Brilliant Employee Engagement After Layoffs

This paper offers some steps managers can take with remaining employees after layoffs have occurred.

Employee engagement after layoffs. What is even more demoralizing for employees is watching co-workers get the proverbial axe month after month while being completely in the dark about why when or what they can do about it. People form deep attachments to their coworkers their work groups their companies their organizational structures and systems their personal responsibilities and their ways of accomplishing work. Recent Watson Wyatt research shows that 39 of a sample of US companies have already undertaken some employee layoffs and.

Economic volatility is taking its toll on many organizations. And unfortunately due to layoffs and redundancies in both the US and the UK many employees have been asked to shoulder the work that was previously done by their peers in addition to their own regular tasks. Keeping Remaining Employees Engaged After a Layoff Every employee is affected by layoffs in their department even the employees who remain.

They recognize employees go through emotional turmoil and give them the time and space to decompress. Research by Magnus Sverke and Johnny Hellgren of Stockholm University and Katharina Näswall of the University of Canterbury found that after a layoff survivors experienced a. Of course layoffs are a tremendous drain on emotional energy and engagement.

Leaders need to focus on what happens after the layoffs. When it comes to layoff communication you must be open honest and willing to help everyone involved. In an effort to provide helpful resources we researched ways to maintain positive levels of employee engagement during layoffs.

Whether that is providing outplacement services to those being let go or helping the retained staff members cope it falls on you and your management team to navigate these troubled waters. Often layoffs are taken as a sign that no one is safe and that the business is on the verge of collapse. Suddenly losing your job is a traumatic experience.

Preventative practices like the introduction of social distancing and remote working and survival tactics such as furloughing temporary salary reduction and even layoffs have increased uncertainty and anxiety for staff leading to growing frustration and lower levels of motivation and engagement. What to Say to Employees After a Layoff. By actively involving employees in the change organizations can drive and ultimately increase employee engagement and improve the overall success of the integration.