Post by Lauren Benatti on Mar 10, 2016 23:50:25 GMT
DELIVERING THE NEWS
You are in charge of one of the practice areas at Fedcap. Even though performance has been stellar, your division just lost a large contract due to government spending cuts. This will result in the need to realign some job descriptions and responsibilities. You hope to avoid layoffs by making these adjustments and cutting expenses in other places but laying off some staff may be inevitable. You have to share this news with the employees as you’ve just learned it will be announced publicly in a day or so. Even though you haven’t had a chance to walk through the possibilities or figure out a plan you need this information to be heard from you and not someone on the outside.
Craft your message:
Hi everyone, I called you all together to share some important news. As you all know, we have had a stellar performance this year. You all worked extremely hard and extremely smart, and the results continue to show in our outcomes. Thank you all for your dedication to our program and the clients we serve. Unfortunately, we have recently lost a large contract. This was in no way related to our performance, but instead is the result of government spending cuts. I want to reiterate that the loss of this contract is due to factors outside of our control, and not the result of poor performance on our end. The good news is, while we cannot control the government spending cuts, we can absolutely control how we react to them. We will approach this challenge the way we approach all of our challenges, by being proactive and coming together as a team. To be proactive, we are going to realign some job descriptions and responsibilities. I believe that this streamlined approach will help us avoid layoffs while continuing to service our clients. It will of course be challenging, but we will work through these challenges together, as a unit. You all continue to show enormous dedication to the work that we do and the people we serve. I am confident that that dedication will also help us to address any new challenges that arise due to this situation. I am hopeful that the measures we take to adjust to the loss of the contract will be temporary, as I believe we will continue to show our partners, stakeholders, and community how effective and successful we are at the work that we do. I wanted this message to come directly from me, and I wanted to share it with you as soon as possible. You can continue to count on me to be transparent, and to provide you with information as I receive it. If there are any questions, now or in the future, please do not hesitate to bring them to me. My door is wide open to discuss any questions, thoughts, or suggestions you may have. As a next step, I am scheduling a follow up meeting one week from today. At that point, I believe that we will be able to talk more concretely about the realignment of job descriptions and responsibilities as a team. Those that may be individually affected by this change will have individual meetings prior to the team meeting. Again, please do not hesitate to bring questions or concerns to me prior to the next team meeting. Thank you all for your hard work and dedication to our clients and department.
Share how you will deliver this message and why you chose this method:
First, I think it is vital that this message is delivered as soon as possible and in person. I think it is important to stress to the team that this is not a result of something they did, and that their performance is both recognized and appreciated. I also think that it is important to be up front about the realignment, but to present it as positively as possible. While we should not shy away from the fact that it may be challenging, I think the team should know that I am confident we will get through it together, and that I am always there to answer any questions they may have. Finally, I think it is important to give people a next step at the end of any meeting. The next step here is to have a follow up in a week so that any specific changes can be discussed.
You are in charge of one of the practice areas at Fedcap. Even though performance has been stellar, your division just lost a large contract due to government spending cuts. This will result in the need to realign some job descriptions and responsibilities. You hope to avoid layoffs by making these adjustments and cutting expenses in other places but laying off some staff may be inevitable. You have to share this news with the employees as you’ve just learned it will be announced publicly in a day or so. Even though you haven’t had a chance to walk through the possibilities or figure out a plan you need this information to be heard from you and not someone on the outside.
Craft your message:
Hi everyone, I called you all together to share some important news. As you all know, we have had a stellar performance this year. You all worked extremely hard and extremely smart, and the results continue to show in our outcomes. Thank you all for your dedication to our program and the clients we serve. Unfortunately, we have recently lost a large contract. This was in no way related to our performance, but instead is the result of government spending cuts. I want to reiterate that the loss of this contract is due to factors outside of our control, and not the result of poor performance on our end. The good news is, while we cannot control the government spending cuts, we can absolutely control how we react to them. We will approach this challenge the way we approach all of our challenges, by being proactive and coming together as a team. To be proactive, we are going to realign some job descriptions and responsibilities. I believe that this streamlined approach will help us avoid layoffs while continuing to service our clients. It will of course be challenging, but we will work through these challenges together, as a unit. You all continue to show enormous dedication to the work that we do and the people we serve. I am confident that that dedication will also help us to address any new challenges that arise due to this situation. I am hopeful that the measures we take to adjust to the loss of the contract will be temporary, as I believe we will continue to show our partners, stakeholders, and community how effective and successful we are at the work that we do. I wanted this message to come directly from me, and I wanted to share it with you as soon as possible. You can continue to count on me to be transparent, and to provide you with information as I receive it. If there are any questions, now or in the future, please do not hesitate to bring them to me. My door is wide open to discuss any questions, thoughts, or suggestions you may have. As a next step, I am scheduling a follow up meeting one week from today. At that point, I believe that we will be able to talk more concretely about the realignment of job descriptions and responsibilities as a team. Those that may be individually affected by this change will have individual meetings prior to the team meeting. Again, please do not hesitate to bring questions or concerns to me prior to the next team meeting. Thank you all for your hard work and dedication to our clients and department.
Share how you will deliver this message and why you chose this method:
First, I think it is vital that this message is delivered as soon as possible and in person. I think it is important to stress to the team that this is not a result of something they did, and that their performance is both recognized and appreciated. I also think that it is important to be up front about the realignment, but to present it as positively as possible. While we should not shy away from the fact that it may be challenging, I think the team should know that I am confident we will get through it together, and that I am always there to answer any questions they may have. Finally, I think it is important to give people a next step at the end of any meeting. The next step here is to have a follow up in a week so that any specific changes can be discussed.