Line Manager Briefing Pack
Everything a line manager needs before the announcement: the message, the boundaries, the difficult questions and how to look after themselves.
Everything a line manager needs before the announcement: the message, the boundaries, the difficult questions and how to look after themselves.
When to use it
In a briefing session at least 48 hours before any announcement. Never hand this out cold.
Preparing line managers for redundancy conversations
Line managers deliver the news, absorb the reaction and hold the team together afterwards, usually with less information than anyone else in the process and no training for the conversation. How well they are prepared determines how the restructure is experienced by almost everyone in it.
What the pack contains
The rationale in language managers can use, the process and timetable, what they can and cannot say, the words for the difficult conversations, likely questions with agreed answers, and the support available for their people and for themselves. It also covers where to route questions they cannot answer — into the Employee Questions and FAQ Tracker rather than into an improvised reply.
Brief them in a session, never by email
Give managers the pack in a live briefing at least 48 hours before any announcement, with time to react themselves. Many will be at risk too, and none of them will deliver the message well if they first read it an hour before their team does. Rehearse the opening two sentences out loud; that is the part people freeze on.
What managers most often get wrong
Softening the message so far that the employee leaves unsure whether their job is at risk. Speculating about outcomes. Promising redeployment. Comparing one person''s position to another''s. Each is covered in the pack with a better alternative.
After the announcement
The manager''s job continues: consistent one-to-ones, honest answers, and attention to the team that stays. Pair the pack with the Retained Team Re-engagement Plan and the Announcement Communication Pack.
Our restructuring guides include the full communication sequence, and our coaching teams work with managers directly where a programme needs it.
