Quick Guide for Company Leadership: 5 Steps for Nipping Layoff Rumors in the Bud (coming soon!)
Your phone buzzes in the morning before work. It’s your colleague, Sharon, from accounting. “Check LinkedIn. Layoffs are rampant in our industry right now. Think we’re next?”
This, no doubt, is one of the worst ways to start your work day. As an employee, you begin to fear for your role. As a manager or executive? It’s time to strategize dispelling rumors.
Put yourself in your employee’s shoes: How would you feel if you found out your job may be on the line? When the world is being laid off it gives workers a reason to connect over shared fears and frustrations—people want to know if their income is on the chopping block. While connection amongst colleagues is shown to increase productivity, connecting over layoffs will come at the expense of the company’s reputation internally. As a leader in your company, there are a few ways to dispel these nasty rumors and reassure teams that layoffs at your company are only gossip. These solutions treat the problem rather than the symptom, and once implemented, will strengthen your internal culture for good.
Reiterate Company Strategy Amongst Execs
This is exactly what no one wants to do, but it must be done—call a meeting. Discuss how top line and bottom line goals align with the current company work culture, and how layoffs aren’t in line with those goals. According to Harvard Business Review, “Strategy offers a formal logic for the company’s goals and orients people around them. Culture expresses goals through values and beliefs and guides activity through shared assumptions and group norms.” The takeaway? When communicating with execs and staff alike, it’s important to ground your values in strategy. Coming soon!