Weymouth Steel Corporation

WEYMOUTH STEEL CORPORATION

Weymouth Steel Corporation is currently in the sort of dilemma which may turn into a disaster for the company. However, given the situation if the top management is able to inspire its employees (who survive this downsizing) with a vision and hope for the rejuvenation of the company; this dilemma can easily become a pivotal time for its success. Once the bad news is broken and the downsizing process starts, stress is inevitable; for both the employees who will be terminated and the ones who survive this event. Therefore I believe a single stage announcement for the good and bad news will not only be ineffective in its transfer of information, but will also fail in embedding the new vision of the company into the survivors of the downsizing. Therefore I have devised a three stage process which I hope will be effective in all the aspects discussed above. The three stages are,

1. General conference of all the salaried employees (good and bad news).

2. The communication with the press.

3. A new vision for the survivors (good news).

The description of each stage is given below.

1. General conference of all the salaried employees

This stage is meant to break the ice to the employees. The focus of this conference is to communicate both the new salary and benefit plans and the downsizing issues. While it seems obvious that the downsizing news will rule the hearts of all in this conference; failing to adding the good news here will make the employees totally demoralized and hopeless. People if left in such conditions will not only loose their productivity at work but will also start looking for jobs elsewhere without being terminated yet. This could cause a lot of unwanted damage in an already critical situation. The addition of the good news here will affect the employees by giving them an incentive for being retained which will in turn help the company keep up the morale and motivation during these tough times.

This conference should be headed by Mr. Weymouth who should start by presenting the current situation of the steel industry. He must discuss the long term slump in the market due to stiff competition, the need for capital for new facilities within the factory, the new more stringent federal anti pollution standards and the expected spending for the survival of the company. He must then address how the company has been cutting the costs in various fields to make the ends meet.

Following the current position he should add that the company is working on major changes in order to provide the employees with better salaries and benefits. These should be discussed in detail providing a view of how the company plans to prosper hand in hand with its employees. Once this part is delivered Mr. Weymouth should relate empathetically as to how and why they now have to go through the difficult phase of downsizing their employees. It should be clarified that the downsizing is totally arbitrary and not based on performance or bias of any sort. He should emphasize on the fact that the company will do all their efforts to make this procedure as painless as possible. Here it will be important to mention some examples like the arrangement of the termination payments, vacation pays and insurance coverage as per their policies. He should sympathize and appreciate the difficulties that these people will face and assure them of the company’s best efforts to help them secure a new job. He should close his address acknowledging the fact that all the employees are very valuable to the company and that losing