Question

Please answer the following question:

research “survivor syndrome” and what specific companies have done to successfully

mitigate this response and regain full employee commitment. Provide two companies as examples and discuss your findings.

Answer 1

Survivor syndrome is the situation faced by the surviving employees in a restructuring / downsizing program of an organization. The survivor syndrome is characterized by decrease in productivity and trust in the organization. It also lead to decreased motivation among surviving employees as they foresee a threat of losing their job also in future.

Examples of companies which regained full employee commitment after survivor syndrome:

1. HSBC Group: After the announcement of 30,000 job cuts, HSBC regained employee confidence using the following modes:
   1. Communicated the need of downsizing: It informed the employees the positive and negative impacts of downsizing and also helped them to overcome the fear of losing their job in future.
   2. Provided support to employees: For those employees who have been thinking of leaving the company, HSBC provided support to encourage voluntary resignation which in turn reduced the pressure of redundancy.
   3. Promise of no further downsizing: HSBC promised the employees that no downsizing would be done in the coming years. It helped the employees to be assured of not losing their job.

2. Barclays Bank of Kenya Limited: After the announcement of 200 job cuts of managers, Barclays Bank of Kenya Limited regained employee confidence using the following modes:
   1. Communication to employees: The communication impacts employees decisions and the Bank used this method of communicating to the employees about the positive and negatives of downsizing. This resulted into gaining employees confidence. The communication was done through circulars, departmental training, emails, etc.
   2. Employee involvement in restructuring: The employees feel involved in the restructuring process and in turn develop trust in the system.
   3. Management Support: The management provided support to employees during restructuring by paying equal attention to those who stay in the organization as well as those who leave. The management provided support like financial benefits and other incentives. This helped the employees not to feel as if the organization is against them.