How to communicate a restructuring to the staff

This is an automatic translation of the Spanish original and may contain errors. Read the original in Spanish

It communicates a restructuring in this order: first, who decides, then the intermediate controls with time to prepare and, on the same day, all the staff, in a conversation in person and with an identical written text for all. This article is for Human Resources, internal communication and management of a medium or large company that has already made the decision. If you're still deciding, or if it affects five people you know one by one, what you need are individual conversations; the objection of the end explains why.

A warning before you go on: here we explain how to count it. The procedures that a restructuring may require depend on each country and are not addressed. Before communicating with your legal advice the procedures and time limits that correspond to you and the order proposed here.

The three sources we quote are Anglo-Saxon: one is 2008, the other refers to layoffs in the United States and the third is from a consultant who offers these services. Take them as a reference, not a rule.

In what order does each group find out?

The rule is simple: no one should know for someone who is lower in the chain than he is. Whoever finds out about a partner or a chat can conclude that the company did not think of him. A reasonable order:

The time you give to the intermediate controls is a two-risk bet. If they find out too much in advance, the news is leaked. If they find out at the last minute, they can't answer the first question and the staff can tell. We recommend the shortest interval to allow each command to prepare it with a Human Resources person

On the role of the controls, the article of Canadian HR Reporter, written in 2008 by two advisers of a Toronto consultant, says that those who made the decision must give the news in person and without doing it alone, and that the front-line supervisors, sources of trust for the staff, must accompany them with sufficient information to answer the subsequent questions. It also recommends giving the news to those affected and those who remain at the same time but separately to limit speculation. The text is old and speaks of redundancies, but logic serves any restructuring.

For customers and external parts, the article PRO Manchestersigned in January 2025 by the CEO of a communication consultant, notes that customers and investors may prefer written and detailed updates or reports, and that the message should be consistent on all channels.

What to say on the first day?

Five things, in this order:

1. What changes. The areas, the posts and the locations as you have decided, without euphemisms.
2. Why. The real reason, in a phrase that an employee can repeat to his family.
3. It doesn't change. What you know is maintained, for example the direct manager of a team or a work schedule. If you're not sure, don't put it here.
4. What happens now. The next steps for those who are affected and those who are not, and with whom they can speak.
5. When there will be more information. A date and a channel.

About why, the guide to CNBC published by NBC Bay AreaNovember 2022 recommends that the business reason be clearly explained and not hidden after formulas such as "market conditions," and also to tell what other options were considered. HR Reporter also asks to explain the specific effects and whether the changes are temporary or permanent.

The individual conditions of those who leave do not go in the general text: they are spoken to each person. In the general text only what is true for all.

What don't you promise?

There are four promises that seem kind and are paid later:

• "There will be no more changes." If you don't control it, don't say it. If it changes later, you will have lost the credibility of everything else. The CNBC guide asks to be clear about the future without overpromising, and that any promise be realistic and accompanied by actions.
• Time limits that depend on third parties. An unfulfilled date counts as a second bad news.
• What you haven't checked. "No one in your area will be affected" is a phrase that someone will check.
• "Do more with less." The same guide collects the warning of Eric McNulty from Harvard: if you could do more with less, it would already be done. You better tell staff what work you stop doing or do otherwise.

You don't call what for several people a loss either.

Conversation or document?

Both, with different functions. The conversation in person is to give the news: the article of PRO Manchester and HR Reporter agree that the staff must hear it from their leaders directly and, if possible, face to face. The identical written text for all is so that the words do not change when passing from mouth to mouth. If each control counts its version, there will be as many versions as controls.

An internal communication platform helps on three specific points:

• The text. Publish it as an official ad, set above, with comments off on the first day. Questions are channelled to the question session, where you can answer them. To write it, there is a organizational change announcement model.
• Follow-up. The reading report per person says who opened the announcement. Use it to go talk to anyone who hasn't seen it, for vacation, for a different time, and not to evaluate anyone. In how to know who read an internal ad there are limits: an opening does not say that it was understood.
• Language. If staff work in English and Spanish, translation on demand allows each person to read the same ad in the other language without waiting for a separate version. Today it only covers those two languages, and in such a delicate text it is appropriate for a person to review it.

And a limit that should be said: access is by a link to corporate mail, so it assumes that each person has one. If part of the staff, such as the staff working in the plant or in the store, does not have it, the text must reach those people by their responsible and on paper, on the same day.

How to prepare the difficult questions?

Before the news, sit with the one who runs it and write the questions you fear most. They are almost always the same: if it affects me, why now, if it could have been avoided, if there will be more and what they receive who leave. For each, three possible answers:

1. A response that is already determined.
2. "We don't know yet, we'll know that day."
3. "I can't answer that today, and this is the reason."

The second and third are legitimate answers, and much better than making up a fourth. The question-and-answer document received by the pre-command and later staff is being made. Three rules for that document: the answers are the same for all controls, each version has date and number, and when something changes a new version is published without deleting the previous one. It is the same discipline of an internal policy with versions, applied to a live text.

For questions that do not fit in a document, call a meeting. On the platform you can create an event at session time, which each person sees in their time zone and can add to Google Calendar or download as .ic. file

How can you stop him from finding out about a rumor?

A rumor occupies the space you leave empty. HR Reporter's article says this without any fuss: it quickly communicates and plans so that staff will hear the news first on official channels. Some specific measures:

• It maximizes the interval between controls and staff.
• Give the news to anyone on vacation or on leave before I read it in a chat, with a call from their manager.
• Do not cut access or remove anyone from the directory before you have told them; the CNBC guide specifically mentions it.
• Program the announcement on working hours, when you can answer questions on the same day.

Avoid mass mail at 11: 00 at night: each person reads it alone, with no one to ask, and the rumor already has owner. For urgent warnings and their follow-up, look. how to warn of an emergency or closure.

What channel and follow-up schedule?

The announcement is the beginning. The PRO Manchester article insists that communication continues later: regular updates on progress and attention to reactions to adjust the approach. A minimum calendar:

Choose a cadence you can fulfill: an update that is delayed is worth less than one that was not promised.

And who are they staying with?

They're the ones who forget the most and those who hold the job later. The CNBC guide recommends recognizing that the period is also difficult for them, having the commanders available to speak, strengthening the support resources and telling them what work is left or changed to make the organization work. HR Reporter's article points out that they will want to know whether they will assume new responsibilities or have new lines of dependence.

Make a separate conversation with them a few days later, focusing on their workload and doubts. To listen to all the staff later, when an anonymous survey is appropriate and when a nominal is explained separately.

When a well-written message does not fix anything

No text fixes a misexplained decision or mismanagement. If the real motive cannot be counted, or is contradicted with what the staff sees, a polished message makes it more visible. And if the restructuring comes after promises of stability, the problem is credibility: it helps more to say "we are wrong to say that" than to write better.

There are also cases where it is best to speak in person and not leave a document. When it affects a few people, the individual conversation must occur before any writing; the CNBC guide prefers the one-to-one conversations to the group meetings for who leaves. When you still don't know the essentials, a text about what you ignore in writing sets your uncertainty and will be quoted against you; it is better to meet with the controls, say what is left to decide and when there will be a response.

The platform helps with distribution, monitoring and session. It does not replace the leader who gives his face, and a reading report does not measure how the news has fallen.