How to communicate bad news explained on BBC Radio York ...

Michael Millward joined Elly Fiorentini the host of the BBC Radio York Drive Show today to discuss how employers can best communicate bad news to employees.

We have had a summer that has been full of good news, said Mr Millward, the Queen?s Diamond Jubilee, the success of TeamGB at the London Olympics and the forthcoming Paralympic Games have given us all a warm feeling. Yet it is important to also acknowledge that in the world of work the level of strike days has reached a 20 year high!

The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that workers in Britain spent 1.39 million working days on strike action or in other industrial disputes during 2011, which is the highest level for 20 years. Ninety ?five percent of the disputes that resulted in industrial action were connected to pay.

In the public sector 92percent of the industrial disputes related to pensions including the nation dispute in November 2011.

The number of people willing to get involved in an industrial dispute has risen twelve fold since 2010 to 1.5million people.

Forty-one percent of disputes were in the private sector with 110,000 days lost to industrial action, the highest since 2004.

The days of long term industrial action like the miners? strike may be over. In 2011 the majority of work stoppages lasted for just one day. But we must not underestimate the disruption and loss of business that even a one day stoppage can cause said Mr Millward.

With the economy still under pressure and unemployment rising across Yorkshire, there is an increasing likelihood that at some time in the next twelve months employers are going to have to communicate bad news to their employees.

Communicate bad news correctly and you soften the blow, get it wrong and you turn a bad situation in to a catastrophe!

In his career of more than 30 years in HR Michael Millward has often had periods like those portrayed by George Clooney in the Hollywood film Up In the Air. It?s probably the only film in which the leading man plays a HR professional! His character flies around the USA telling people that their job has been made redundant and that they are out of work. It is a role with which Mr Millward is very familiar, only for him he was flying into a different European city every day.

Acas the government body tasked with helping employers and employees avoid disputes has recently issued a guide to help employers to effectively communicate bad news.

The guide focuses on redundancies but the principles can be applied to any situation.
The first point that the guide makes is that bad news should be communicated by someone who is emotionally distant from those affected by the news. This advice runs contrary to the long held view that the bad news should be communicated by the people who tell you the good stuff as well.

If a line manager is taken out of the communication it can be seen as a weakness by their staff. On the other hand having someone from head office as the bearer of bad news can make it easier for line managers to focus on the what do we do next aspects; and how are we going to cope with this questions.

It is never easy telling someone that they are no longer required to do a job that may have been a major part of their life, and it can be difficult to cope with the range of emotional reactions that you encounter explained Mr Millward.

As the person doing the telling you also have to accept that you are the person in the middle and that the decision makers will blame you if the news is badly accepted.

How you deal with the people who are leaving will have an impact of the people who remain, and how they feel about working for your organisation and their commitment to making it successful. Couple that with the problems that are raised when a disgruntled employee goes to the press with a sob story about mistreatment and you end up with customers who are unhappy as well.

Of course said Mr Millward if you get it wrong you can also end up with a tribunal claim.
Employers need to carefully select the person who is doing the telling carefully. They should aim for someone who can show empathy, without getting emotionally involved as well as being very practical.

A study conducted by Dr Ian Ashman from the Institute for Research into Organisation, Work and Employment at the University of Central Lancashire?s Business School on behalf of Acas found that.

• tellers from the public and private sector had similar attitudes towards the role and behaved in similar ways regarding the duties involved
• they considered the role the most emotionally demanding thing they had undertaken in their working lives
• they work very hard to ensure they do a professional job of breaking the news, often involving long hours and emotional stress which can impact on their personal lives
• the closer the relationship the envoy has with those facing redundancy, the more difficult the process is for them, particularly if they still have to work with those affected for some time to come
• envoys coped with the role in different ways, often distancing themselves from the situation by focusing on the process involved which reduced their sense of personal responsibility for the situation.

The study also found that experiences in the private and public sectors varied. Envoys in the private sector were more likely to be involved in the decision making process around downsizing which gave them a greater sense of ownership. This helped them deal with the more difficult aspect of the role. In contrast public sector envoys were less likely to be involved, and though they may understand the reasons behind decisions, they had less sense of ownership and buy in regarding decisions and the procedures for implementing any job losses.

Source: http://michaelmillward.co.uk/how-to-communicate-bad-news-explained-on-bbc-radio-york/

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