Survivor syndrome encompasses many factors including emotional, psychological and physical. There can be feelings of guilt, anger, unhappiness and even anxiety as employees that remain become concerned that their own role may soon be at risk of redundancy. Leaders should keep a watchful eye out for any unusual behaviour or absence patterns which may indicate that an individual is struggling and suffering with survivor syndrome or that their motivation has been impacted. The easiest way to do this is through regular 1-2-1’s in which the employee is allowed the opportunity to discuss their own wellbeing and raise any concerns that they may have.

The reality is that it is hard to prevent employees from feeling the impact of a redundancy situation and businesses will often find that productivity can drop following a redundancy programme, so managers and leaders should remain alert and address any concerns as they arise.

We say it all the time, but communication really is king in any business and your remaining employees will want to be re-assured that the redundancies you made were genuine and that employees were treated fairly. As part of any redundancy programme you should communicate with all employees, not just those who are impacted, to ensure that you mitigate any feelings of uncertainty and build trust amongst your remaining team.  

As part of a redundancy programme things often change, employee’s reporting lines, roles and responsibilities and ways of working. Employees will need to understand how these changes impact them to avoid any confusion. These conversations will also help to boost morale, improve performance and help the business to collectively move forward.

Setting a clear vision for the future will allow survivors to understand where they fit into the bigger picture and will help to alleviate any concerns around their own role being made redundant. It may be that, due to the pandemic, your vision is only for the short term and this is understandable. Remaining silent because you fear that you may have to change your direction in another few months will do more harm than good.  

Getting your employees on board now and ensuring that they understand your vision could be the difference between a motivated team that emerge victorious and a de-motivated team with high levels of sick absence and a lack of commitment to the business.  

Talking to your teams on a regular basis and being transparent about the business performance will mean that there are no nasty shocks if you are in the unfortunate position of making a 2nd wave of redundancies should business performance not improve. It’s unrealistic to make any promises to employees that there won’t be further redundancies in the future (if this year has taught us anything it’s that you can’t plan for every eventuality!).

We all know that the rumour mill is rife when a business makes changes and a redundancy scenario will be no different. Don’t be afraid to address any rumours that arise head on. Rumours that escalate can be toxic for your business and, without tackling these openly, they can start to ripple right through your business, sending staff motivation and productivity into decline.