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To be on a leadership team that decides to or needs to lay off employees, is a very difficult thing. I would not wish that kind of a nightmare on anyone. However, layoffs happen. Sometimes, layoffs have to happen in order to stabilize a company, and give it any foundation to survive. This post is about how to do the very difficult thing that is facing your remaining employees after a layoff.
If you have any doubts about whether or not address your employees, the answer is a strong yes! Yes, and do it quickly. The importance of this direct communication is so important to stop the flow of rumors and control the message about the leadership’s decision. It may sound funny, but in this case, bad news is better than no news.
Below are tips about what to include in your address to your employees, and how to get ahead of a potential public relations debacle.
- Do not liken your experience to the rest of your employees. This means you should not say that you are just as sad as they are, or that you are just as scared as they are. First of all, if you’re in leadership, your position as an owner of the decision is very different than employees who learned of the decision that was made for them and their colleagues. You are more privileged because of your role and the access to knowledge that comes with it. Over-empathizing is in poor taste; it’s both disingenuous and inappropriate. Finally, you should not pretend to be as scared as your employees—this will diminish their ability to see you as someone who is in control of the company's future. Be certain, but be kind.
- You want to provide some hope, in the face of this sadness. To do this, you should spend some time talking about a hopeful future. You can present the layoffs as a horrific necessity that will stabilize the company for future growth. This message should not overshadow the fact that this sucks. But if you want employees to leave with any ounce of hope that they have something on which to hold, something to keep them from jumping ship in a month or two, you must give them the vision of something good in the future.
- It is important that you provide answers to some expected questions, like why the layoffs happened, and whether or not they will continue to happen. Your answers should be as real and as believable as possible. Avoid using big fluffy corporate phrases like we’re moving in a new strategic direction, or this is in the best interest of the company. While those phrases may be based in truth, without details about what the strategic direction is or an acknowledgement that the best interest of the company should include the best interest of the employees, these phrases can do more damage than some real facts and hard data. Explain that the company was losing revenue from x, y and z sources, and facing increased costs on a, b, and c. To stabilize itself, the company needed to shrink its team, and position itself for growth. Finally, acknowledge when you don’t know the answer to a question. You may think it’s better to seem confident by fibbing, but employees respect honesty. After all, it’s harder to admit uncertainty.
What do you think? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.