Bear the burden
Hershberger has a common saying regarding communication: “Anyone can tell good news, but there is only one or two of us — mainly me — who can spread bad news,” he says.
If you have to take your company through a round of layoffs or cutbacks of any kind, the message needs to come directly from you. You can’t rely on cascading messages or written communication when the culture of your company and morale of your employees might be at stake.
The key, Hershberger says, is to put a human face on what can seem like a callous, impersonal act. When PGT needed to conduct a round of layoffs, Hershberger and his team notified those who were being let go early in the morning, then, within hours, he started dealing with the news of the layoffs by meeting with departments in smaller groups, allowing a chance for dialogue with remaining employees on the company’s future.
“If it comes time to give bad news, you need to get people together in small groups, tell them what is going on and why it’s going on, and let them ask questions,” Hershberger says. “That is our style. We don’t try to hide behind anything. We tell everyone what is going on and then ask for suggestions.”
Don’t head into the dialogue with employees in a defensive posture. You will have explaining to do, but you will also find employees who recognize that you just made an agonizing decision under a great deal of pressure. If you can connect with employees on that type of emotional level, it can help accelerate your company’s recovery.
“The first time that we had a reduction in force, I’m not sure if it was harder on the leadership of the company or the employees involved,” Hershberger says. “Traditionally, you’d think employees got the worst of it, but it was amazing to me over the next week after we had that first reduction, we had a lot of employees calling and checking on the health of the leadership. Every leader here feels like it happened yesterday, and our employees understood that as well as anyone, because we’re not a very big community. You have to plainly state the situation because it is what it is, but you make sure you show people that it’s not their fault.”
There is no way to communicate cutbacks in a way that is going to leave company morale unscathed. But you can cushion the blow to some degree by keeping employees in the know regarding the company’s performance. It’s particularly true if you’ve had a round of layoffs and cutbacks and are anticipating the possibility of more. When there is uncertainty swirling around your company, the worst place for anyone to be is in the dark.
Employees will often see the signs of cutbacks coming, and you need to put the speculation to rest by either confirming or denying what your employees suspect.
“At times, our employees might have known a reduction is coming maybe even before we did,” Hershberger says. “They know how busy they are, how many orders are coming in, what type of business is out there. We’ve actually had employees come to us and say that they want to get the reduction over with sooner rather than later, because it will mean more hours for whoever remains.
“But it’s still hard, and you still need to remain extremely visible to everyone, walking the floor, walking through departments, talking to everyone and not hiding behind anything. You need to continue to be very candid about what you see and why you see it that way, how decisions are made, and then continue asking for input.”
