Workplace Survivor Syndrome
?? Jason Roberts
CEO & Founder, Kaleida: Award winning B2B Marketplace for Tenders. Connecting Procurement to Suppliers and Diverse Suppliers.
Employee mental health and well-being.
According to the IMAA (Institute of Mergers, Acquisitions and Alliances) 2017 was the biggest year in history for mergers and acquisitions with over 50,000 M&A deals transacted. However, almost every M&A will have a significant impact on staff, both those that leave by mutual consent and those who remain as the new organisations focuses on lean efficiencies are restructure.
The volume of displaced staff would have been astronomical with hundreds of thousands of staff having to adapt to new employment demands.
Workplace Survivor Syndrome, a term coined by organisational psychologists, best describes the emotional, psychological and physical effects of employees who remain in the midst of company restructure.
When a company decides it needs to cut costs, redundancies will often be top of the list of considerations. How organisations handle the redundancy process is key, not only to avoid unnecessary claims for unfair selection but also to give remaining staff confidence the organisation treats its employees fairly and with respect. https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/experts/advice/survivor-syndrome-redundancies
Symptoms of survivor syndrome typically include nightmares, difficulty sleeping, flashbacks to the traumatic event, loss of motivation, irritability, a sense of numbness, and thoughts about the meaning of life.
Challenges that follow for staff of Workplace Survivor Syndrome can be:
- Overwhelming feeling of guilt that they still have a job.
- An increase in workload potentially without the skill set to complete.
- Executing on outstanding tasks and complete half-done work.
- Frustration due to broken processes that cause errors and delays.
When firms put staff first during a restructure with a structured, methodical, clear employee engagement programme and honest communication, they will experience a:
- Reduction in resistance from staff who remain.
- Better rate of adoption to new processes, culture and leadership.
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6 年This is a much overlooked area as businesses go through exceptional change and leaders are focused on turning performance around.? The people element often gets lost in the priorities list.? Without the support of every person in the organisation, M&As fail.
Pro-Bono NGO MCIPD Board Director || People || Change || Transformation || OD HR Strategy Policy & Employment Law Advisor @ GSR People Solutions ll Disabled Inclusion EDI || Social Justice
6 年I’ll check re the impact of mergers and acquisition on change as 97% failed due to lack of Engagement because of the failure of internal communications. I used to pitch for work for business as a culture change and comms consultant, so that used to go in my business development offer presentation ??
Pro-Bono NGO MCIPD Board Director || People || Change || Transformation || OD HR Strategy Policy & Employment Law Advisor @ GSR People Solutions ll Disabled Inclusion EDI || Social Justice
6 年Boston Consulting USA and Aon as well as research reports from UK CIPD.
Pro-Bono NGO MCIPD Board Director || People || Change || Transformation || OD HR Strategy Policy & Employment Law Advisor @ GSR People Solutions ll Disabled Inclusion EDI || Social Justice
6 年Interestingly, most mergers fail due to lack of engagement processes and honest communication about how the changes will affect people. Aligning the cultural differences by making the new organisational behaviours explicit is key to a successful integration. The human factor is often neglected until it is too late. Planning for the cultural and emotional impact of M & As is a critical role for the leadership team to get right.