Restructuring - are you next?

By Diana Clement

NZ Herald·

3 Oct, 2019 08:16 PM5 mins to read

According to recruiter Hays, 45 per cent of New Zealand employers are currently restructuring their department or organisation. It's a frightening figure on the surface.

Hays managing director for New Zealand Adam Shapley points out, however, that "restructuring" can mean many things. "It's a bit of a catch all. It could be in response to digital transformation, a merger, growth or even a need for more flexibility or brand new skills," Shapley says .

According to the 2019/20 Hays Salary Guide, which surveyed almost 900 employers in New Zealand, 49 per cent of these employers said the key driver of organisational restructures was a change in the required skill sets. This was followed by digital transformation (25 per cent ), the requirement for a more flexible workforce (21 per cent), a merger or acquisition (19 per cent), downsizing (10 per cent), outsourcing (6 per cent), offshoring (5 per cent) or inshoring (4 per cent).

The sky isn't about to fall in

Organisations have always grown, shrunk, reinvented themselves, and gone through many other transformations. By and large employees have gone along on the journey with them and adapted to a new working environment.

The word "restructure" is often aligned in employee's heads with the idea that the robots are coming to take their jobs. Kinley Salmon, author of Jobs, Robots & Us: Why the Future of Work in New Zealand is in Our Hands, says we should keep the situation in perspective.

"Artificial intelligence and automation do and will matter to what happens at work, but it is only part of a bigger picture of why organisations make changes to their workforce and we should keep it in perspective," Salmon says. "Many of the other reasons for restructuring, such as changing skills requirements aren't new and we've been coping with them for a long time."

New Zealand currently has real skills shortages, and unemployment is at an 11-year low, Salmon points out. "That means workers with the right skills are in high demand and underscores the importance of people being willing to keep learning throughout their careers."

He argues that where companies need new skills, they should be providing existing staff with training opportunities to develop those skills. It shouldn't just be on the shoulders of the employees.

"If these opportunities aren't on offer, employees may need to take the plunge and ask their employer for them or even invest in them directly."

Shapley also sees upskilling as crucial for remaining relevant in the current employment market. That doesn't necessarily involve going back to tertiary study full time. It can mean upskilling on-the-job, for example.

Short courses and even bite-sized learning modules can help people adapt to a changing workplace/industry while still earning.

What's government up to?

It's not all about individuals adapting or about employers offering training opportunities, says Salmon.

"There is a real role for government in helping ensure people can transition smoothly if they do need to look for a new job. That means social safety nets and education opportunities for adults. It also means working on big problems that often make switching to a new job in a different place hard for New Zealanders, such as the expensive housing market and poor transportation links."

When your head is on the block

Anyone facing a restructure who fears being left on the scrapheap needs to understand first what is driving the change.

Is the organisation adapting to changing customer needs or buying habits for example? asks Shapley. If you understand the journey and what new skills the organisation needs as it goes through change, you're more likely to survive and thrive.

It's normal to feel disrupted being in an organisation where business needs are changing, he says. Being able to live with a bit of uncertainty is likely to be an important skill of the future.

To build that resilience the key is to work on the skills that will enable you to work in cross functional teams, says Shapley. That's communication, problem solving, teamwork, flexibility, and interpersonal skills.

"Soft skills enable people to manoeuvre their way through restructures (and) to work in cross functional teams," he adds.

Be your own change manager

Traditionally, an organisation was made up of functional departments, but given today's pace of change, there's a need to move to matrix, cross-functional or hybrid structures to handle the collaborative and customer-focused approach of 21st-century organisations. "

A change manager's attributes can include clarity, managing uncertainty, being organised and knowing how to organise a team, having the ability to build trust, and to follow through. That will let you manage change and bring people along on a journey, says Shapley.

Take a leaf from the next generation

It's also worth considering how those now at school are being taught to learn. Shapley cites the concept of the "The Learning Pit", used commonly in New Zealand schools.

The students learn how to recognise when they need to gain more skills and how to articulate the strategies they need to use to get out of the pit.

"It is that constant learning concept that professionals must adopt today to succeed in a workplace of continuous change," says Shapley.

Employees need to accept that they can't reinvent themselves overnight, says Shapley. What's more, it is safer to do it within your existing organisation if you can.

It's best to change your approach in the current job to take your career in the direction you want than to find a new job, he says.

It doesn't matter what age and stage you're at, says Shapley. "You can be 60 and decide to do something else."

There are opportunities to change and grow within organisations if you take the challenge.