How You Handle Layoffs Says a Lot About Your Company
COVID-19 continues to be the biggest disruptor of modern times. This pandemic is negatively affecting not only tens of millions of individual lives, but the health of the U.S. economy as a whole. Even businesses managing to implement work-arounds allowing employees to practice social distancing or, better yet, work from home, may still find it difficult to attract customers in an environment where mere physical proximity can literally risk life and limb. This is particularly true in the restaurant, travel, entertainment, transportation, retail, and hospitality industries, where we’ve seen massive layoffs over the past several months. With more layoffs likely still to come.
For an example of the incalculable damage, consider Airbnb, the San Francisco-based vacation rental online platform. In early May, the company announced it was laying off 1,900 corporate employees, a staggering 25 percent of its workforce. Likewise, the giant department store chain Macy’s furloughed the majority of its personnel in March and then, in late June, announced it would lay off about 4,000 of its corporate workers.
But this is not close to all. Hilton Hotels laid of 2,100 corporate employees, nearly a quarter of its staff on June 16,. On July 8, United Airlines announced it would lay off or furlough 36,000 employees — more than a third of its entire people — including 2,250 pilots and 15,000 flight attendants.
Few might contest the need for companies, both large and small, to downsize due to major economic downturns such as the current one we’re experiencing. In fact, your own company may be facing — or may have already faced — this terribly difficult and painful necessity. However, if you must let employees go to survive in this recessionary climate, how you deliver the news will necessarily say a lot about your company and its ability to attract quality candidates in the future.
Ideally, your HR department should stage one-on-one meetings with each employee to be let go. In this difficult session, it’s crucial to explain the reasons behind the layoffs and describe whatever post-employment support your company is able to offer, such severance pay, COBRA health coverage, etc.
However, if you need to “pink slip” hundreds, or even thousands, of employees at once, such individual meetings probably won’t be possible. In the wake of this reality, some companies have turned to ZOOM or other online conference services to convey the bad news en masse. Others have been less tactful, either sending termination notices by email or even text.
We all know good public relations help companies attract good employees — as well as customers. Organizations seen as ethical, responsible, and humane are more likely to draw so-called “A-Players” then those with a reputation for being brutal, callous, and soulless. (Such considerations extend not only to how a company conducts day-to-day business, but also to how they handle personnel issues, including layoffs.)
After all, workers who feel their terminations were handled insensitively will leave with bad feelings about their ex-employer, thoughts they can easily share with the world via the web. (In fact, the handling of a number of recent corporate layoffs have already become infamous due to their coverage on social media, which were then covered by the news media at large.)
Still, if you must stage a mass layoff, please consider the following:
Remember every person you’re letting go is a human being, often someone who supports not only him/herself, but others in their household.
The layoff should be announced in person by the company CEO or C-Suite Member, not by an underling or, worse yet, a faceless recording.
This senior-level executive should express remorse for what must be an unpleasant decision, as well as sympathy — and empathy — for those who are losing their livelihoods.
Be sure to include words of thanks for the work that has been performed as well as the sincere hope that when things turn around, the affected can return to their previous positions.
Do not try to minimize or put a “happy face” on the layoffs. In difficult times, people want honesty, not platitudes.
The very fact we are having this conversation is indicative of the heart-wrenching times we are experiencing. If the economic downturn is forcing you to make difficult personnel choices, even mass layoffs, I can show you how to do it smoothly, in a tactful manner befitting your company’s reputation. I specialize in helping companies build and maintain strong corporate cultures, even in the most taxing of times, as this Forbes profile attests. For more information on how I can assist you, feel free to contact me at laura@conoverconsulting.com.
We can get through these difficult times…together.