With inflation reaching all-time highs and many industries’ demand going down, countless of even the largest corporations in the world are having to lay off hundreds to thousands of their employees. In 2023 alone, industry giants such as Meta, Lyft, Twitter, 3M, Walmart, Disney, Zoom, Yahoo, Shopify, Google, and Indeed—among many, many others—have laid off significant percentages of their staff. Of course, no one wants to make such drastic cuts, but desperate times are calling for desperate measures. Nevertheless, it’s crucial to remember that layoffs certainly don’t only affect those laid off. You’ll need to be able to support and manage your remaining teams post-layoffs with even more care than before.
Read on to find out what challenges arise following any number of layoffs and what you can do to better manage your team following them.
The Most Common Challenges Teams Face Post-layoffs
It’s no secret that being the bearer of bad news during a layoff period can have an effect on how your remaining employees view you. A 2022 survey from Bizreport shows that 71% of remaining employees feel less motivated at work. The same report also finds that:
- 65% of workers remaining at an organization following layoffs feel overworked
- 60% feel less trusting of their employer(s)
- 65% experience anxiety following rounds of layoffs
- and 61% of employees remaining following layoffs are less likely to recommend their place of work to others
Many of these statistics, according to the survey, are based on the remaining employees’ ideas of the organization’s trajectory following massive layoffs. For one, many anticipate things worsening for their organizations following layoffs, due to an increase in workloads and a decrease in support across their team(s).
And these assumptions are not necessarily false. It’s often that companies decide to make major staffing cuts when they’re financially struggling or are anticipating financial struggle. And, of course, this often means remaining workers feel the need to pick up the slack for the same or very little more money.
At the same time, layoffs don’t necessarily fix financial concerns, so layoffs also often mean even more staffing cuts later down the road.
This just means more stress, fear, and anxiety for remaining employees and less support from other team members when they need it the most.
3 Tools to Better Manage Teams Post-layoffs
If you and your organization are going to be laying off or already have laid off some employees recently, you undoubtedly already have lots on your plate. However, to ensure your organization maintains productivity and retains the employees it needs to keep, you’ll need to take some proactive measures.
These include but are not limited to: increasing your team’s communication to maintain a healthy level of transparency in times of uncertainty; reprioritizing tasks previously assigned to other workers; and dedicating time to supporting your current and even previous team members.
These do not necessarily have to happen in this particular order, but they are all musts when it comes to retaining remaining employees following layoffs.
1. Increase Your Team’s Communication with Slack
Even if you only layoff one of countless employees, the many remaining employees will naturally have questions and concerns. Will they be laid off next? Are they going to have to now take on two jobs’ worth of work? Are they going to be unfairly judged on their performance with this added amount of work on top of their current workload?
Clearrock has some great steps to take when it comes to preparing and caring for employees (current and former) following layoffs. But as they mention, there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to bearing the bad news.
A good resource to start implementing, however, is Slack, or any adjacent chat platform where team members can openly communicate with you and others regularly. Slack is particularly useful for the numerous channels it allows its users to streamline conversations and project management.
As well, many consider Slack more user-friendly than its competitors. So, if you’re working online and need to increase your communication between teams, try implementing Slack.
2. Delegate and Prioritize Tasks with Asana
As the aforementioned Bizreport survey shows, many employees anticipate and indeed are expected to pick up the slack following layoffs. But, of course, delegating the work from former employees onto the remaining ones can lead to burnout and quiet quitting, if not outright quitting.
So, following a round of layoffs, meet with individual teams to revisit tasks and prioritize their order of operations. Then, fairly distribute them and revisit these delegated tasks regularly. Crucially, remember that employees only have a certain amount of proverbial shelf space. So, if a new task needs to be added, all existing priorities need to be reconsidered.
And these priorities and shelf spaces change. Maybe only while working on a task does an employee discover how labour-intensive and weighty it is to do. Be open to these changes and communicate frequently about negotiations either in-person or over a Zoom call or Slack chat.
Then, remind yourself and all team members of such priorities with project management software, such as Asana or Trello. Again, the benefits and detriments of these programs depend on their use and the users’ needs. So, do your research to see which would best suit your team.
3. Block off Time for Supporting Your Teams with Google Calendar
Of course, we can’t forget about those who are experiencing layoffs first-hand. And even though these folks will soon no longer be or are already no longer your employees, treating them as such can make a huge difference in how they and how remaining employees view you as a manager and the organization as a whole.
To make sure you’re offering sufficient support for all following a round of layoffs, then, you’ll need to dedicate time to doing so. And this includes dedicating time for those out of sight, as well, so they don’t remain out of mind, too.
If you haven’t already, start a Google calendar to block off good chunks of time where you can check-in with existing and former employees. Use this time to meet with them one-on-one and talk about their future, what you can do to support them, and what options you are able to offer them if they are being let go.
Summary
Layoffs are a vulnerable time not just for those facing unemployment. This can also be a challenging time for the remaining employees and thus management teams. You can better manage your teams post-layoffs by proactively increasing communication methods, reprioritizing and delegating tasks, and dedicating time to supporting laid-off employees. You can do so by implementing new tools, such as Slack or Teams for increasing communication online, Trello or Asana for task management, and Google Calendar for time management. For more tips on managing your teams, check out our blog page by clicking here.
