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Managing Post-Layoffs |Leila's House of Corrections

Studies show that voluntary turnover increases after layoffs. By taking three important steps—disclosing your emotions, allowing mourning and venting, and involving your team in deciding new priorities—you have a better chance at retaining the employees you still have.

If you have questions or suggestions for future video topics, Leila wants to hear from you.

Speaker: Leila Bulling Towne, Executive Coach, The Bulling Towne Group

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Tags: Video, Corporate Communications, Team Management, Workforce Management, Marketing, Management, Human Resources, layoffs, firing, managing, economy, downturn, team, morale, retaining, turnover

 
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    JRS*

    01/21/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Managing Post-Layoffs |Leila's House of Corrections

    lol....pity the MD and COO didn't get to take on your advise. A father of 5 and well respected by employees in the company they chose to make me redundant 10 days prior to Christmas closure with 5min notice and not so much as a handshake with little to no validations other than to say times are tough.

    Unfortunately they didn't count on 5 others all leaving within a week who were made up of department managers and line managers not to mention a number of employees.

    Your clip is right on the money and I offer that the affect can be ongoing especially when you consider that in my case you are re-employed as GM with an opposition company that good people will look forward to working with you again.

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    LeilaBT

    01/22/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Managing Post-Layoffs |Leila's House of Corrections

    Hi jrdrilling,
    Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
    Yes, the affect can last a long time and touch many. It doesn?t take much longer to prepare for layoffs and handle them well. When you save time in such cases, you usually end up losing big.
    Information is too viral these days for companies to make these mistakes. They should handle layoffs with respect. Doing so gains them oodles of good will?from former employees, current ones, the press, etc.
    Regards from San Francisco,
    Leila
    http://www.thebullingtownegroup.com

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Managing Post-Layoffs |Leila's House of Corrections

Studies show that voluntary turnover increases after layoffs. By taking three important steps—disclosing your emotions, allowing mourning and venting, and involving your team in deciding new priorities—you have a better chance at retaining the employees you still have.

If you have questions or suggestions for future video topics, Leila wants to hear from you.

Laying off employees is an emotionally exhausting experience for everyone involved. After it s over, there s crucial work still to be done, so instead of hiding behind the frosted windows of your office, Come on managers, it s time to learn how to manage post layoffs.

After you ve delivered the unfortunate news to one or more of your employees that they are being laid off, what next? Heads down, nose to the grindstone, right? Great managers tackle this differently. They stop to think about how to refocus their team s energies and priorities. So, if you ve recently made someone redundant, here are key next steps to take:

# 1: Share how you feel.

You re not the only one who is feeling bad. Your team members could be suffering from survivor s guilt or wondering if and when the axe will fall on them. It s inappropriate to give specifics why certain personnel decisions were made, yet how the team is coping and how the company will change are subjects you must explore. Disclosing your emotions in this situation is a sign of high emotional intelligence or EQ; it s the smart thing to do. Have these discussions in both 1:1 and group meetings.

# 2: Allow mourning and venting.

This seems illogical at first. Encourage people to vent, mourn a coworker who was laid off, huh? However, mourning, acknowledging a loss, is a critical step in accepting change and moving on. And you want your team to vent to you not to each other or other employees. You want a controlled environment for people to express frustrations.

# 3: Involve your team in prioritization.

When coworkers are laid off, employees see it as a reminder of how little control they have in the workplace. One day Joe is sitting next to you, and the next day, he s gone! Turn this thought upside down. Involve your team in discussions about the new priorities. Solicit their ideas on which projects to take off the plate and which ones to put at the top of the list. Over-communication is critical now: ask more questions, hold more meetings, and share more thoughts than you think you need to.

A common fallacy after layoffs is assuming that employees not affected will feel fortunate to still have jobs and therefore turnover won t be affected. That s a mistake. Research tells us that that voluntary turnover increases when reductions in force occur. That s yet another reason why successfully managing post layoffs entails being visible to your team members, more so than ever. You re in your office, your door is open, and you re talking. Talking about what goals to tackle now, why, and how to get there, together.