A financial crisis can force your business to take some extreme steps to stay afloat. Employers avoid the sudden need for laying off people at any cost. No one wants to have this uncomfortable conversation with their employees.
However, you cannot dodge this bullet if the survival of the business is at stake. You must let them go if the business cannot afford their salaries and the profit graph shows no sign of growth.
Here, you will find some tips to manage the unexpected layoff of employees.
- Show Compassion
There are people on the receiving end of your decision to lay them off. Those people will face trouble managing the expenses and bills until they find a new job. Therefore, you need to show some compassion towards them while describing the whole situation.
You need to drive the conversation with heart, not some stats and business mind. They will not feel any better but personal relationships will remain the same. After all, they are humans, not some movable assets you are about to throw away.
Do not use the texts or emails for the news of laying off people. You need to schedule a face-to-face meeting to address them with respect while following the social distancing protocol. It will create a positive sentiment among the current employees for the respect shown to exiting people.
- Effective Communication
Your employees deserve to know the reasons for such a drastic measure. Otherwise, they will feel left out with little to no value for their presence. You need to change your strategy for proactive communication to avoid misunderstanding.
The communication should remain transparent for the reasons to lay off the employees. They need time to prepare themselves for the inevitable unemployment phase. Thus, inform them at the earliest after finalising the details with a meeting.
You need to share the measures your organisation tool to avoid layoffs. The reasons that ultimately lead to layoff should follow along with the details about the prospect of future rehiring.
- Train the Managers
Your managers will communicate with the employees the organisation is laying off. They will be effective with the administrative changes and emotional attachment with their employees. It will be a difficult time for them and they may need some guidance as well.
The common problem with the leaders is too much focus on the layoffs than the next step. Stress is a primary reason that prevents leaders from shifting focus on preparation. Ask them to stay disciplined for days ahead of the announcement.
You cannot afford the managers to remain ill-prepared for the questions of employees. They need to explain the reasons for them and clear their doubts on a personal level. Also, any inconsistency in the response may lead to serious doubts and questions among the employees.
- Support the Employees
The employees may need some support going through the tough phase. You can offer some help with psychological counselling. If they want financial help, you can help them apply for loans for bad credit in Ireland.
- Prepare for the Response
You may prepare yourself for the communication, responses, and everything else related to the layoff process. However, there will always remain a certain level of the unknown in the process. Here, it could be an unknown response from the employees for the news.
You cannot control their reactions especially the news is extremely disappointing for them. Some will get angry and may throw some bad words at you. You must keep your calm and try your best to calm down the situation.
While many will gracefully accept your decision and understand the strong reasons for it. You can use scenario stimulation to find possible reactions to the news. Use a camera or mirror to practice the breaking down of news.
- Focus on the Remaining Staff
It was hard to let go of the employees, but it is time to focus on the next steps. The best you can do for the outgoing staff is to write a great recommendation that will help them land a job. For the remaining workforce, you need to communicate the new normal to them.
They will have doubts and fear about their future with the organisation. You must come up with an honest explanation of the whole situation. It will also contain the new expectations from them and the increase in responsibilities if any.
It may take some time before they match the level of expectations set in the beginning. Also, you should not make the outgoing employees disrespected as it will hurt the morale of the remaining staff.
Conclusion
To sum up, the laying off process is a financial decision that will have some serious consequences. The emotions will run high and lives will be affected. However, you need to stay focused while showing compassion towards the employees.
Description –
In this blog, some tips are mentioned to help business owners go through the process of laying off people.