Consider the following scenario:

The senior management within a subsidiary of a large multinational manufacturing organisation have decided that due to increased global competition, falling profits, and resultant shareholder dissatisfaction, a significant downsizing (up to 700 layoffs) will take place. The decision was arrived at by management's collective concern that if the downsizing did not occur, the organisation would in time fail to operate at all and final closure would be the grim result.

The organisation is the main provider of employment in the region, which has in past years witnessed a high level of unemployment and a decline in living standards. Many of the workers employed by the organisation have been with the firm for over 20 years, are over 45 years of age, and are largely unskilled or semi-skilled. You, as the HR Manager, have been called in to discuss the design of the downsizing process and how decisions regarding who will be made redundant will be determined.

You attend the meeting and are told that management are keen to keep the production line in operation until just before the production will be closed. You are asked to restrict communication to the workers about the redundancies, so that they will be more likely to work harder, this means workers will receive minimal time notification of redundancy.

Questions

As you sit in the meeting, it becomes clear to you that management have not thought this through. They have not asked themselves questions such as:

1 What are the implications of minimal communication of the redundancy procedures?

2 How motivated will the surviving employees feel once their work colleagues have left?

3 Shouldn't there be some counselling offered to employees?

4 Shouldn't there be some effort made to relocate workers to other parts of the organisation, or assistance offered to them to reskill and find alternative work?

You realise there is much work to do with this management team in order to minimise the damage from the downsizing strategy.