Ragan Insider: Taking a chapter-based approach to layoff comms
REI reimagined its change comms based on how employees wanted leaders to communicate
The winds of change and uncertainty will shake and batter all organizations eventually. When this happens, comms leaders can build the sails with qualitative employee insights.
Outdoor retailer REI Co-op understood this in 2022 when it developed the Compass Group as part of its larger “The Way Forward” initiative. Led by Director Rachel Lum, the Co-op Compass Group helps the organization determine the most important employee experience topics by gathering employee input and co-creating solutions with hourly frontline employees.
During Ragan’s Employee Experience Conference in Nashville last month, REI Senior Manager of Internal Communications Nicole Bernard explained how the Compass Group drove additional insights around how the Co-Op could refine its strategy around communicating change.
Learning that about 88% of communications flowed through leaders and channel preferences differed by division prompted REI to launch the Co-op News tool in October 2023, a means to improve access and streamline information sharing.
Around the same time this tool launched, REI also had one of the largest organizational changes in the Co-op’s history.
“Largely, these were things that were going to impact the day-to-day of our store teams in a really positive way,” said Bernard. “But it also came with a reduction in force (RIF) of a certain role level within our store.”
A thorough communications plan accompanied this strategy included how to communicate the RIF alongside other store changes. Conversations were had with individuals and at the store-wide level.
“But what we wildly underestimated was having this level of broad communications about the changes that were happening,” Bernard continued. “So we put a summary of those changes on Co-op news and saw a lot of negative feedback.”
This included 357 comments over a couple of days, confronting a leadership team that wasn’t used to having any information about how employees felt about changes.
A Compass Group meeting a week after this announcement centered entirely around change management.
“It gave us an opportunity to hear some things that we needed to hear, and some things that were pretty surprising about how employees wanted to absorb change.”
What employees said
Bernard’s team heard how employees wanted them to communicate directly, and now keep three primary things in mind.
- Employees need more processing time. They asked for more time to process people impacts before talking about how REI plans to move forward. Bernard said that most communciators tend to put all the information out there, then process and heal after. “Our employees told us that they want to hear the difficult news and nothing else,” explained Bernard. “They can’t absorb it until they’ve had time to process it.” Rip the Band-Aid off, then take some time before going into all the great organizational changes this will yield.
- Tone and channels matter. REI learned that employees preferred a chance to see and hear from the leaders implementing the changes instead of just reading about them. Bernard facilitated a roundtable conversation with the leader responsible for implementing the changes, who was also a standing member of The Compass Group. The feedback from this taught REI that more facetime with leaders around people changes is desired. In the absence of time for a roundtable, video with leader faces helps, too
- Comms should share context honestly and often. Employees said that a lack of context about the state of the business increases the likelihood that they feel caught off guard when changes like a RIF are announced.
A chapter-based approach to layoff comms
In January, REI implemented another RIF that reduced its total workforce by 357, with most affected at its headquarters and distribution centers. The prior learnings on how to communicate hard changes shaped its new approach to layoff comms.
Before taking these steps, REI communicated the news with director-level and above leaders. This happened during a standing monthly meeting a week before the announcement was made. This helped them define their role in communicating the change.
The above feedback shaped a chapter-based approach.
- Day of change – share actions the org will be taking.
- Week of change – reground in who you are.
- 1-2 weeks after change – digest and unpack.
- 2-4 weeks after change – illuminate the road ahead.
“What they told us is.. they want to know before it happens,” Bernard said.
After thinking about it, REI decided to close that gap and started the process with an all call from CEO Eric Artz letting them know there would be a difficult change that day. Previously, they would let impacted employees know first.
“It was going to impact everyone because there would be people on their team that were leaving, and everyone impacted would know shortly,” said Bernard.
Combined with an honest answer to a question during a December town hall about whether a RIF could be coming, the conversation was already out there.
Artz laid out each step in this phased plan from the outset.
“Our CEO said, ‘Today, think about yourself, care about your people and your team, and we’ll come back to you tomorrow to tell you about how we’re still the same company that you think we are,” recalled Bernard. That phase would include understanding org changes and next steps over the coming week.
Artz continued by emphasizing that employees would have ample time to digest and unpack, both with their team and with the full headquarters and leadership team. The focus of this was creating clarity and providing answers to their questions.
Finally, Artz would focus on illuminating the road ahead, “and what the rest of the year looks like based on these goals that we’ve set out to stay on track and not have to do this again.”
“We were able to let employees feel more psychologically safe in that moment,” Bernard said, sharing their sentiment that employees knew a RIF was coming, and hearing leaders be upfront about it allowed them to feel empowered and focused to do what they needed to do in that moment.
They also shared a feeling of recognition “that if I was feeling a certain type of way, ya’al had thought through that and helped.”
Check out Bernard’s full session here: