Five tips for both the employer and employee. Part one employer

No one that I know of is comfortable with the thought of preparing for a staff reduction.  Both employers and employees are often placed into uncharted waters.  Everyone has questions and finding or knowing the answers often seems as easy as walking through quicksand.  I have a unique perspective as I have personally been on the receiving end of the “thank you for your dedication and oh sorry, you don’t get the five year service award company water bottle” and the “economic times are forcing us to reduce staff, now what do we do?” sides of the current and difficult times we are facing today.  So, to help navigate, here are a few suggestions:

For the Employer

1. Evaluate. The economic downturn has affected your bottom line.  You have cut expenses, cancelled the company picnic and removed bonus programs.  But all of these measure have not prevented the worst thing imaginable—the need to eliminate jobs to keep the company in business.  How do you select the people to lay off?  What do you need to do to conduct the layoff?  How do you tell the employee?  What do you tell the remaining staff?  These are all good and important questions to ask.  The first step is to evaluate or conduct an assessment of business needs and determine what areas have a potential surplus in resources and which areas are at a critical operational base.  Are you aligned with your Mission, Vision and Values?  Determine the KSA’s (Knowledge, Skills & Abilities) and KBP’s (Key Business Practices) needed in your business moving forward. Reductions based on the “last in first out rule” may help mitigate legal claims but they may not help you protect your investment in intellectual capital and help you keep the business running.  Look at all functional areas of your operations and determine your core needs.  Remember that term S.W.O.T. you learned in college but didn’t see the value of during the group exercise?  It actually does have a purpose and will help you understand your business, its operations and your strategies for future success.
2. Plan.  The best businesses don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan.  Once you have determined your core competencies and have outlined the areas of reductions, have a strategy in place for how you are going to move forward and still get the work done with fewer resources.  In this critical time, you can not afford to let your attention to details and customer focus lapse.  Determine which staff members will be responsible for tasks once completed by former employees and communicate these needs and responsibilities clearly. 
3. Document.  There are legal requirements when conducting a lay off.  Decisions based on objectivity and not emotion or a knee jerk reaction will help.  Review your decisions against the EEO requirements and consider protected classes (i.e., minorities, individuals age 40 and older, the disabled, or veterans) and make sure that your layoff decisions will not favor any one class over the other.
4. Empathize.  This is a tough time for both the employer and the employee.  It is tempting to be direct and non-caring to avoid legal action.  But how you handle a lay-off will determine how your remaining employees react, their morale and their decisions to stay with your organization. If the entire process is professionally administered, information is provided to the affected employee to help them understand the next steps they need to pursue  and the former employee is made aware that this is due to a business need and that they are valued and appreciated for their prior contributions, the process will be smoother for everyone involved    

5.     Motivate.  The desks are cleared, the personal photos are gone and your remaining staff have just lost their friends and fear they will be next.  Now is the time to communicate clearly to your staff what has happened and why and where you are heading.  Let them know that you understand their fear and that you value their continued contributions.  This isn’t going to make the situation go away or prevent future disruption, but it is one step to recovery that can make the difference between a satisfied workforce and one that is ready to jump ship

By:  Eugena Bellamy, StaffScapes