Managing complex change

The International Rescue Committee (‘IRC’) is a charity, set up in 1933 by Albert Einstein and a small group of humanitarians, designed to support people whose lives have been upended by war, conflict and natural disasters – whether that is providing health care, helping children learn, or empowering individuals and communities to become self-reliant. The IRC work in over 40 countries, and in 2023 alone, they helped over 34.5 million people.
The team at IRC have big hearts (you’d expect nothing less from a humanitarian charity). So, it’s no surprise that when it came to a complex reorganisation of their own workforce, IRC were keen to adopt a similar person-centred approach. The brief… to make sure their employees experienced the same compassion as the very people they serve.

The scope

IRC have the expertise internally to handle any people problem. But, for a project of this scale, they knew they had to find an external partner they could rely on. One that could not only provide an extra pair of hands but also bring specialist advice and assistance. Enter, Fitzgerald.

We were brought in with the overall aim of helping a difficult process be as transparent, efficient, and human as possible.

The approach

The project itself spanned across a number of months, requiring a dedicated Fitzgerald presence each week (sometimes one or two days, sometimes more). Because of this, it was important to ensure the partnership was built upon effective, regular communication, working together to ensure a seamless process for everyone involved, whether they were line managers, union representatives, or impacted employees.

This meant we could support IRC to realise their cost-efficiencies, whilst keeping the core ethos of ‘delivering lasting impact with integrity’.

Enter our Employee Relations Specialist, Natalie

Natalie’s role in the project was varied, but it included everything from reviewing organisational documents and materials (think org charts and job descriptions), crafting and writing key project communications and letters, advising HR colleagues and line managers – including briefing them on the process to be followed, adding additional capacity to the UK HR team, attending consultation meetings, and generally helping to guide the collective and individual consultation processes.