Bankruptcy and Reorganization
The path leading to a high profile bankruptcy had resulted in a meltdown in trust between management and the employees. In order to keep the business operating to enable some value to be derived for the creditors, it was critical that employees that were deemed to be essential for the business (about 70% of the employee base) be retained. To achieve that, a special communication effort was needed with a focus on that goal.
Triad Communication developed a plan with the turnaround management team to have a communication channel to employees outside of normal HR communication, which was no longer a trusted source of information. This channel would be used to clearly inform employees of what was happening in the bankruptcy process and what that meant to them. In order to build trust, this additional communication channel would be used to assist employees in filing claims with the bankruptcy court. After that, it would continue to be a source of information and a resource available for employees to turn to.
The plan involved setting up a web site that would be a source of information and a method of asking questions to the new management team and the bankruptcy lawyers. In addition, a toll free live operator system would be set up with operators who were trained in the process of filing a claim with the bankruptcy court to assist the employees in filing their claims.
The key to success was identified as gaining trust. The web site and call center would be promoted to employees through the mail, rather than e-mail which was associated with the former management team that was not trusted by the employee base. In addition, it was critical for trust to be established that all questions get answered completely, honestly, and quickly. The “Triad Way” planning process identified that there were not enough legal resources available to enable quick turnaround of employee questions. To resolve this and enable success, a special task force of bankruptcy lawyers were identified to be dedicated towards getting answers to questions for this employee communication effort.
The training of call center agents to enable them to appropriately handle questions from employees had the longest time frame of the overall project and was the primary focus. The Web site and mail copy and production received less focus and time than the call center so that the operators were ready to receive calls, the web site was up and running and the mail was arriving in employee mailboxes all at the same time. The initial surge of activity was higher than anticipated and the call center put a message on their queue that referred employees to the web site which led many employees to get their questions answered through submitting a question on the web site which enabled maximum communication reach in the first few days of the effort.
The business objective of the strategy was to keep the employees that management needed to retain through the bankruptcy reorganization process. The plan enabled a new and trusted channel of communication to be established quickly and lead to the creation of a team and process to enable questions from employees to be answered quickly. This execution of the plan worked. Over the two years that Triad managed this employee focused communication effort, fewer employees left on a voluntary basis than before the bankruptcy filing.
