became clear this was a mantra trotted out with very little thought as to what it really meant.  For example, first class travel was still standard at some levels – even first class season tickets for those with regular London meetings.  The list of exceptions to the cost-cutting rule was seemingly endless.

I am sure – at least I hope I can be sure – such things do not still go on.  But, as Jaluch points out in Cutting Costs and Coffee, too many people in positions of responsibility are just way off the mark when it comes to cutting costs the right way. This shouldn’t be about plundering the public sector, but neither should it be about feckless soundbites.

As well as a much better appreciation of where to spend and where to economise, we need leaders able to create rapport, show genuine empathy, elicit ideas and demonstrate credible leadership to pull it off – without ripping the heart and soul out of the organisation in the process.

And public sector HR has a huge role to play in getting it right. As Courageous HR points out in its blog HR Business Partner – fact, fiction and the new role of HR, HR needs to focus on delivering the effectiveness mandate as well as purely efficiency. Cut costs and make change, of course, but don’t cut out or incapacitate critical life-giving organs in the process.

Cost cutting must not be a fashion statement. It must be for real and for the benefit of the whole organisation. Staff must understand the reasons for economies and must be committed to making a difference. Similarly, the spend it or lose it concept of the annual budget must be ended.

It will take time and a certain amount of education to change the habits of a lifetime for many.  But this is not all about public sector, bad; private sector, good. It is about learning from one another and taking the best and modifying it to suit the environment.

For ideas on cost cutting – without slashing the headcount – see our Alternatives to Redundancy Factsheet. For tips on inspiring staff to deliver in a downturn see our Motivating Staff Factsheet.

But in a world where the pace of communication is ever increasing and information is available on demand, we need to revisit the model. Several clients are looking at more accessible on-demand training in the workplace.

On-demand training

Typically we’re talking about very short – 45 minutes to two hours – bite size training sessions or modules covering a portfolio of subjects. A well-structured bite-sized training programme is like a sushi bar where you choose one or two individual morsels from the small plates that come to your seat.  But what are the benefits?

Buy-in

Well-structured bite-sized training gives everyone in the programme the choice over which modules to attend to fit their training needs. And because they have signed up for the course they arrive more energised, focused and receptive to the learning.

Efficiency

Shorter is better when it comes to matching the average attention span. And with tightly targeted subjects, attendees get straight to the point rather than having to work through a day or two to access the bits they are interested in. As the return to work is relatively quick, people can put what they have learned into action straight away – so no lengthy action planning at the end of the training.

Targeted

With a rotating timetable of sessions, people can find training they need when they need it. Short slots can be fitted more easily into the day so no-one feels they are being held hostage for hours on end. And because attendees know when they will be back at their desks to tackle mounting workloads, they are more focused on the learning they need to perform better.

Find out about a recent bite-sized training project for public sector managers.