Consultation timing that respects people and still moves
Leaders often treat consultation as a legal hurdle. Treated as a design problem, it becomes a chance to test assumptions before positions harden.
New Zealand employers know consultation matters. The failure mode we see is not ignorance of the word — it is locking a preferred structure so tightly that listening becomes theatre.
Good timing starts earlier than the formal letter. When leaders pressure-test options with a small trusted group, including one sceptic, they discover dependencies that lawyers alone will not surface: roster realities, client coverage, and which role titles carry emotional weight in a particular site.
We advise sponsors to separate “options we are genuinely open to” from “constraints we will not pretend are negotiable.” Staff can smell the difference. Honest constraints, explained early, build more trust than a blank canvas you never intended to honour.
If your timeline only works when nobody raises a substantive alternative, the timeline — not the workforce — is the real risk.