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6 Steps to effective restructuring

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20th May 2009
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Now, more than ever, businesses are looking to trim the fat and improve their operating processes. Stuart Lindenfield of Reed Consulting offers his tips for planning and implementing a more efficient structure.

Increasing economic pressures have driven many businesses into streamlining their operations, reducing costs and improving operational efficiencies. While opting to restructure to a leaner business model can offer reduced staff costs, in order to really create valuable performance improvements firms should ensure they have a detailed knowledge of each employee's talents and potential, and a clear understand of what skills and attributes the business needs to succeed.

To ensure an effective restructuring programme, businesses should consider the following:

1. Talent mapping
Talent mapping provides a detailed picture of each person's existing skills, development plan and future potential. This enables informed decisions to be made regarding which employees are best equipped to drive the organisation forward in a given situation, and also what additional training and support they might need.

2. Assessment and selection for restructuring and redeployment
Informed restructuring decisions should be based on past performance and an awareness of the personal capabilities, motivation, experience, knowledge and technical expertise required for future success. When these requirements are matched against the attributes of each existing employee, it is possible to identify in a robust and legally defensible way those individuals who should be retained.

3. Transition and outplacement
Organisations have a legal obligation to mitigate the impact of redundancy and help individuals re-establish and revitalise their careers, but typically they use a 'sheep-dip' approach to outplacement support - everyone gets the same support, regardless of need.

The process could be so much more efficient, cost effective and valuable if affected individuals were each handled based on their actual needs. Some people will only require minimal support, so why spend money on them when others need much more intensive support?

4. Enhancing performance
Restructuring can lead to a massive dip in morale and productivity. Watching their peers being ushered out the door and listening to whispered uncertainties by the watercooler is a far stronger communication than the merger press release or any announcement on the company intranet.

Thorough transition planning can help improve the quality of immediate communication and enable line management to offer a more detailed and consistent set of reasons to support the change programme. In addition, the provision of outplacement support for individuals leaving the business has repeatedly been shown to reduce the undercurrents of dissent within the business.

5. Team building
Once the structure of a team has been changed, it is important to re-form that team, establish a new way of working and a clear sense of purpose. Many individuals will also need to be encouraged to take a more active part in the direction of the team and to feel that they have a valuable contribution to make.

6. Development planning and coaching
Following a restructure, affected individuals will typically reflect on what the restructure means for them and their future and the best way to develop their careers in the context of the new structure. In hard times and when the pickings are rich, the most successful organisations are those with a lean structure and talent management processes that make best use of their employees' skills and potential.

This article is an extract from an article originally published on our sister site HRZone.co.uk. To read more click here.
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