Keep it positive
You might have the urge to take your eye off
culture-related activities and items with the current down economy, but now actually might be a perfect time to emphasize your culture. Reed Smith’s global customer service center will be relocating to another building, while the legal offices will be moving into a new building. Both moves will be into places that have a more open workspace to create a more collaborative culture.
“From a business standpoint, our determination was that we needed to make sure in the Pittsburgh market, that we had … the kind of modern, state-of-the-art, open space that would incentivize people to join the firm,” he says. “(And) to stay with the firm and to feel like they were with not just a firm that has been in Pittsburgh for 130 years, but a firm which has now become one of the 20 largest firms in the world.”
While the decision was made to move when the economy was doing better, the company has since had to lay off employees. But, Jordan says this is still a good time to make the change to strengthen the culture.
“We’ve had some relatively modest, compared to other businesses, layoffs and some belt tightening,” he says. “One of the questions is, ‘Is this a bad time to be moving into a new building?’ My view is exactly the opposite. This is a fantastic time to be moving into a new building because it will help reinvigorate and reinforce the energy level and the culture that is critical to the firm.”
While not everyone can just up and move to a new, open environment, the general lesson is to remember that some positive culture changes in a tough economy can go a long way.
Jordan says the move will communicate to people they have a bright future and are working for an organization that is planning to be a long-term survivor.
“One of the things we tried to do is think about the impact that a new open environment could have day to day on people — how they feel about coming to work and how they feel about the future,” he says. “We didn’t know when we set this in motion, of course, that late 2008 and 2009 were going to feel as stressful, generally, in the world as they do.”
Laying off people is detrimental enough to a culture’s morale, but with a big expense like a move, those two actions can be misinterpreted. Jordan isn’t going to avoid those questions or any other inquires about what is going on in the company.
“You have to be open and direct,” he says. “When we announced the layoffs, in addition to individual meetings that our managers had with people who were being let go, I had a note that went to all personnel around the world explaining what was happening and why.
“Then, the next day, I had a video that was sent to everybody and posted on the intranet that everybody could click on. Thousands of people watched the video, which explained in more personal and direct terms why this business unit was slow because of what is happening globally, and that, as a result, there is less work. We, therefore, needed fewer lawyers who did that kind of work, and we needed to have less staff.”
You can’t hide when there is an uncomfortable message to communicate if you want to develop an open and collaborative corporate culture.
“You’ve got to be right out front,” he says. “You’ve got to just say, ‘Look, this is hard. We feel really bad about it.’ It’s very true. But, we let 4 percent of our associates and staff go, but we have a responsibility to focus on the 96-plus percent that are still here and to make sure we are running this business in a way that we will be one of the winners and survivors in the shakeout.
“When you explain to people that, ‘We’re not doing this because we don’t care, we’re actually doing it because we do, and we’re going to try and do what’s right for the greater good.’ That helps reinforce what we’re about.”
How to reach: Reed Smith LLP, (412) 288-3131 or www.reedsmith.com
