Supporting yourself and your team though redundancy
Career Leaders
NABS offers practical advice on effective leadership through the redundancy process.
Redundancy is a huge topic in the industry at the moment. With seismic shifts across adland, most notably mergers and acquisitions, thousands of people are losing their jobs.
When your team faces redundancy, you’ll be impacted in various ways as their leader.
You’ll need to deal with logistical and practical matters, and more than that, the emotional fallout caused by redundancy – how your team are affected and how you’ll be affected.
The emotional piece of the puzzle is substantial and a reason why NABS, the industry charity, is so invested in helping people through redundancy. In fact, redundancy is the second most common reason people contact us for help.
Mergers can cause significant uncertainty and subsequent job losses. This is such a big issue, and it can’t be overstated. When organisations merge, a lack of clarity can be as stressful as the eventual outcome. Not knowing what’s going to happen can cause a lot of anxiety and worry amongst your team members and for you as well, as you carry the responsibility throughout the process.
Lead with vulnerability and honesty
If your organisation is facing a merger, it’s important to acknowledge the uncertainty with your staff early.
While this may get you so far, employees will want information. Sharing when you expect to know more, or pencilling in time for further progress checks, can be a useful practical step for managing expectations and supporting your people.
Being open and honest will help people cope better while ensuring they receive accurate information.
Crucially, you can name what you don’t know, too. In today’s uncertain times, we encourage leaders to share when they don’t have all of the answers: there is courage and honesty in this vulnerability.
Sharing what you don’t know, along with what you do know, is your action point every step of the way.
Share information on the legalities
There is, of course, a legal process that accompanies redundancy.
A merger doesn’t change the fact that employees have a right to consultation before any redundancy decision is made. Point your teams towards NABS’ redundancy guides. These guides lay out, in simple terms, the rules on redundancy for employees and are a must-read for anyone going through the process.
Redundancy can have a significant emotional impact. Your team may be scared, angry, anxious… all manner of feelings. This is understandable and to be expected. Your job here is to ensure your team has access to emotional support.
Your team members may well want to talk to you about how they’re feeling, and you should hold space for this. Offering your time to help them feel heard is incredibly valuable, but do also consider who else you can signpost them to for emotional support. This may be a mental health first aider, if you have them in your organisation, or a trusted colleague.
You can also refer your team to the NABS Advice Line. Our support team have years of experience supporting people through redundancy, both with the emotional and legal aspects, and will speak to someone as many times as they need.
Look after yourself
Related to this is a crucial point: look after yourself, too. Leading a team through redundancy, especially if you’re facing your own job changes, can be very difficult.
You’ll be taking on the emotional load from your team and the practical work, as well as whatever you’re facing. You cannot pour from an empty cup, so self-care is crucial here.
Again, the NABS Advice Line can offer much-needed support and guidance to help you get through this tricky time, and you’ll also find various resources on our website.
Steve Rowe is the lead senior support advisor at NABS.
Need confidential help with redundancy? Get in touch with NABS today.