Be sensitive with layoffs
If you haven’t had to witness an embarrassing layoff, then consider yourself lucky. Massey has seen and heard of enough of those to know that’s not how you treat people.
“Some companies take the approach, ‘OK, you’ve been RIF-ed, here’s your check, here’s a box, go pack your office and meet so-and-so at the reception area, and they’re going to walk you out,’” she says. “To me, that’s not a kind RIF. That’s an embarrassing RIF.”
Instead, she says you have to be professional and kind. While it’s important, like other changes, to move quickly and be honest, you also have to be extremely sensitive as well, when it comes to people changes.
When MACTEC does layoffs, the person’s manager and an HR person together meet with the employee. The person’s manager explains the situation and why it’s happening, and then the HR person addresses the immediate concerns the person likely has, such as severance, final paycheck, references, etc. The HR person also encourages the laid-off employee to check the job board because if there are future openings, the company likes to hire back employees. Then it’s important to let the person process the situation.
“Allow the employees to leave the office without having to pack their office up so that they have time to go home and deal with the loss of their job before they have to walk back in and, in front of all their peers, start packing up their office,” Massey says.
The HR person also tells the employee to take some time, and when he or she is ready, to call the company and come back in to get his or her things.
“Give them time to deal with their emotions,” she says. “It’s much easier, and I’ve seen this in my entire career, when people are able to go home and deal with the loss of their job and come back when they’re ready, it’s just so much easier — not only on the employee who’s coming back to get their things, but it’s also easier for the employees that are remaining.”
And that’s another issue you have to address when you lay off people. Naturally, if someone loses his or her job, everyone remaining will fear that he or she is next, so you, again, have to communicate with all of your employees what’s happening.
“If there’s a layoff at a particular location, as soon as the layoff occurs … there’s a meeting that occurs that afternoon or the next day, and it’s discussed that a layoff has occurred, and there are no others planned, and typically, there’s a reason given for the reductions in staff, and people are allowed to ask questions and express concerns,” Massey says.
Typically, this message is given by the office manager because he or she is more closely attached to his or her own employees, but an HR manager is also there to coach the office manager through the process and help that person if there are any questions that he or she cannot answer.
Some employees may have concerns or questions but will never bring them up in front of others, so invite them to come to you one-on-one if they don’t feel comfortable in a large setting.
“Always set up that opportunity for the employee to go one-on-one with a manager, recognizing that many of them will not communicate in an open forum,” Massey says.
By finding broken processes, moving quickly and being respectful to people, you’ll set up your business to be successful both now and after things turn around. Because of Massey’s efforts, MACTEC is growing and is above plan for the year, so they’re seeing some financial fruit from all of their change labor.
Massey says, “People have a tendency not to make hard decisions, and because people are slow to make hard decisions, I think, in the end, it makes it much tougher to recover, so my advice would be to evaluate quickly what needs to be done, take the action and move on.”
How to reach: MACTEC Inc., (770) 360-0600 or www.mactec.com
