By Susan Saldibar
Corporate transitions involving restructuring can be hell.
I know. I was one of the last to be laid off in a company that, to be honest, had been in decline for longer than we cared to admit.
And, let me tell you, it’s worse when you’re 57 with zero outside business connections.
But here’s what made my experience different from others I’ve heard.
- There was good communication, so I was privy to the downturn.
- They were honest with me, didn’t sugarcoat, didn’t patronize me.
- They valued me as a professional who still had some tread on my tires.
- And, while it couldn’t have been easy, they gave me some consulting work while I looked for a new job.
The bottom line is that I landed on my feet, went out on my own, and ended up doing a ton of business with the CEO who laid me off! No joke. He remains a friend to this day.
My point is that …
- Things can go really wrong in a company, really fast.
- Transitions are scary for employees. Who goes? Who stays? What changes?
- Everyone feels defocused and super vulnerable.But …
- How management handles a transition can make or break recovery.
Two people in the health care and senior living spaces who know exactly what I’m talking about are Susie Keonig and Cindy Moreno of SAK Healthcare.
Brett Landrum, founder of Procare HR (a Foresight partner) brought Susie and Cindy in to chat with Steve Moran in the latest Workforce Wednesday broadcast. (It’s chock-full of insights, and you can watch it here.)
The topic, in case you haven’t guessed by now, was “When Things Go Really Wrong in Senior Living.”
For those who don’t know SAK, they are a strategic advisory firm, specializing in turnarounds and restructuring for health care and senior living organizations nationwide. They’re the folks who get court-appointed to oversee operations in legal situations, monitoring and reporting back to the courts.
In a nutshell they’ve seen everything and worked with everyone from commissioners and agencies to fire chiefs and politicians. So they know their way around things that go really wrong in senior living communities and that need to be turned around quickly.
As you can imagine, Susie and Cindy have a lot of tips for management. Here are just a few:
- Make sure everyone gets paid. Number one priority, full stop. Procare HR has worked with SAK on many restructurings and once had to get full payroll turned around in three days. They did it.
- Listen with open ears. Not everything employees have to say may be relevant to the situation, but all of it is important to hear.
- Reinforce their importance in the community. This is where care cannot be compromised. Remind them of why they are here in the first place. Residents still depend on them. Build them up as being needed now more than ever. Because they are.
- Communicate with everyone. I probably don’t have to tell you that miscommunication is behind many transitions that fail. Make sure everyone is in sync, that there is clarity in what is expected of each person in their role.
- Include everyone in the transition plan. Employees want to be included even when things are not going well. They have valuable input. Include them in planning.
- Give them resources. If you’re laying off employees, they need hope. Job fairs, resume help, and references all can help them land on their feet.
Even better idea … keep things from going really wrong in the first place!
And things can go really wrong really fast in this industry. But visibility over all areas of operations can make a huge difference. And good data can lead to good decisions. The odds of circumventing major issues is much better if you make small, incremental steps each day to improve.
Check out Procare HR. They’re the folks that can capture all that data and use AI to transform it into smart, incremental, actionable steps that lead to major improvements across the line.
In other words, more things going really right instead of going really wrong.
