Snap announces layoffs to promote ‘in-person collaboration’

Another day, another dollar layoff in the tech industry.

This week, Snapchat owner Snap announced plans to lay off around 10% of its global workforce, or roughly 500 employees, CNBC reported. The company cited wanting to “promote in-person collaboration” and “reduce hierarchy” as the reasons for the lastest of several layoffs it has conducted since 2022, a Snap spokesperson told CNBC.

HR Brew asked two workplace experts about the effect of downsizing on collaboration and hierarchy.

“Unless you’re inside the organization, I think it’s really hard to know what that means,” said Joe Mull, workplace expert and author of Employalty. “It raises questions: Are there personnel that are refusing to comply with a [RTO] mandate? Are they struggling with capacity in their physical buildings?...I’ve not seen a company previously announce that they were executing layoffs in order to improve or increase in-person collaboration.”

Collab snag. While layoffs may encourage remaining employees to comply with RTO mandates, which some companies believe are critical to collaboration, Mull told HR Brew that they can also instill fear and a sense of instability in employees, both of which can, in turn, lead to less collaboration and trust.

“[Layoffs] signal to everyone else in the organization that, at least for right now, everyone’s at risk,” Mull said. “If you create perceptions of instability, or you have people operating in a state of fear, it’s very unlikely they’re going to be able to come to work and give it all they’ve got in a complete way.”

Tara Salinas, professor of business ethics at the University of San Diego, agreed that it can be hard for a company to cultivate collaboration in the wake of a mass layoff.

“[Two] of the things about culture is: A, it doesn’t just happen, and [B], collaboration is part of a strong corporate culture, a place where people feel psychological safety, and they feel like they’re [a] contributing member…But when 500 people get laid off out of the blue, that doesn’t create those feelings,” Salinas told HR Brew.

Top down. Snap’s second reason for conducting layoffs was reducing hierarchy. This, Mull said, can sometimes help improve collaboration and the employee experience.

“There are a lot of places where you do have too many leaders, and then employees end up suffering through multiple layers of direction and reporting,” Mull said, adding that, “If it helps employees feel more connected to senior leaders, if it helps them feel like they have more clear and clean lines of communication…that can be really effective.”

Salinas cautioned, however, that reducing hierarchy may not have that effect overnight. “It’s not like: We’ve now removed middle managers, and you all can collaborate better…that doesn’t make sense,” she said. It can be tricky for “getting people back on track” and, in the interim, can lead to confusion among the employees who are filling in the gaps.

What’s HR to do? Mull said it’s imperative that HR pros encourage senior leaders to communicate transparently and clearly with remaining employees.

“We need to know if this is it, or…if there is any chance whatsoever that there’s more coming?” he said. “We’d rather prepare people for reality than just try to make them feel better with what turns out to be lip service, that actually erodes trust and employee engagement in the long run.”

Salinas said HR should also share a plan.

“We only saw, obviously, the external announcement, and maybe there was more clarity internally, but from what I read, there was not a lot of indication of a plan,” Salinas said. “How are we going to create this collaborative space to make sure that we are making money and being successful moving forward?”

Snap did not immediately respond to HR Brew’s request for comment.