Rightsize While Maintaining Customer Satisfaction And Employee Morale

Challenge: Maintain Superior Performance During a Period of Business and Industry Consolidation.

A high-growth professional service firm with a large base of technology clients needed to maintain service excellence during a recession that caused considerable industry consolidation. Talent was highly paid and accustomed to rich benefit packages, fast promotions and a work environment filled with perks.

Solution: Rightsize the Company.

Working with the Company, Heather Edelman designed an internal assessment process to identify top contributors at each level of the organization. Heather and her team conducted interviews with executives to gather performance data and determine client impact. They analyzed short- and long-term staffing requirements. Working with the executive team, Heather identified affected employees, with the goal of minimizing client impact and maximizing quality and customer retention.

Other aspects of the process included:

A severance program was developed to recognize past contributions and demonstrate sensitivity to the external challenges affected employees would face.
Employee communications were created to reassure unaffected employees and keep them motivated and productive.
Managers were trained to ensure messages were delivered in a way that was consistent with Company values – respect, caring and appreciation for employee contributions.

Result: Maintain Market Position and High Productivity

Client satisfaction remained high throughout the rightsizing and the Company’s market position remained constant. Affected employees left feeling good about their employment experience and the way the transition was managed. “Surviving” employees remained motivated and productive.