Some restructuring efforts have become notorious for favoring cost cutting over the employees who drove their success in the first place. We must develop better frameworks that value employees and facilitate learning from our past experiences to ensure restructuring is handled more equitably going forward.  

Joining me on this video podcast of #HRTechChat is Steve Hunt, chief expert, technology and work at SAP and author of best selling book “Talent Tectonics.” In this episode we share an outline of an upcoming research paper we are collaborating on about the “New Era of Restructuring: How Companies are Leveraging Innovations in Work Technology to Manage Restructuring Differently.”

There was so much to unpack in a short time during the recording.  We offer one definition of restructuring, three different reasons for restructuring, and seven different technology categories for managing restructuring differently.  One of my favorite parts of the video podcast, besides singing ‘The Twelve Days of Restructuring’, is when Steve calls it “almost crazy” to do restructuring without an organizational network analysis tool.  

“One of the most underutilized tools in the field of HR and restructuring … is organizational network analysis tools,” says Steve. “When you eliminate people based on organizational charts or spreadsheets, you have no idea what relationships are being destroyed or severely damaged.  Some of the most critical people in the company are not necessarily the ones who have highly visible roles.  Just because you know where someone sits does not mean you know the impact they have on people in other parts of the organization.  It’s almost crazy to do restructuring without [the organizational network analysis tools].”

Our concluding comments are around embracing restructuring with the employee experience in mind.  Steve shares “it is not putting employee needs above company needs, but at the same level.”