How HR and Hiring Teams Can Manage Morale After Mass Layoffs
Even though the world is slowly and cautiously leaving the pandemic behind, the wounds and issues it caused never left. Everyone still remembers the fear, uncertainty, and hopelessness it wrapped our lives into, starting one of the most tumultuous periods in recent history.
But the COVID-19 crisis didn’t only affect our inner lives and physical and emotional well-being. It also shook our professional lives and every industry to the core.
The aftermath is still present and will likely be here, even when the pandemic is officially over. Many people lost their jobs, and some lost their businesses.
Numerous companies had to slow down, halt the hiring process, and let go of their long-term employees. Sadly, the global situation didn’t become any gentler in 2022.
Instead, the world became a much more brutal place with the Russia-Ukraine war and widespread inflation. As a result, the workforce and the business world continue undergoing challenges and trials.
According to a recent PwC survey, 50 percent of U.S. employees expect job cuts in the next six to 12 months, living in fear and apprehension. Their anxiety is justified, as many notable companies and their hiring teams have already had to fire workers this year.
For instance, Meta cut some 11,000 jobs in what has become the biggest tech layoff of 2022; Snapchat laid off 20 percent of its workforce in September 2022, and Cameo laid off 25 percent. But they’re not the only ones, and the list will likely go on in the coming months.
If you’re facing this problem and wonder how to keep your employees motivated and hopeful while having job cuts in place, here’s everything you and your hiring teams should know.
POPULAR: When Hiring Teams are Laid Off: 4 Ways Recruiters Can Bounce Back
RELATED: 5 Challenges in High-Performing Recruitment Teams and How to Solve Them
What Causes Mass Lay-Offs?
Layoffs represent temporary or permanent terminations by a company and have nothing to do with employees’ performance. Instead, it happens when employers and hiring teams must reduce costs, undergo a decreased demand for their service or products, and when seasonal closures and economic crises occur.
That means that employees have a right to unemployment insurance or a severance package. However, being entitled to some form of government support is typically not enough to curb the pain that layoffs cause.
It’s also important to mention how this differs from furloughs and firing employees. Contrary to layoffs, a furlough is a temporary mandatory leave due to reasons such as not having enough work for all workers.
However, companies and hiring teams expect people to return to work after a certain period, usually when the issue is solved. On the other hand, employers fire employees when they fail to demonstrate satisfactory performance, breach their duties, or are guilty of workplace-related misconduct.
The most common reasons layoffs occur are mergers, business closures, acquisitions, cost-reducing actions, outsourcing, decreased company operations, seasonality, lack of funds, and project cancellations. However, mass layoffs typically happen due to external events and situations.
That’s what’s happening this year in most cases. Companies and hiring teams must implement layoffs due to the bear market.
More than Loss of Safe Compensation and Employment Benefits
There’s more to the impact of layoffs than it seems at first glance. — Employees aren’t only disappointed because they’re losing their jobs and salaries.
Instead, many find themselves in a state of shock and disbelief. Even when it happens during economic crises, every person hopes they won’t be the one to lose their job.
Hence, when discovering their company and hiring teams are starting a mass layoff, most workers will ask themselves why they have to be the ones to go and if they did something wrong. Moreover, even though the hiring teams should clarify the cause, many employees don’t understand why their employer is implementing job cuts.
After accepting that the layoff is indeed happening, people often feel a sense of worthlessness and doubt they can find a new job. After all, employers and hiring teams often must let go of employees who have been there for decades.
Some people will be angry and loathe that they have dedicated years of their lives to the company, which could trigger them to label their experience as unfavorable and share it with others. But after anger comes acceptance in most cases.
However, HR and hiring teams must offer the necessary support to the people to ensure they can accept the situation and not lose hope. While doing that, they must also keep employee morale high and encourage those who stay in the company.
Most job seekers will find it discouraging if a company just underwent mass layoffs. That could imply the employer isn’t looking for new employees or ready to provide competitive conditions and salary.
Moreover, if a company doesn’t handle layoffs well, its reputation might suffer. No one wants to work with an employer who suddenly introduced job cuts and never offered support to the employees.
As a result, a company and its hiring teams could struggle with talent attraction and retention after layoffs, even if it was some time ago. The best way to prevent that is to ensure layoffs go as smoothly as possible and implement the necessary strategies to nurture employee morale.
Here’s how to do that.
How can HR and Hiring Teams Manage Employee Morale During and After Mass Layoffs?
Here’s what HR and hiring teams should keep in mind after mass layoffs:
Regular and Open Communication
The period after mass layoffs is the perfect time for disinformation and distrust to occur. If your hiring teams and HR fail to communicate the latest information and updates with employees, they will likely have a hard time feeling at ease and trusting the company.
That could lead to poor performance and a lack of motivation. Because of that, you must nurture regular communication and be candid about every change that affects employees. If you’re planning new staffing tweaks, let them know.
Let people know what to expect and ensure the workplace doesn’t feel like walking on needs. No one should fear they will be the next one to go.
Clarify whether you’re planning more layoffs and why.
But if you’re confident that the situation is stable, share that with your employees. However, these are not the only changes you should explain.
Also, let people know if the workload will change and whether everyone will have the same responsibilities and schedules as before.
RESOURCES: Get hundreds of ready-to-use email templates to manage your HR and internal communications.
Acknowledge the Work-Life Interconnectedness
Employers and hiring teams often forget it, but coworkers often become friends and become attached to each other. If one of them has to leave the workplace while the others stay, that could trigger pain and cause survivor’s guilt.
Hence, it’s crucial to remember the grief and sadness that stay after people see their coworkers lose their jobs to mass layoffs. Many employees might feel guilty about staying and question whether they should quit.
Moreover, they may feel angry and need emotional and mental support. Leverage your well-being and wellness programs to ensure your employees have everything they need to cope with the array of post-layoff feelings.
Use Tech to Nurture Transparency
Even though being humane and showing care is the most significant part of the post-layoff period, HR and hiring teams can rely on technology for help. Use it to share timely updates and notifications with employees and keep them in touch with the events and changes affecting them.
Moreover, you can use modern apps to organize one-on-one meetings and remove confusion and doubt that may be looming. For instance, you can use a SaaS platform to keep your employees in the loop.
But consistent collaboration with your hiring teams and stakeholders is also of paramount importance during and after layoffs. That way, you ensure recruitment and employer branding activities continue undamaged.
*First published on Manatal.com.
*To read the full article, click here.
Manatal is an end-to-end recruitment and onboarding SaaS platform trusted by thousands of brands in over 135 countries worldwide. It is an AI-powered Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool that allows companies to hire faster, better and save costs.
