Dealing with survivor syndrome
December 2, 2008
With more and more large scale redundancies being announced each day, it’s clear what the main challenge for HR practitioners is at the moment and will be in the coming months. But whilst dealing with the redundancy process is hard enough, the challenge does not stop when this process has ended and the employees unfortunate enough to lose their jobs have left the company.
Dubbed ‘survivor guilt’, the main problem HR will have to deal with will be the loss of morale in remaining employees after a redundancy process has taken place. It is claimed by HR experts that this is a big contributor to productivity losses in a time when motivation and high productivity are needed most. Seeing close colleagues leave, and then staying in contact afterwards can leave existing employees emotionally damaged, especially if they know the ex-employee is struggling to find new employment. In addition, if the employer hasn’t been fully open in the time leading up to the redundancies, e.g. saying that no jobs will be lost when it must have been known that there would be, this can lead the survivors to lose trust in the employer going forward, which is another morale and productivity killer.
I was speaking to my GP the other day and he was saying that his workload has increased in recent months due to the increase in stress and depression related illnesses caused by the economic difficulties in the country. Recently experts have found that people who keep their jobs after redundancy processes have taken place are almost as likely to suffer from stress and depression as those who have been made redundant, so a lot needs to be done to protect the mental health of employees who remain in the company after redundancy and restructure exercises have taken place.
One of the key ways to avoid this problem is to approach any possible change processes, including redundancy and restructure, in a completely honest and open way. Whilst secrecy may seem like the appropriate approach initially to avoid panic and de-motivation, in the long run employees will appreciate being given the truth and the opportunity to comment and ask questions as early as possible. Another good idea is to organise coaching and counselling sessions with surviving employees after the redundancies have been made. It’s never going to be easy for anyone to just think ‘oh well’ and move on after the shock of losing a number of colleagues, and employers should not ignore this fact.
If you are going through this process at the moment or have done recently, I’d love to hear form you so leave a comment below.
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