A Management Checklist for Layoff Survivors

Newswise — An Oklahoma State University researcher and a practicing private sector manager insist that employees who survive layoffs need some specific reassurances to continue to contribute effectively to their company's bottom-line.

Dr. Margaret A. White, associate professor of management in the College of Business Administration at OSU and Suzanne M. Behr, director of Vyvx Ads Operations for WilTel Communications in Tulsa are offering a checklist for middle managers trying to move the organization forward after a layoff has occurred. Their article in this month's edition of Executive Excellence magazine, outlines the ways managers can help layoff survivors redirect time, effort and energy.

The article, entitled "Layoff Survivor Sickness: A Prescription for Healing," lists four specific support areas — emotional, informational, directional and tactical — with succinct directions for managers to begin the re-focusing process. Support for layoff survivors really needs to take place as soon as management decides the layoffs are unavoidable, according to the article.

"Once the layoffs are completed, immediate managers and team leaders should provide personal critical social and spiritual support necessary to re-engage and re-energize layoff survivors," says White. These leaders are close enough to assess employees' feelings and those feelings will have a definite impact on company performance. Without management's immediate support and direction in specific areas, the researchers warn that companies can expect a range of reactions from apathy to hostility toward management and its organizational goals.

The first step in supporting layoff survivors, according to Behr, is for management to openly acknowledge the grief and difficulty that results from layoffs, while at the same time reassuring employees of their own importance — that they are the ones selected by management to stay and help lead the company into future success. "Through this strenuous time, employees need to understand that just as they have to divide their loyalties between their family and their employer, the employer has to sometimes divide loyalties between employees and shareholders, which unfortunately may result in the business decision to layoff workers," says Behr.

White and Behr recommend that managers provide the necessary information to answer personal questions about the layoffs including statistics, finances and human resource advice and suggestions. Along with critical information, directional support should offer employees insight on where the company is now headed and how each employee fits into the new picture.

Finally, there is tactical support — those specific actions that individuals and teams can take to help the organization move forward and enhance the company's chances of survival. The article points to this section as the opportunity to provide each employee with specifics about what to do. According to Behr and White it is important to challenge yourself to greatness - in the quality of your work and in the quality of your character and integrity. During stressful times, everyone has the opportunity to become a hero — "managers have the opportunity to show true leadership"— and to build trust for the future.

The article by Behr and White appears in the November edition of Executive Excellence, a digest of ideas and strategies from leading thinkers and practitioners on organizational and executive development. The magazine was founded by Stephen Covey among others.