How to Boost Employee Morale After Layoff

The challenge of downsizing and employee layoffs don’t end after the layoff process is finished. It’s not rare to see a drop in employee morale, engagement, and productivity after a series of layoffs have occurred. 

The irony is that you need your existing employees more than ever after a set of layoffs. Whether you’re restructuring your business or simply trying to reduce costs, a post-layoff period is a critical time for many businesses.

Below we’ll look at some strategies you can employ to boost employee morale after a layoff. 

Employee morale and layoffs

The impacts of downsizing and employee layoffs can be devastating for workplace culture and morale. The below statistics and studies show just how much impactful layoffs can be on employee morale. 

• A joint study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Southern California found that downsizing a workforce by 1 percent leads to an increase of 31 percent in voluntary turnover the following year.
• Another joint study by researchers at Stockholm University and the University of Canterbury found that “surviving employees” experience a 36 percent decline in company loyalty, 41 percent decline in job satisfaction, and a 20 percent decline in job performance. 
• A Harvard Business School study found that productivity fell by nearly 25 percent at a Fortune 500 tech firm after they cut 15 percent of their staff. 
• Another survey found that 74 percent of senior manager respondents said that productivity, employee satisfaction, and trust suffered after downsizing. 

It’s not hard to see why loyalty, engagement, and morale would suffer when employees see their co-workers being laid off. The possibility of layoffs comes with a lot of anxiety, stress, and uncertainty, which affects both workers being laid off as well as the workers who survive downsizing. 

Ways to boost employee morale after layoffs

As an employer, what can you do to help boost employee morale and maintain a positive company culture after layoffs? 

The good news is that there are several strategies, solutions, and approaches to layoffs that can improve your brand image, boost morale, and demonstrate your commitment to all of your employees–including the ones you had to lay off. 

You can help boost employee morale after layoffs in the following ways:

• Be transparent with your employees and continuously communicate with them on why the layoffs need to occur and what it means for the future of your organization. 
• Ensure your layoff decision-making process is fair and objective. 
• As opposed to taking the role of mitigation and management, try to adopt a more supportive and helpful role with employees. Work with them through the layoff process as opposed to isolating them by simply informing them of the decision and timeline of their layoff. 
• Provide training for managers and leaders to define a common language and tool kit of best practices when communicating with employees during layoffs.
• Integrate a layoff Assistance program, like Crosschq Assist, to support employees through the challenges of layoffs.
• With a layoff assist solution, make it clear that employees will have benefits like access to recruiters and Crosschq’s sourcing database. 
• Laid-off employees will also be able to have a 30-minute consultation meeting with set-up assistance for their Assist account. 
• Employees will get full communication with the Assist team from start to finish. 

When you have a solution like Crosschq Assist, you can announce the layoff with positive, supportive communications across all your networks. Being able to bridge the next step of your employees’ careers will give you a proactive role in bettering their future, allowing you to improve your company culture and boost morale for everyone in your organization. 

How Crosschq can help with employee layoff assistance

Crosschq is the solution for a more supportive approach to layoffs. When you invest in the futures of your employees, they will feel valued, understood, and equitably treated. For existing employees, they will know that you have a commitment to them, their lives, and their careers.

Click here to learn more about how Crosschq Assist can enable a positive workplace culture and employee morale, even in the most difficult of circumstances.