There are Kinder Ways To Lay People Off....

....So Why Aren't They Used?



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Layoffs and firings are never easy on their targets, but the swing of the ax has become particularly brutal and messy in an era when employers are trying to balance a host of competing concerns. Will terminated employees steal proprietary data on their way out the door? Are there legal risks, or even physical dangers? And how much will being “nicer” affect the bottom line? But the question that isn’t asked often enough is this: Is there a way to send workers packing with their dignity intact while mitigating collateral damage to the remaining workers? Many management experts say yes — more humane methods of letting people go do exist — yet they’re not used nearly often enough. “It’s like most things in management,” says Wharton management professor Peter Cappelli, director of school’s Center for Human Resources. “It’s easy to measure the costs; it’s harder to measure the benefits” of handling layoffs humanely Twitter . “So if you are the CFO, who is typically the person calling the shots, it seems simple to not do it. Saying ‘It’s the right thing to do’ doesn’t sway them. So a company would have to be pretty sophisticated about measuring benefits to persuade skeptical CFOs, who typically know little if anything about management, that this is a good idea.” Money is one factor, but sometimes an employer is simply looking to get the pain over with quickly, says Janice Bellace, Wharton professor of legal studies and business ethics. “It’s like an accident — something bad has happened and we want to just close the door on it and walk away from it. But I don’t think you can do [that]. Everyone knows about it, and they remember. Workers feel badly and it gives them a jaded view of the company. Somebody worked here for 10 years and you treat them like a criminal? The other employees say, ‘That can happen to me,’ and they have a different view of the company.” ...... But beyond altruism, employers have good reason to consider better treatment of outgoing talent — starting with not burning bridges. “You hear all these stories of organizations laying people off and bringing them back as consultants — in some cases signaling that ‘we really didn’t think before we did it,’” says Bidwell. Moreover, “for the survivors, seeing the company behave in that way is, I think, a real shock. You talk to people where there has been a big round of layoffs, and a year later people are still traumatized and demotivated, and that can be very damaging.” The toll can be expensive, says Bellace. “When you think of goodwill toward a company and the willingness to pitch in extra,” failure to treat departing employees with respect has consequences. “People never put a price tag on that, but there’s a price to be paid,” she notes. Among the most common reasons employers cite for their less-than-humane treatment of departing employees is simply cost: Paying for severance and outplacement services can add up. But fear is also a factor. “My sense is that so much of it ends up being run by the lawyers,” says Bidwell. “We’re so worried about being sued, we end up with policies about how we have to do it, and those policies are geared toward those few exceptions, and end up being damaging to everyone else.” ..... It’s been nearly two decades since then-Secretary of Labor Robert Reich called for more humane treatment of downsized employees. “The real question is how downsizing is done, rather than whether to downsize,” he said. “Companies that downsize through buyouts and attrition, that help their workers get new jobs and that sometimes provide outplacement services, end up much better positioned than companies which simply wield the ax. [They have] a better chance of retaining the loyalty of the surviving workers. Trust is one of the most valuable yet brittle assets in any enterprise. So over the long term, it’s far better for companies to downsize in a humane way.” And yet not a lot has changed. Why? “First, the financial return on doing so isn’t clear to people at the top, especially so because they are skeptical about claims concerning these returns,” says Cappelli. “That’s not unreasonable given that every consulting firm makes claims that what they recommend pays off. Second, on matters around employee relations, most companies are motivated mainly by what everyone else is doing, even if there is a compelling case that better practices pay off. It would take several high-profile companies moving in a different direction to get some change.”

There are Kinder Ways To Lay People Off....