The increased competitive pressure in the global marketplace has forced organizations to make adjustments to their workforce requirements. Corporations are now more focused on minimizing their operating costs and enhancing quality. Companies are finding it challenging to offer long-term secure employment to the employees. Any action by an organization to reduce its workforce matters to all employees both the surviving and the ones to be laid off. Layoffs allow businesses to reduce their costs and maintain its relationship with the critical employees. Companies should employ best practices on the employees to be laid off, help those who survive to be motivated and have positive morale and to adapt to best practices (Cascio, 2017).
A downsize done wrongly can paralyze the surviving employees as they are likely to be risk-averse, fearful and the valuable performers are expected to start looking for better employment opportunities. Downsizing has the potential to increase the costs of a company as it engages in disruption, termination, replacement, and training. The reduction should be the last result after other avenues have been exhausted. It is advisable to consider alternatives to downsizing. Companies can decide to freeze hiring, allowing employees on contract to leave, reducing work hours or wages across the board and instituting job sharing. It is also advisable to determine whether the objectives can be achieved through regular attrition. Voluntary termination can be explored as an option (Cascio, 2017).
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It is prudent to be fair in selecting who is to leave to avoid being perceived as biased orto prevent any legal issues that can be instituted by the employee for discrimination. Valued employees who are likely to be laid off should be given a second chance for them to have an opportunity to improve especially if their attitude or performance is the issue. It is useful to think about the future of the company and the desired areas of intervention. The company should plan how it will assign roles and the workloads (Cascio, 2017).
The human resource manager should communicate the departure to the remaining employees promptly and reassure them that there are no planned layoffs in future. Lastly, it is crucial to the downside with dignity to avoid alarming the survivors or develop a negative reputation from the employees. Finally help the surviving employees to survive by ensuring that their roles are not affected by assigning assignments immediately, and they are not looking for alternative employment by announcing plans on how to motivate and reward them (Cascio, 2017).
Reference
Cascio, W. (2017). Employment Downsizing and its Alternatives: Strategies for Long-Term Succes. Shrm.org. From https://www.shrm.org/foundation/ourwork/initiatives/resources-from-past-initiatives/Documents/Employment%20Downsizing.pdf
