Restructuring advice: preventing psychosocial risks during a reorganization

Restructuring causes employees to change their environment, which can generate a range of psychosocial disorders affecting their health. Even if each situation is unique, it is possible to develop a model in 5 phases through which companies will go through in their reorganization.

Reorganization processes are governed by specific legislation. Article 3 of the emergency plan on the prevention of stress at work by Xavier Darcos requests that companies in the process of restructuring take into account the prevention of psychosocial risks. In addition, recent case law (Fnac or The Phone House) has specified the obligation to take into account psychosocial risks in restructuring, otherwise the reorganization project will be cancelled by a court decision.

It is necessary to anticipate change and to prevent future risks for all employees affected by the reorganization, in fact, reorganizations affect employees who lose their jobs, but also those who keep their jobs[1].

So, what are your means of action to manage psychosocial risks at the individual and collective level during a restructuring? Discover our restructuring advice to prevent RPS.

Restructuring advice: prepare for the change, before the announcement, in order to avoid it being too sudden

Conduct a human impact diagnosis allows you to identify and assess the psychosocial impact of change on your collaborators. Qualisocial studies your organizational context before and after the restructuring, the populations impacted and the restructuring project as such. The recommendations make it possible to reduce human risk through primary, secondary and tertiary preventive actions.Download our e-book on the prevention of RPS during a restructuring.

Limiting the impact of reorganization during the destructuring phase

La training local managers in RPS prevention and change management allows them to be positioned at the center of your prevention system and thus guarantee a capacity to detect and manage sensitive situations internally. As recommended by Henri Lachmann in his 2010 report on well-being and efficiency at work: the health of employees is first and foremost a matter for managers.QualiSocial trains your relay staff (local managers, HR, health services) so that they are in a position to:

• integrating human risk management into work organization
• to detect and manage a risky situation
• identify best practices in workplace recognition
• be part of the role of internal relays in restructuring
• leading change while being aware of the risks and crises that may result
• apprehend change and prepare their employees
• communicate effectively to act on the acceptance of change

La Setting up a listening device and support for employees in difficulty allows all your employees to report a personal or professional difficulty when they need it.While your managers can detect and manage sensitive situations, they are not psychologists. The telephone hotline and psychological support offers your employees listening, help and psychological support with professionals 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It allows them to be accompanied in order to regain a healthy situation or, failing that, to be directed to the solutions that allow it. QualiSocial also offers the possibility of involving a psychologist directly on your premises or of setting up face-to-face psychological follow-up in an external office with an employee.Communication throughout the duration of the project has several objectives:

• Guarantee the understanding of the challenges of reorganization
• Publicize the approach taken by the company to protect the health of employees in the complex framework of reorganization
• Ensure that employees have confidence in the devices made available to them and that they will use them if they feel the need

QualiSocial believes that once the reorganization has been announced, it is important to remain transparent about the overall communication to ensure that the messages sent are under control. It is also important to adapt communication according to the audience (employees, managers, CE, CHSCT, etc.).

Restructuring advice: support by evaluating the impact of change on the organization

Measuring post-reorganization impacts will allow you to:

• understand the impacts of your restructuring on the health of your employees
• identify areas for improvement of the new organization so that it is in line with internal realities
• facilitate the integration of new work processes by all
• if a pre-reorganization impact diagnosis has been made, compare the projections made with the results of the post-reorganization impact assessment.
• draw up a corrective action plan following the restructuring

QualiSocial specialists provide you with their experience and use an evaluation and analysis approach based on the latest studies and scientific publications in psychology, management and organizational change. The advice provided can be a lasting part of the managerial dynamic without ever penalizing the organization to which it belongs.

Qualisocial offers companies to build with them a strategy for the prevention of PSR, whether in the event of a reorganization but also for all those who decide to invest sustainably in their QVCT and psychosocial risk prevention policy. It all starts with a RPS audit and results in a detailed action plan to allow the HR department to deploy the devices adapted to the organization and the needs of employees.

[1] Employees can develop a “survivor's guilt” syndrome by asking “why me rather than another” or even economic uncertainty “today it's them, tomorrow it will be me”.