In the new year, an array of companies in various sectors have laid off workers. In the tech industry alone, around 85 firms have cut over 23,000 jobs so far in 2024, according to Layoffs.fyi.
Google recently eliminated hundreds of roles across various functions, including its advertising, sales, engineering, hardware and Google Assistant teams. In an internal memo to employees, CEO Sundar Pichai said the layoffs are about “removing layers to simplify execution and drive velocity in some areas,” and there may be additional job cuts this year.
Amazon has had a steady stream of staggered workforce reductions in its Buy with Prime, MGM, Prime Video, Audible and Amazon Pay units. Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah informed his workers that the online furniture retailer is eliminating 1,650 positions. Macy’s, the long-standing department store, announced it is laying off about 3.5% of its workforce—2,350 employees—and closing five of its stores. The list of companies that have let go of workers in January also includes BlackRock, Twitch, Duolingo, Citigroup, Discord and Rent the Runway.
Plunging Productivity And Efficiency
After enduring widespread layoff announcements from mid-2022 through 2023, and now facing additional potential job losses, it’s reasonable for workers to feel overwhelmed and unsafe. With the threat of future job cuts, it’s hard for employees to focus on their jobs. There will be constant worry and anxiety that they may be next to receive the pink slip. Amid fear and uncertainty, employee engagement and productivity will take a hit.
Major tech CEOs, including Pichai and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, urged their respective staff to fill productivity gaps at the onset of the layoffs in 2022, in an effort to drive efficiency. In a December memo, Wayfair’s chief executive told employees, “Working long hours, being responsive, blending work and life, is not anything to shy away from. There is not a lot of history of laziness being rewarded with success.” The company’s cofounder and co-chair Steve Conine echoed similar sentiments, stating, “If bankruptcy is inevitable then shame on all of us for not working harder,” according to reporting by the Wall Street Journal.
Decreasing Employee Engagement
Employee engagement measures a worker’s drive, participation, motivation and commitment to a company. It is critical to the success of the individual, business and customers.
A recent survey by McKinsey indicated that worker engagement fell to 32%, down 3% from the prior year. While these individuals fulfill the basic job requirements, they are doing just the bare minimum.
BambooHR’s 2023 report benchmarking employee happiness revealed that job satisfaction has declined at a rate 10 times faster than in the previous three years. Separately, Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace Report found that most of the world’s employees are quiet quitting, exhibiting record-high stress levels and more than half of employees are actively or passively job-seeking.
Engagement drops when there is an erosion of trust, increased stress and anger in the workplace and a perceived disconnect between workers and their employers, leading to a decline in employee well-being. It is further compounded when workers face job insecurity, work-life imbalance, stagnant wages and a lack of career advancement opportunities, workplace culture, job satisfaction and health and safety, as well undergo abrupt organizational changes.
The decline in employee engagement can have detrimental effects on organizations, including decreased productivity, negative workplace culture and increased turnover.
If workers are happy and invested in the company, people will notice. Customers and clients will sense that the company and its employees care. Conversely, if workers are dissatisfied and disgruntled, that will show in the business’ bottom line.
By prioritizing staff wellness and offering them transparency and the proper resources, employers can reduce the risk of employee burnout, which can help them maintain a healthier relationship with work.
Empathy And Leadership
Empathetic leaders must take stock of employees’ needs, provide psychological safety, regularly express gratitude and appreciation and ensure a balance of work and life to maintain an engaged and productive workforce.
Leadership should regularly take the pulse of its workers via transparent conversations and microsurveys, and then take appropriate action to address and ameliorate concerns.
In an interview with Dr. Kenneth Matos, the global director of people science at Culture Amp, a human resources software company that offers tools to collect feedback, measure engagement, analyze culture and improve employee experiences, he advises on how organizations can manage amid layoffs, especially when they are staggered and employees are fearful they may be next.
Matos heads a global team of psychologists and researchers to provide clients with actionable advice on collecting, understanding and acting on employee feedback through evidence-based methodologies.
Five Things Companies Should Do, According To Culture Amp’s Dr. Kenneth Matos
- “Acknowledge that the situation is scary for employees and they may need to check-in on their status more often. Be patient with them and give them some room to share their anxieties and get help from you to channel that energy constructively.”
- “Be as transparent as possible about the criteria for the layoffs, so employees can turn their anxiety into purposeful action to ensure they are in the retained group or prepare to bounce back faster from a layoff. This will help squash rumor mills that cause people to spiral in anxiety.”
- “Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Don’t tell people they are safe unless you know that for a fact. Odds are no one is 100% safe. It may be comforting for you as a manager to tell people it’s all okay, but if they see people get laid off despite such assurances, you will lose their trust and other discussions become much harder.”
- “Set some boundaries for people. Anxiety-filled situations can prompt people to act out. Look for constructive ways to channel the energy toward a purpose or into forums where it does not disrupt activities. For example, set a schedule for them to check-in on their and the company’s status. This will ensure they know they should only ask you about how things are going once a week or once a month and they should otherwise feel confident that you will proactively raise anything else they need to know. Guiding people toward assignments and activities that are the highest priority for retention can also help people feel more in control of their fates.”
- “Offer reasonable post-layoff support, like references, in advance. Letting an employee know that you will use your network to help them find a new job and they can count on you to tell a new employer that they were not let go for performance reasons can help them feel confident that they are not totally dropped when laid off.”
In addition to managing the anxieties associated with potential layoffs, there are day-to day-impacts, such as workload surges due to shrinking staffing. The staggered approach offers at least one advantage if you use the down time between each round of layoffs to proactively plan for how work will be managed as the team shrinks. “By planning for the reductions, you can avoid complicating the emotional recovery with the mental load of figuring out how to adapt to the new capacity options without overwhelming feelings of overwork and procedural chaos,” Matos said.
Source: Forbes
