Forums

Would love any advice on how to figure out whether my team could become redundant.

Background: My small company is rescoping projects to lower costs and narrow product focus. Upper management has stated that there are no plans to reduce staff, but costs are getting big scrutiny lately. My manager has recently planned out efforts on remaining projects, which included me giving time inputs for a task list he developed for one of the projects; for the others projects he did the estimate on his own. I am concerned that there may not be enough work to keep my team at 100% on the remaining projects, and that I don't have a clear view of what my team's 3-month deliverables should be. The team is great - all strong contributors in their areas and good coverage from early career to 'expert'. In one-on-ones, a team member expressed concern that our team is vulnerable to downsizing/elimination since we are primarily upstream research & development.

How can I initiate a discussion with my manager that will answer "Can the remaining projects support my team?" when I know I really should be asking is "How can my team deliver the most value on the remaining projects?" But fundamentally I need to understand his baseline assumption, i.e. what he pictures us working on, and whether that works out to 100%.

bflynn's picture

I think you already have the answer to your question but for some reason you think you can't be direct about it.  There are no secrets in business.

The best defense is a good offense.  Ask your manager the value question.  Tell him that you sense some potential for your team to be downsized and tell him how you think your team adds value. Get his input into how you can help protect those who work for you.

Maybe there's nothing to worry about.  Where I'm working right now, this same thing is going on.  The cause is that the organization was extremely over extended and trying to do everything at the same time.  Projects are cutting back so that proper attention can be given to the most important projects.

engineering_mgr's picture

Good advice on being proactive. I will develop a list of tasks that my team could do based on my current understanding of my company's goals. I need to have this list in hand before an upcoming meeting when managers like me will be debriefed on what the company is seeking to accomplish in the next 3 months. Then I will follow up with my manager.

engineering_mgr's picture

Just found perfect advice on getting my manager's guidance on what results my team should target in 'Results and Retention', https://www.manager-tools.com/2015/06/results-and-retention-10th-anniver... around time 18:00: Create a draft list of what I think our top 5 results should be, so we can discuss them.