The rule that everything else follows from
If people hear it somewhere else first, you are no longer communicating: you are denying. And denying costs three times as much, because from that moment every sentence gets read for what it is not saying.
Everything else follows from that: the rush to get the materials ready, the order of the announcements, and the decision not to wait until everything is settled. In situations like this you communicate before you have all the answers, and you say clearly which ones you do not have yet.
The order the announcements go in
The order is not a matter of courtesy. In several of these situations the law sets out duties to inform and consult representatives, and skipping them can invalidate the whole process.
Where an employer proposes to dismiss as redundant 20 or more employees at one establishment within a period of 90 days or less, it must consult appropriate representatives in good time and in any event at least 30 days before the first dismissal takes effect, or 45 days where 100 or more employees are proposed for dismissal.
Require both transferor and transferee to inform representatives of the affected employees of the fact of the transfer, when it is to take place, the reasons for it, its legal, economic and social implications, and any measures envisaged, long enough before the transfer to allow consultation.
Applies where an employer seeks to change contractual terms and contemplates dismissal and re-engagement if agreement is not reached. It expects meaningful consultation, information sharing, and no use of the threat of dismissal as a negotiating tactic. Employment tribunals may uplift compensation by up to 25 % for an unreasonable failure to comply.
Where a valid information and consultation agreement is in place, the employer must inform and consult representatives on the situation and probable development of employment, and on decisions likely to lead to substantial changes in work organisation or in contractual relations.
With that settled, the usual order is this one, and the gap between each step is measured in hours, not days.
01
1. The employee representatives
With the documentation in hand and on the terms the applicable rules set for your case. This is the step that makes the rest lawful.
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2. Line managers and site supervisors
An hour before everybody else, with the message and with the questions and answers written down. A supervisor who finds out at the same time as their team cannot hold the conversation that comes next, and that conversation is the one that matters.
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3. Everybody, all at once
The same text for everyone, at the same moment, including the shifts who are not on site. This is where the usual approach falls over: if you do it as an in-person meeting, the night shift finds out eight hours after their brother-in-law does.
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4. The people directly affected
Individually and by name, in the conversation that is appropriate, and never through a channel that goes to everybody. They should know from the general announcement that they will have that conversation, and when.
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5. Outside the company
Customers, suppliers, press. Afterwards, always afterwards. A supplier knowing before the workforce does is the sort of thing people do not forget.
The day and the hour
- Never a Friday afternoon. It leaves people a whole weekend with the news and nobody to ask, and hands you back a company full of rumours on Monday.
- Never the day before a bank holiday weekend or a shutdown.
- First thing, and at the point in the shift cycle when most people are on site or clocking on.
- With managers' diaries cleared for the following four hours. On the day you announce this, their meetings get cancelled.
- With a channel for questions open from the first minute, not 'from tomorrow'.
In a shift business there is an additional problem with no perfect answer: somebody is going to read this at home, because they are off. Publishing it in a channel that person can get into is better than letting a colleague tell them, even if it is not ideal.
What you say, and in what order
The text gets to the point and answers questions in the order people ask them. No paragraphs about the competitive environment before you say what is happening.
01
What has happened
In one sentence, using the right word for it. If it is redundancies, say 'redundancies'. Euphemisms read as exactly what they are and sink the credibility of everything that follows.
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Who it affects and who it does not
If you do not know yet, say you do not know yet and when you will. The absence of this paragraph is what fills the messaging groups with rumours over the next two hours.
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What is not changing
Pay dates, shifts, sites that carry on as they are. It is real information and it is what brings the temperature down.
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What happens next and when
The dates of the process: when consultation opens, when there will be new information. A timetable, even a provisional one, gives uncertainty a shape.
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Where to ask
A person, a channel and the hours it is open. And the representatives, with their contact details, without anybody having to go looking.
Line managers are the channel, not the megaphone
Most of this communication does not happen in the announcement: it happens in the conversations over the following days, in the changing room and in the break room. The person holding those is the supervisor.
- Give them the message first, with time to read it and ask about it.
- Give them a questions-and-answers sheet, including the questions that have no answer yet and what to say in that case.
- Tell them explicitly what they can and cannot pass on. Uncertainty paralyses them, and silence gets read as confirmation of the worst.
- Give them somewhere to ask their own questions, away from the main channel. Their doubts cannot be aired in front of their team.
- And do not ask them to defend the decision. Explaining it well is enough.
What happens afterwards, which is where credibility is decided
The commonest mistake is not the first announcement: it is the silence over the following three weeks. People read it as meaning there is something they are not being told, and they are usually half right.
01
A fixed cadence
A weekly update, on the same day, even when the update is 'nothing new this week and the next meeting is on Thursday'. It gets read, and it holds trust together.
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Questions answered in the open
Collect the ones that come in and answer them where everybody can see them. Answering privately multiplies the work and feeds the sense that some people are being treated differently.
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The comments
If your channel allows comments, the temptation is to close them. Closing them without explaining why is worse than leaving them open. If you do close them, say why and where people can ask instead.
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The ending
When the process finishes, say that it has finished and what the outcome was. Processes that fade out without an ending leave people waiting for part two for months.