Managing Reorganisations, Restructures and Redundancies

Day One
09:00 - Registration and coffee
09:30 - Welcome, introduction and outline of objectives
09:45 - The legal context of contract variation
· Making and varying employment contract
· Individual and collective consultation
· Gaining consent
· Dealing with grievances
· Avoiding constructive dismissal and claims for breach of contract
· Introducing flexibility into the employment contract - lessons learned from Home Office v Evans and other significant case law decisions

11:00 - Coffee
11:15 - Information and Consultation
· The duty to inform and consult - how must this be applied?
· How far must consultation go - UK Coal Mining v NUM
· Knowledge sharing under the latest regulations
· Collective versus individual consultation
· Managing the consultation process - best practice guidance
· Protective awards
· Working with trade unions
· Redundancy selection

12:30 - Lunch
13:30 - Managing redundancy - best practice guidance
· What are the key legal issues for HR? What regulations apply?
· Redundancy or reorganisation?
· Developing a plan for redundancy
· Avoiding unlawful discrimination
· Redundancy payments
· Dispute Resolution Regulations
· Redundancy and unfair dismissal
· Approaching and consulting with trade unions
· How do you seek volunteers for redundancy?
· The pool for selection and fairness of selection
· Offers of suitable alternative employment
· Retention bonuses and no-cash incentives
· Case law update: list recent cases

14:45 - Tea
15:00 - Handling business transfers and mergers
· When do the TUPE regulations apply?
· Identifying who transfers
· Which liabilities transfer?
· Informing and consulting
· Harmonising terms and conditions
· New duties of disclosure in practice
· TUPE redundancies and changing terms
· Group pensions and reward - what are the considerations?
· Outsourcing and offshoring
· Understanding the role of HR during a merger - due diligence and best practice
· Managing two workforces - key considerations

16:00 - Avoiding common pitfalls when dealing with reorganisations, restructurings and redundancies
· Top tips for HR when managing restructures
· Discussing frequently occurring scenarios and HR best practice solutions
· Getting the communication process right

16:30 - End of day one

Day Two
09:00 - Registration and coffee
09:30 - Welcome, introduction and objectives for the day
· Reorganisations, restructuring and redundancies - different reasons for change from the strategic to the operational, and consequences and impact of each
· Exploring why changes fail and critical factors to move to success

10:00 - Examining common people challenges and issues during an organisational restructure
· Understanding the change process and the psychological impact of change: what you can do to manage reactions and resistance to change
· Exploring the principal stages of change and key initiatives to navigate successfully through each stage
· Assessing readiness to change in your organisation and likely resistance: diagnostic tools and approaches to manage through the barriers
· Selecting for change: exploring different options and approaches to manage the transition through a restructure. Getting from where you are now to where you want to be

11:00 - Coffee
11:15 - Managing redundancy: options to minimise the impact on the individual and the organisation
· Handling the meetings: skills sets to do it well, possible reactions from people, selecting who to conduct the meetings and skilling up your managers
· Managing the impact on others not affected by the redundancies
· What to do during the consultation process: how to handle the period of unknown for people
· Options and possibilities to optimise your support to the individual, and manage the impact. What can your organisation offer and provide as an employer of choice?

12:00 - The crucial role of communication in facilitating the change process
· Effective communication strategies, skills and tools to support change initiatives:
o Exploring different options and requirements at different stages
o Moving from awareness to commitment
· Sustained communication and its impact on employee relations: keeping staff informed and involved at every stage of the restructure
· The role of leaders and managers to promote the vision, model reaction, to cascade and to manage close communication, understanding and exchange

12:30 - Case study: Managing Change at IBM
· Brian Phipps, Associate Partner - HR, IBM

13:00 - Lunch
14:00 - Maximising team dynamics pre and post restructure
· Understanding teams and the process of team development:
o What happens to a team during fragmentation and change
o New teams from old
o Processes and approaches to move quickly to a new team dynamic
o What you can do to facilitate success

14:30 - Equipping your leaders, managers, HR and other change agents to lead and facilitate an effective change process
· HR as business partner: HR's value added role to lead and support change
· Assessing your leaders: what you can do to support and facilitate them as leaders of change
· Developing awareness and the skills sets to manage people through change and their reactions to change.
· Identifying and working with key players and creating change champions

15:00 - Coffee
15:15 - Mergers and acquisitions: additional considerations
· Why mergers and acquisitions fail
· Merging culture and values: what is culture and can you define your organisation's values:
o Identifying the culture and values of the transferring organisation.
o What culture will prevail
o How will the transition be managed?
· The top team, and senior management: power and politics, strategy and alignment

15:45 - Planning for change: project definition and management to ensure successful implementation
· Project definition: your organisation's reasons for change - clarifying the purpose and goals and defining the scope and reach of the change initiative
· Establishing the change team, roles and champions
· Exploring the scope of impact of the change on other strategies and processes including business planning, training and development needs, performance management
· Monitoring and measuring success

16:30 - End of day two