For example, a company might invite suppliers to tender a proposal for a set of services it plans to outsource. If that process has been put in the public domain you do need to openly admit it's happening with your employees. But at stage, all that's happened is a process has kicked off that will include the initial assessment of the proposals and eventually agreeing a shortlist of suppliers; then the due diligence process follows; then the final detailed commercial negotiations before signing a contract. All before you can publicly say who the new supplier will be. Only then can you start addressing those 'me' issues.

For example, a company might invite suppliers to tender a proposal for a set of services it plans to outsource. If that process has been put in the public domain you do need to openly admit it's happening with your employees. But at stage, all that's happened is a process has kicked off that will include the initial assessment of the proposals and eventually agreeing a shortlist of suppliers; then the due diligence process follows; then the final detailed commercial negotiations before signing a contract and, in the UK anyway, an employee consultation period. All before you can publicly say who the new supplier will be. Only then can you start addressing those 'me' issues.

Sign posting

"Sign posting"

On many occasions the company won't know the answer to these, and in some cases not for some time either. But that doesn't mean it should panic.

For example, a company might invite suppliers to tender a proposal for a set of services it plans to outsource. If that process has been put in the public domain you do need to openly admit it's happening with your employees. But at stage, all that's happened is a process has kicked off that will include the initial assessment of the proposals and eventually agreeing a shortlist of suppliers; then the due diligence process follows; then the final detailed commercial negotiations before signing a contract. All before you can publicly say who the new supplier will be. Only then can you start addressing those 'me' issues.

But at the beginning of this process you can empower people by ackowledging those questions exist, outlining how the steps map out and signposting where you are on a regular basis. Commit to and send them regular updates that say things like 'last month we told we were here in the process, this month we're here in the process'. Put the timetable in a public place, like the company intranet site.

In outsourcing scenarios, these processes can take anything between several weeks to over a year, and perhaps longer. So while you can't give people answers to the questions they care about, the empowerment comes from telling them the earliest point at which they could be transferred (or whatever the other risks are), which may be at least a year. So they can get on with their lives in the meantime, and the ongoing, transparent signposting means they have the control over whether they want to look for other internal job opportunities or start preparing their CV/resume and look elsewhere.

For the company, the relative sense of control and certainty this creates for the employees reduces the impact on productivity that would otherwise be caused by a total vacuum.

These principles of ackowledging the questions on employees' minds, mapping out how the process works and when they're likely to be affected then signposting on a regular basis, can be applied generically across all sorts of change situations.

Sign posting

One of the most simple but effective communication tactics during a change process is signposting. As soon as you tell people that their jobs (and therefore part of their lives) are going to be affected by a change, their minds immediately switch to what it will mean for them personally. And that rings true for all sorts of types of change, for example:

• Outsourcing - will the new company reduce my holiday entitlement; is my pension entitlement protected

• Site closure or move - what are the lunch facilities like at the new office; how much does the local parking cost

• Major corporate or department reorganisation - will I still have a job

On many occasions the company won't know the answer to these, and in some cases not for some time either.

For example, a company might invite suppliers to tender a proposal for a set of services it plans to outsource. If that process has been put in the public domain you do need to openly admit it's happening with your employees. But all that's done is kick off a process that will include the initial assessment of the proposals and eventually agreeing a shortlist of suppliers; then the due diligence process follows; then the final detailed commercial negotiations. All before you can publicly say who the new supplier will be. Only then can you start addressing those 'me' issues.

But at the beginning of this process you can empower people by outlining how the steps map out and signposting where you are on a regular basis.

These processes can take anything between several weeks to over a year, and perhaps longer. So while you can't give people answers to the questions they care about, the empowerment comes from telling them the earliest point at which they could be transferred (or whatever the other risks are), which may be at least a year. So they can get on with their lives in the meantime, and the ongoing, transparent signposting means they have the control over whether they want to look for other internal job opportunities or start preparing their CV/resume and look elsewhere.