Honeywell’s playbook for communicating a corporate breakup to employees
A look at the company’s one-stop shop for keeping employees in the loop.
Over the past two years, industrial giant Honeywell has split into three independent companies: Honeywell Technologies, Honeywell Aerospace and Solstice Advanced Materials.
Stacey Jones, senior vice president and chief communicator at Honeywell Technologies, led the brand and communications strategy, planning and deployment from start to finish, answering questions and addressing concerns throughout.
With more than 100,000 employees scattered across 77 countries, Jones and her team were busy.
“I could wallpaper my office with the number of questions,” said Jones. “But we answered them all.”
Everything in one place
To make this period of change easier for everyone, Honeywell created a special site called the Separation Hub, which lives on the company’s intranet. The hub contains status updates, an FAQ section and relevant recordings of past town hall meetings. Employees transitioning roles during the separation — either within the same company or at a new one — can find guidance on the necessary steps to help make the switch.
The hub also includes a detailed timeline of events marking important milestones, such as when employees should expect to receive a new email address. The feature, Jones added, has reassured employees that progress was happening even if it wasn’t visible to them during day-to-day activities.
“It laid out everything we knew until spinoff day,” said Jones.
Rather than scatter information across multiple websites, employees can find everything they need to know about the corporate breakup in a single point of truth.
To keep these materials top of mind, a lead story in the company’s weekly employee news bulletin linked back to the hub. During companywide meetings, executives also encouraged staff members to ask questions about the separation directly or submit them to the Separation Hub, noting that this was the best way to get answers.
Rather than treating the hub as a static destination, Honeywell has approached it as a living resource that shifts and expands as needed.
“It has to be fluid,” said Jones. “You can’t predict everything.”
When reading through questions about the breakup, Jones and her team looked for recurring themes. Based on those patterns, they introduced more tools to the hub or added another entry to the FAQ section.
Honeywell also sent regular pulse surveys to employees to gather feedback on how they were feeling and what they needed to navigate the months ahead. Jones and her team then built new communication materials based on those results.
“You’re not walking the halls all over the world, and it’s important you know what people are thinking,” said Jones. “So that data really was a guide to us.”
From separation to the future
Now that the corporate spinoffs are complete, Jones noted the Separation Hub is scheduled to close at the end of July. Bits and pieces of it may live elsewhere, but the site has largely fulfilled its purpose since debuting around the time Honeywell first announced plans to part ways with what became Solstice in October 2024.
Honeywell Technologies launched a Brand Center on June 29, the day its separation from Honeywell Aerospace became official.
Current Honeywell Technologies employees with questions about the company can visit the new hub for information on everything about the brand, Jones explained. The site contains PowerPoint templates, information for ordering new business cards, a guide to telling the story of Honeywell Technologies and more.
“Think of the Separation Hub as a one-stop shop to get there and the Brand Center as a one-stop shop to take us forward,” said Jones.
After going through the process of seeing one company turn into three, Jones’s advice to other communicators going through a similar period of upheaval is to listen, anchor every message to the business strategy and practice patience.
“These are long months, but short days. A lot happens,” said Jones. “You can’t move faster than decisions and timelines. But, boy, when you get to the end, it feels like nothing else.”
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