Dealing with redundancy in the pharma industry

This global pharmaceutical company approached Hill+Knowlton Strategies to help with a large, multi-site redundancy programme.  

We worked with them to design and implement a communications strategy and plan which helped employees understand the rationale for this significant  organisational change. Our approach included three phases - setting the context, the HR process, and defining the future to help employees understand their role.  We worked closely with the senior management team, HR, and key stakeholders as a change management team to ensure an aligned, consistent and integrated approach to the programme. Open, honest and two-way dialogue ensured that we maintained engagement levels and kept colleagues focused on delivering business as usual.  The benefits of this approach were:

• Nine out of 10 employees positively agreed that they understood the new vision and strategy
• 83% stated that they understood the rationale for why the change was necessary
• Employees understood what they needed to do to keep the business going during this time even if they didn’t have a role in the new organisation