n October 1998 – Carlson Leisure Group and Thomas Cook announced merger.
n February 1999 – merger receives European Commission backing.
n Wednesday March 10 – employees in Carlson’s former headquarters in Clydebank and finance office in Ardeer are simultaneously told that both were to close later this year.
n Each department was then organised into break-out groups where senior members tell staff how they will be affected by redundancies.
n Thomas Cook set up a careers centre in each office to advise staff. Some staff were offered relocation packages.
TELLING just one person you are making them redundant is bad enough but at 10.30am on Wednesday March 10, Thomas Cook retail and direct managing director Andrew Windsor had the unpleasant job of informing 140 members of staff in Scotland that their jobs were being axed following the company’s merger with Carlson Leisure Group.
Windsor admits it was one of the worst things he has ever had to do, but claimed that because of the way the announcement was handled staff were not over-traumatised by the event.
“Of course, it was a very emotional day and some people were very shocked and some people cried and some were just relieved to know what was happening, but the general view was that it was dealt with very well,” said Windsor.
Every member of staff who would be affected was told the news at the same time. Employees in Carlson’s former headquarters in Clydebank and at its finance office in Ardeer were told simultaneously that both were to close later this year.
The initial announcement was, in Windsor’s words, “short and sweet” to give people time to absorb the news.
“The first time people hear something like this they stop taking anything in after five or 10mins so there is no point going into all the details in one go,” he said.
Immediately after the announcement, each department was organised into break-out groups which gave senior members of staff a chance to give employees the nitty-gritty details and tell them exactly how they would be affected by the redundancies.
These group meetings were followed by one-to-one interviews between individual members of staff and their line managers so everyone was given ample opportunity to discuss what the closures would mean for them. Unfortunately we couldn’t tell everyone immediately if their jobs were affected, but if we didn’t have an answer for them straight away we guaranteed they would be told by a certain date,” added Windsor.
“Our objective was to give people as much certainty as possible, especially as there had been a long period of uncertainty in the run-up to the merger with Carlson.”
Thomas Cook’s role as an employer did not end when it made its employees redundant. As soon as it had told staff their jobs were to go, it put in place a network of support to help them find new ones.
Following advice from a communications consultancy and a careers advisor, Thomas Cook set up a careers centre in each office affected by the redundancies to provide staff with assistance in putting together CVs and searching for vacancies. It also provided access to the Internet to enable staff to search on career Web sites.
It had advice from the Benefits Agency and help from the local authority enterprise councils who gave staff further information on how to set up their own businesses.
Staff were also offered relocation packages if they wanted to move to another job within the Thomas Cook group, including travel expenses for six months.
“Fortunately we had more vacancies than redundancies but the new jobs were often a long way from where people had previously been located, so we offered to pay their travel costs for six months to give them a chance to see whether they wanted to move permanently,” explained Windsor.
“Some people, particularly junior members of staff, have been surprised by how much help they are being given.”
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