A communication timeline had to be established to comply with requirements, as all of our 712 employees were potentially affected. Clearly, there was a lot of work to go into this, and we needed to know more about the shape of the business from that point. The coming weeks would answer many of those questions. One thing the CEO had confirmed is that we could contract in a specialist to help manage the workload if all went ahead. There are a number of people I knew who could do the job, but one in particular stood out: Natalie. She was direct, a good communicator, no-nonsense and knew employment legislation inside out. This was a perfect fit for her.
Then, of course, there was my own situation to ponder: working for the new owners could open more doors, but it would need either relocation from Suffolk or considering the same train journey time in another direction. My commuting time ate up at least three to three and a half hours per day which most of the time was uncomfortable due to overcrowding at rush hours. One action I needed to do was put a hold on the HR & payroll software replacement programme, but without arousing comment. We were due to decide on the final round dates this coming week so I made a note to call Sarah, our payroll Head, on Monday and let her know there’d be a delay due to ‘an extra workload from the Board’.
The CEO had confirmed that there was a freeze for now on moving on the company we had originally thought of buying, so nothing more to consider there (just as well; the 74 redundancies they had made recently worried me, as I had no information as to how this had been done or on what grounds). No other business in hand needed to be deferred, but confidentiality was key in everything that I did from this point, so all material relating to the sale would be on a dedicated USB on my keyring. Meanwhile, it was business as usual next week. I sat down, set up the report and saved it. Having had no time to prepare anything, I decided to eat lunch out.
04:05 I 69
ISSUE 10 GLOBAL PAYROLL MAGAZINE
Made with FlippingBook - Share PDF online