Employee Retention

The Three Essential Steps to Post Layoff Team Recovery

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Layoffs…As a manager you dread this word.

Even if you do not get laid off yourself, you may face an even worse situation:

Making sure that the survivors don’t start fending for themselves instead of your business.

If you handle this poorly:

Productivity vanishes,

Morale plummets,

Star performers abandon ship,

Some may even resort to outright sabotage.

And to make it even worse, you have to manage this while you are likely feeling some of the same emotions yourself.

Not a pretty picture.

But you’re not alone.

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8 Things Managers Do That Make Layoffs Even Worse. (How many are you guilty of?)

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What’s even harder than laying people off?

Making sure that the survivors don’t start fending for themselves instead of your business.

 

Managed incorrectly, layoffs can lead to:

  • Loss of Star Performers. They’re the most likely to have other offers and most likely to be disillusioned by the betrayal of layoffs.
  • Destroyed Morale. Remaining employees lose trust in and commitment to the organization.
  • Unrecoverable Penalty Costs. This may cost you more than what you save through layoffs. Decreased productivity, costly mistakes, attrition, outright sabotage, and failure to operate in the best interests of the organization can easily negate the savings of layoffs.
  • Vanished Productivity. As the survivors deal with their emotions and struggle to cover vacant positions, up to 80% will simply “check out”.
  • Ruined Corporate Reputation. How your former and current employees speak about you can do grave damage to your standing. When things turn around, the most desirable candidates will shun you. This is especially true of the highly mobile under-40 segment.

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Your Worst Managers are Driving Away Your Best People

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The Hidden Cause of Your Retention Woes

One of our clients recently asked us to conduct a 2-day retreat based upon the concepts in the book “First, Break All the Rules”. (see my review). It’s a very interesting book that has inspired me to jot down my thoughts on what I see as one of the most serious gaps in the effectiveness of many of the organizations that we work with in our practice. One of the basic premises of the book is that there are three sources of expertise that any employee brings to the job. Namely talent, knowledge and skill. Knowledge and skill are learnable. Talent, the author claims, is inborn. No matter how much you work on improving an employee, if their natural talents do not match the job, they will not excel. The trick is to match people with the right combination of talent, knowledge and skill to the right job.

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6 Ways to Use Crisis to Strengthen Your Team

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NOTE: You should also check out my post on How to Mange Your Home Office Workers During the Covid-19 Crisis. It is full of all the info you need to navigate through this unprecedented situation and let you breathe a little easier. 

Now back to this blog post…

Everywhere you look, the heralds of economic doom are spreading their messages. And, like it or not, it’s affecting your team.

Many of our clients have noticed a recent drop in motivation and commitment amongst their staff and are asking us for our advice on how to maintain momentum and morale. Everyone’s afraid. Afraid of losing their jobs, afraid of not being able to make their payments. Afraid of taking risks. Afraid of making the wrong decisions at work. And when people are afraid, they tend to play defense instead of offense. They retreat to old, familiar ways of thinking and acting at precisely the moment when innovative, creative approaches are critical for your success.

Companies are finding that worrying is consuming a huge portion of their people’s time. And not only that, they’re probably contacting head hunters and scouring job boards, ready to take their expertise to the competition if they seem more secure. Your company may be healthy and may not even have any intention of layoffs, but the fear is in the air and it’s affecting everyone.

So what can you do?

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