Workforce Realignment Briefing for the Leadership Team

This client is a leader in the industry that strives to deliver network experiences to transform how people connect, work, and live. Driven by innovation and creativity, the organization has built strong expertise across diverse industries—from education and healthcare to secure banking. They’re a Fortune 500 company known for its array of products, custom solutions, and services. It employs over 10,000 workforce members across 109 offices in 47 countries. 

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To be a market leader, the organization needs to be sufficiently agile and meet changing business requirements. Facing the brunt of the economic slump and a very large workforce, the organization took a very difficult decision to terminate the services of a few employees. As an issue that needs to be handled with care and utmost concern, the leadership team facilitating the workforce realignment task was in unchartered territory. For a globally dispersed leadership team, a quick and consistent training program was the urgent need of the hour. The organization needed a structured course to educate them about the method and process of conveying such troubling news to team members. 

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The leadership team needed to be mindfully trained to handle the range of expected reactions. Further, they are expected to display emotions of empathy while also upholding the values of the organization in good esteem. Leaders must also be adept at facilitating a hassle-free exit and easing the situation as much as possible for the employee being given the pink slip. The entire exercise needs to be executed through a thorough and well-charted plan of action for a seamless transition. Workforce realignment is a complex learning topic that needs to be conveyed simply, and effectively, and checks all the boxest.

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At the end of the training program, managers and leaders identified for the workforce realignment task should be able to:

• Ensure understanding of the philosophy, rationale, and the organization’s process of the workforce realignment program.
• Effectively execute the workforce realignment program.
• Ensure thorough knowledge of how to support impacted and existing employees throughout the process.

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To ensure a thoughtful and consistent program implementation, ELB Learning developed a custom three-point plan that includes:

• Resources and Tools
• Guidelines
• Employee Assistance Programs (EAP)

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The custom content for the online learning program was completely revamped by Team ELB to create an extensive scenario-based learning course. It was image-intensive and used strong instructional design for effective comprehension of the sensitive topic. The look and feel of the content was designed for superior visual engagement through the use of iconography for presentation, expressive imagery, and empathetic storytelling. Learners were encouraged to make decisions and learn about possible extreme outcomes. 

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Keeping with the busy schedules of the leadership team, the learning course consisted of quick modules that included best practices, guidelines, FAQs, checklists, and quizzes to check for understanding. All learning material could be accessed even after the completion of the training course, for quick reference. The entire learning program was designed mindfully to best equip learners about consistently handling such a sensitive workplace situation across all departments.

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