Protect your employer brand during layoffs or furloughs with these 4 tips
With so many businesses disrupted by the global COVID-19 pandemic, companies everywhere face an unprecedented number of challenges and uncertainties. This is exactly the moment when organizations must take care to respect, protect, and even elevate their employer brand with candidates, employees and other external audience groups.
Unfortunately, one of the negative outcomes of COVID-19 has been an increase in employee layoffs and furloughs — which can have a massive impact on your employer brand. Your reputation as an employer can take a big hit if you approach layoffs and furloughs the wrong way.
And since up to 90% of laid-off employees could be rehired as the economy recovers, this is a big deal. If you don’t treat your employees with compassion and transparency during this time, they will not forget the experience once you try to hire them again. Further, they will complain about their treatment to their friends and on platforms like Glassdoor, impacting your ability to attract and retain new talent in future too.
So what can your organization do now to protect your employer brand while undergoing layoffs? Take a look below at 4 tips that may prove helpful as you navigate this challenge:
1) Adopt an empathetic and respectful communications strategy
There have been many headlines recently spotlighting employers who have mismanaged their layoffs by taking impersonal and even callous actions when terminating employees.
The scooter-sharing startup Bird laid off 406 employees over a Zoom call ― a practice many employees found confusing and unprofessional. The unsuspecting employees were asked to log into a one-way Zoom call, after being informed that all other appointments and meetings of theirs were cancelled. Their Slack and other accounts were also shut off and given end dates without notice.
Additionally, Sephora mismanaged laying off employees via a conference call ― an experience ex-employees describe as devastating. Various long-time Sephora employees were notified that there would be an all-company conference call just moments after their regular check-ins with their managers regarding job performance. Everyone was asked to mute their call lines and were then informed one by one that they were being let go immediately. Some employees even say they could hear people (who didn’t go on mute) “crying their eyes out” on the call.
Whether in person or virtual, layoffs should be conducted in a manner that is compassionate and respectful toward the employee, first and foremost, and that recognizes employees as individuals.
Airbnb is a great example of an organization that took this approach. CEO Brian Chesky wrote a message to all staff to advise them that the company would be reducing the size of their workforce due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was respectful in his approach and offered transparency to his employees so that they weren’t caught off guard or unexpectedly let go.
Clearly communicating why the layoffs are occurring will keep your employees informed and reassured and show that you respect them and regret having to move in this direction. Conversely, when employees are in the dark or feel misinformed during layoffs, your organization is subject to disruption, which can tarnish your employer brand.
👉Action: if you know layoffs or furloughs may be on the horizon, sit down with your HR and internal communications team to come up with a game plan for how to approach this strategically to treat your employees right and minimize brand risk.
2) Provide departing employees with helpful resources
Organizations that provide helpful resources and services to departing employees send a strong, positive signal to employees. This action shows your employees that you care about what happens to them next and that you’re making efforts to do the right thing for them, even when faced with difficult decisions. This type of action goes a long way in protecting your brand.
Furloughed employees from Hilton Hotels have been given direct access to an online resource centre and expedited temp hiring processes at leading companies including Amazon, CVS, Lidl, Albertsons, Plastics Industry Association and Sunrise Senior Living. These partnering companies have planned to hire more than 200,000 employees collectively for short-term placements.
👉Action: you might consider putting together a digital resource guide for employees to help them navigate what’s next.
Our team recently spoke with a People & Culture Manager at an NYC tech company undergoing layoffs. The company has put together a full resource and unemployment guide that includes critical information for employees to know including:
How and when to file an unemployment claim
Benefits information
Job searching tips
How to receive benefits if residing internationally
Information around how unemployment impacts income tax and state income tax
This is an example of layoffs done right. Consider other ways you might be able to support employees and offer help during a tough time.
3) Stay in touch and support furloughed employees
Provide furloughed employees with resources and updates on a regular basis. This is a frustrating and disheartening situation for people, so providing them with resources and information about next steps is a great way to show employees that you care about them and want them to return to work with you.
For example, Sodexo developed a text recruiting campaign to stay in touch with furloughed employees. Regular communications were sent to Sodexo employees (one text per week) to keep them informed about company updates. They were also provided with information about temporary job opportunities from partner organizations that they could take advantage of in the short term.
This approach keeps employees engaged so that when things reopen employees still feel like part of the organization. It also showed Sodexo employees that during times of uncertainty they are still valued and the company cares about their wellbeing.
👉Action: given your organization’s unique context, you might consider putting together a nurture campaign to allow furloughed employees to stay in touch with your organization during these unprecedented times.
4) Respond to employee reviews on sites like Glassdoor
Even if you follow all of the above tips, it’s inevitable when undergoing layoffs or furloughing employees that you’re still going to get some angry anonymous reviews on public platforms.
You can mitigate the brand damage here by developing an employer review site reputation management strategy.
An important part of this strategy includes responding to employee reviews (both good and bad), on an ongoing basis. 62% of Glassdoor members agree that their perception of a company improves after seeing an employer respond to a review. This is because by taking the time to respond you show candidates and employees that you’re listening and trying to do better.
👉Action: meet with your HR leaders and come up with a strategy for responding to reviews prior to conducting layoffs. You can create a pre-approved messaging bank to pull from (although you’ll want to make sure each response sounds genuine and personal), along with an approval process so you can respond quickly to each review. Also, don’t forget to take feedback into consideration to improve your approach to exiting employees in the future.
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Managing your employer brand during a round of layoffs can be difficult, but thinking ahead and adopting a thoughtful strategy around the exiting employee experience can help limit damage to your brand. Whether layoffs take place in person or virtually, your plan here should help your organization to treat people with respect, communicate honestly, and provide support for employee career transition periods.
A mismanaged layoff can affect a company’s brand reputation — and with it, the ability to recruit and retain talent for years to come. But by developing a strategy to layoff employees the right way, you can protect your brand reputation so you’re in a good position when hiring starts to pick up again.
If you need help managing your employer brand reputation, along with employee and candidate communications during a challenging period, feel free to get in touch with our team for a consulting session.
About The Employer Brand Shop
The Employer Brand Shop is a boutique recruitment marketing and employer brand agency located in Kitchener, Canada. Our team helps organizations around the world attract and engage talent using creative marketing strategies.