Subject: Redundancies, mergers and union reps
.
- In your experience do people start to behave differently when potential job cuts are announced? What happened?
- When should an organisation start to share their thoughts about a potential merger with the other party? What should they do first?
- Should Derek have gone straight to the director? What should he have done?
Broken Biscuits reaches its long-awaited finale! (see Broken Biscuits, part 4).
But what challenges still lie ahead for Millcaster Aid to Africa? What should an organisation do to rebuild morale after redundancies?
Share your thoughts on this and any other issues that came out of this cautionary tale.
I remain somewhat concerned about Millcaster Aid to Africa's seeming continued reliance on effectively one major donor. I would like to see investment of time and creativity in the expansion of their supporter base.
Would now be the time to start creating a individual major donors group for example, recruited through peer to peer contact? If Camilla really is as inspired by the cause as she appears to be, would she be willing to galvinize some of her social network to actively become supporters too?
Similarly, the publicity that I hope the charity will make sure surrounds the sponsorship of the Farm, could be used as springboard to try and get other individuals or local companies involved in supporting Millcaster Aid.
On the other side of the coin, I am pleased about the initial discussions being carried out with Reliance about the potential of sharing some back office functions. It is not an easy road to tread, and it often turns out that the duplication and associated cost savings are not necessarily as much as you would hope, but co-operation between organisations, at whatever level, should always be encouraged. Even if it only results in the two Chief Executives having a semi regular 'let off steam' session over a cup of coffee, its a way to learn from other people's experience and mistakes.
I do wish the charity well, and hope that this time next year they have another couple of "Camillas" actively supporting their work and fundraising on their behalf, plus a whole raft of smaller donors who are made to feel just as important.