Corporate Rebels’ Post

Layoffs Often Fail to Deliver Financial Benefits and Harm Workplace Culture In today's rapidly changing business landscape, it's crucial to examine the true impact of layoffs. While they might seem like a quick fix for financial challenges, the reality is often starkly different. 📉 Financial Performance: Research from the University of Texas shows that companies announcing layoffs underperform in the stock market for up to three years compared to those that don't. Rather than boosting financial health, layoffs can lead to prolonged periods of underperformance. 🛠️ Productivity: A study by the University of Wisconsin revealed that survivors of layoffs experience a 41% decline in job satisfaction and a 36% drop in organizational commitment. This decline in morale often translates to reduced productivity, as remaining employees grapple with increased workloads and fear of future cuts. 😔 Work Environment: The Harvard Business Review highlights that layoffs create a toxic work environment, leading to a 20% decline in job performance among remaining employees. The atmosphere of fear and distrust can severely hamper innovation and risk-taking, crucial elements for long-term success. 🚪 Employee Turnover: Layoffs can lead to higher voluntary turnover rates as employees seek more secure opportunities elsewhere. This not only results in a loss of talent but also increases recruitment and training costs for new hires. 🔍 Long-Term Strategy: Companies need to consider alternatives to layoffs. Investing in employee retraining and redeployment can help address financial challenges while maintaining a healthy, motivated workforce. Let's rethink our approach to financial health and prioritize sustainable strategies that support both our employees and our long-term goals. 💼✨ #WorkplaceCulture #EmployeeRetention #HR #BusinessStrategy #Leadership

Downsizing (a.k.a. firing people to save money) doesn’t work. Real growth comes from innovation, not contraction ☝️ 🚫💼 Research shows that layoffs fail to improve financial performance and often lead to a decline in productivity and a toxic work environment. In tomorrow’s newsletter, I’ll share a new blog post, where I dive into the meta-analysis and explain better alternatives to downsizing. 📩 Subscribe to the Corporate Rebels newsletter to receive it ➡️ https://lnkd.in/emN_R95n #Layoffs #Performance #CorporateRebels #Productivity #Business

Ah, layoffs: the go-to strategy for ‘cost-cutting’ when creativity takes a back seat. It seems that steering a business into a ditch now comes with a bonus round—sending hundreds or thousands packing. Especially amusing when the company’s stocks are soaring. Talk about adding insult to injury, right? Using layoffs as a band-aid for mismanagement is an art form, apparently. It’s like saying, ‘Thanks for all the hard work and dedication, but we need to balance our books, so off you go.’ It reeks of empathy, doesn’t it? This approach not only shatters trust but turns the workplace into a survival-of-the-fittest scenario. And for the brave souls who remain? Questioning, learning, or needing help becomes as rare as common sense in management. They’re not asking because they feel safe; they’re asking despite the fear. It’s a bold move in a culture where asking for help is subtly discouraged. Let’s remember, companies are more than their bottom line—they’re about people. When did we forget that? #LeadershipFail #EmployeeTrust #EthicalLeadership #CorporateCulture #layoffs #PoorBusinessPractice

Layoffs can be very tough to go through because on top of your life probably being turned upside down, 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗺 𝗮𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹. 🤔 The whole situation can be overwhelming and stressful. You need to be wary that a knee-jerk or emotional decision 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗹𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀-𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻-𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗰𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗼. For this reason, it's 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗶𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 to review options and chart a course forward toward your retirement goals. 👥 If you or someone you know has been recently laid off, we'd be more than happy to be of assistance. See my 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝗯𝗶𝗼 to schedule a visit. 🗓 While there, be sure to 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗽𝘆 of our "10-Step Layoff Survival Guide". #layoffs #unemployment #financialadvisor

Mass layoffs are ineffective and unnecessary, but they make rich folks richer. Respect for People is a core value for my business because it fosters equity, operational excellence, morale, and great engagement.  In case you didn't realize - Mass layoffs are scheduled, planned, and executed - usually twice a year. They don't just happen. And they don't fix the problems they're supposed to solve. But they send stock prices up!  I hope you'll find this insightful opinion article by The New York Times, published on March 21, 2024.  TL;DR - "Were more leaders to be guided by the science of change, or by the stories that people on the front lines share, they would quickly discover that it is stability that is the foundation of improvement."  "Studies of merger and acquisition activity have pegged the rate at which they destroy — rather than increase — shareholder value at something between 60 and 90 percent; a Stanford business school professor, Jeffrey Pfeffer, has argued that layoffs seldom result in lower costs, increased productivity or a remedy for the underlying problems in a business; and few of us who have lived through re-orgs remember them as the occasion for a sudden blossoming of productivity and creativity."  If you want to lead a thriving company, scale your operations, and outperform your competitors, let's partner to empower your top talent using the foundations of Respect for People, Continuous Improvement, and Performance Managment.  And if your company's backlogs are surging, customers are escalating, and folks' morale is eroding, let's assess how the 8 Forms of Waste are showing up in your daily operations. 🔗 Book a call at the link in the comments #RespectForPeople #Layoffs #Opentowork #ContinuousImprovement #OperationalAgility #OpsExcellence #Morale #Lean #Waste

Employee confidence in their own employer is at its lowest since 2016. Rolling layoffs and hiring freezes might be welcome as signals of efficiency by Wall Street, but to employees they signal weakness. The continual stream of small layoffs adds up to a major loss: your own employees no longer trust that you know how to lead effectively. Glassdoor released data that shouldn't surprise anyone who's studied layoffs and hiring freezes: they send a signal to remaining employees that their employers' prospects aren't so hot. In the past, that led to "cut once, cut deep" approaches, typically combined with explanations of what happened and why -- whether market conditions or leadership failures. Correct where needed, and help everyone move forward in a positive manner as quickly as possible. But layoffs in #tech and #media have continued in a slow, relentless stream in some larger companies. If the signal is working for Wall Street, it's not internally. In deciding whether the signal is "you're disposable," "we don't know how to manage for performance" or "we don't know where we're headed" many employees think it's "all of the above." Welcome to the Doom Loop. #layoffs #productivity #culture

As organisations face economic uncertainty, the aftermath of layoffs can tax both the survivors and the company itself. I think evaluating your team's capacity post-layoffs is important. Identify projects to postpone, align with leadership to manage workload, and uncover hidden talents. Simplifying communication is key to overcoming overload. Prioritise your team's well-being and productivity. #TeamWorkload #PostLayoffs #ProductivityTips

It's disheartening to see the layoffs continuing to happen across industries. Companies and leaders need to reevaluate forecasting strategies and remember that employees are more than just numbers on a spreadsheet – they're people with lives, families, and responsibilities. Yes, profitability is important. Without a company making money, there are no jobs to have. A company’s main goal is profit, as it should be. But we need to remember massive layoffs not only impact livelihoods but also destroy trust in the workplace. Leaders, it's crucial to prioritize the well-being of your team and explore alternative solutions before resorting to such drastic measures. To the CEOs who despite being worth hundreds of millions, choose to make themselves billionaires through large-scale layoffs – shame on you. How many jobs could have been saved by redirecting those funds to support your workforce? Let's build companies that thrive without sacrificing the livelihoods of hardworking individuals. #PeopleOverProfits #Leadership #EmployeeWellbeing #BusinessEthics #EmpathyInBusiness #Layoffs2024 

I recently ran into a quote from Steve Jobs that said "Nobody thinks very deeply about things in business". Through my own experience I've come to the same conclusion, but with a very humane perspective: We are all trying to do what we think is best, however misguided. The problem of not thinking too deeply, is that sometimes we think we know what we are after, but instead are in the wrong path. I think this is also a consequence of "hassle culture" and the thirst of artificial growth, but I do believe we are on the verge of shifting the narrative. These are the problems that we set out to solve at Work Giggles, developing purpose-driven cultures for organizations of the future. You over-hire when you need to fuel your operations for short financial gain. You grow responsibly when you work towards realizing the purpose of your organization

Considering layoffs to balance the books? Layoffs aren’t always the best solution to a company’s woes. In fact, cutting your employees in the tough times may be the worst thing you can do, and something you’ll regret when things are good again. Try these alternatives first... 1) redeployment, a twist on restructuring where employees keep their jobs but move into new positions in other parts of the business, 2) move someone to a part-time position instead of laying them off completely. #ConsideringLayoffs #Redeployment #KeepYourEmployees