Pros
I am probably one of the long-term Frontons here - I have been in Frontiers for 6 years now (in the good moments when we all got promoted rapidly, we got amazing bonuses and salaries were checked every year). Right now, the situation is not as good as it was, but this is why I will try to contribute as much as possible to put us in a better shape.
I understand the recent redundancy exercise was a very difficult and stressful time for all of us. I am sure this was not planned way ahead the redundancies happened. All the emotions around for all of us have really impacted everyone, I have gone through a redundancy in the past and it is not funny to go through a second redundancy in my career. One of the things that was key for me was the actual support I received from my manager, my Director and HR. My background is in Publishing, and I have worked at other Publishers where the HR department was completely absent and disconnected from employees. Directors were just blaming the leadership, but this was not the case here - I have the healthiest Director ever and the best cohort of HR people.
In my experience, HR didn´t really care and they were just executing the task. However, our HR department here, and more precisely our P Business Partners, have been here for all of us plus going through this. Handling large-scale layoffs is never easy for anyone specially for the people and teams that needed to make these difficult decisions. I want to express my gratitude to our HR team for their professionalism and compassion during this challenging period, especially our PBPs in the Publishing department (the Leader and the rest of the team). The PBPs and Lead, have shown remarkable empathy and great in invaluable care for us. For the Leader this is not new, as she has always been this way. I recently had the opportunity to visit Lausanne and had a deep conversation with her (also visiting the HC) about how I was feeling. Her recommendations, her ability to listen, and her solution-oriented opinions and directness were incredibly important and helpful. She even followed up with me a few days later to check on my well-being and confirm that a project was going to start based on the feedback I had provided her. During the redundancy process, the PBPs made a concerted effort to meet with some of us, listen to our concerns in publishing, and provide personalized support and guidance. They demonstrated a deep understanding of the emotional toll these changes can take and went above and beyond to ensure employees felt heard, supported, and cared for. I have never experienced this level of empathy and people-focused approach from any HR team in my previous jobs. I can't explain enough how supported I felt (and my team).
This team's people-focused approach and full empathy have been greatly appreciated by the affected employees. The PBPs I've interacted with have been knowledgeable, responsive, and genuinely concerned about us. They've gone above and beyond to ensure affected employees receive the resources and assistance they need during this transition.
Thank you for being there for all the publishing staff.
Cons
leadership really has to change and be open to receive feedback - leadership at the chief and CEO level