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Over one-third of US employees have been laid off or have worked at a company that has conducted layoffs at some point in their careers, according to a recent report from employee recognition platform Workhuman.
“People are going into workplaces now assuming that, at some point in their lives, a layoff may impact them, whether it’s indirectly—and then they have that guilt of being the ones left behind—or if it’s directly,” KeyAnna Schmiedl, Workhuman’s chief human experience officer, told HR Brew. “People are kind of numb now to the idea [that] layoffs are not rare.”
And workforce reductions can lead to heightened anxiety, disengagement, and low productivity among employees, the report found. So, Schmiedl said, HR leaders need to be strategic when communicating with a post-layoff workforce.
Money talks. When discussing layoffs with employees, HR should be prepared to have a transparent conversation about the company’s finances, Schmiedl said.
“People are also more tuned into macroeconomic factors and the finances of a business than ever before, so you’ve got more people in the organization…asking more questions about the financial health of your business,” she said.
She suggested people leaders plan communications around the company’s revenue streams, long-term financial outlook, and investments in employees.
“More folks are leery of those places that seem to be continuing to grow exponentially, because so many of the businesses that have faced layoffs in the last one or two years have been those places that three-to-five years ago, were growing hand over fist,” she said.
Business acumen. It’s not enough to just share the numbers, Schmiedl said. HR leaders should also be “providing them with the tools to understand the numbers,” so they can have an “understanding around business acumen, your [company’s] specific business acumen.”
In the end, all employees, Schmiedl added, should be able to answer: How is the company doing, in terms of the top line and the bottom line?
“None of us have a crystal ball, so none of us are willing to say, a layoff may never happen again,” she said. “But what are the parameters by which you can have some of these conversations so that people know, ‘Alright, for the next six months, here’s what we’re concerned about’?”