Why your employer brand determines the true cost of restructuring
Based on a survey of 1,260 UK employees, plus UK and global findings from The Mobility Breakdown, LHH's annual research into career transition and mobility. Inside you'll find:
- The numbers behind how badly handled change turns employees into detractors
- Why the people who stay are your most important audience, and the most forgotten
- What rehiring on a damaged brand actually costs
- Which sectors have the most to lose
- A practical picture of what good looks like
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The exit conversation is no longer private
39% of UK white-collar workers would consider recording their redundancy experience and posting it on social media. What happens in the room no longer stays in the room.
Silence costs you the people who stay
The people who remain are watching how change is handled, and communication is what tips them one way or the other. When the reasoning behind difficult decisions is never explained, 56% of employees become less likely to stay. When it is always explained clearly, that falls to just 6%. Same decision, opposite outcomes.
The bill comes later
Employers save on the way out and pay on the way back in. Among HR directors who track the numbers, 73% say rehiring cost more than the redundancies did in the first place. And every hire made on a damaged brand is harder, slower and more expensive than it needed to be.
Change is not the risk. The handling is.
People forget a lot about a job, but not how they were treated when things got hard. Our research found that treatment during difficult times narrowly beats even pay as the memory that defines an employer. Handle change well and advocacy climbs to +62. Handle it very poorly and it collapses to -88. The same decision, communicated and managed differently, produces opposite reputations.
The authenticity trap
When employees feel your employer brand matches the reality of working there, advocacy sits at about +63. When it doesn't, it falls heavily negative, and badly handled exits widen that gap.
The loyalty myth
Only 20% of employees stay for career progression or confidence in leadership. The rest are anchored by security, pay or circumstance. What looks like loyalty is often inertia.
The £132,000 bet
Employers save on the way out and pay on the way back in. With a poor mid-manager hire costing upwards of £132,000, rebuilding teams on a damaged brand means making expensive bets more often.
Where the stakes are highest
Employees in consumer goods and the public sector are the most likely to say their employer handles difficult moments poorly. See how your sector compares.
Why work with LHH
This report comes from LHH's employer branding team, an award-winning group of specialists who help organisations understand, measure and strengthen how they're seen as an employer.
The team works hand in hand with LHH's career transition specialists. When organisations restructure, our career transition colleagues are there supporting the people who leave, and our employer brand specialists are there protecting the reputation of the organisation they leave behind.
Few providers see both sides of that moment. It's why our view of what change does to an employer brand is built on experience, not theory.
How healthy is your employer brand?
Speak to an expert
The report closes with a six-point self-check covering visibility, clarity, consistency, credibility, competitiveness and evidence.
If you hesitate on two or more, that is usually where our fixed-scope Employer Brand Healthcheck pays for itself: an honest, evidence-based view of how your organisation shows up across the candidate journey, your channels and your competitors, with prioritised actions you can take straight away.