Survival of the Smartest: After the Layoffs, Manage for Long-Term Stability

the writer:unknown 作为一个公司的人力资源管理者，你是否曾将面临过这样的困境，公司裁员后，员工们的工作积极性减弱，而对公司的忠诚度也锐减，那么本文将为你解决这个问题提供几个有效的方法。

If you're one of the millions of workers left behind after layoffs, sweating over an inflated workload, fretting that you might be next, you already know how demoralizing a reduction in force (RIF) can be. If you're managing layoff survivors, you have even more reason to worry. RIFs can clobber morale, erode loyalty, stymie creativity and set your firm up for a migration of talent that could hobble you long after the economy revives. Smart managers don't let that happen. Now is the time to manage employee angst and solidify relationships so that once you survive this recession, you'll be able to thrive in the recovery ahead. Winds variable Uncertainty, doubt and fear are absolutely crippling to people, says Blake Ashforth, a professor of management at the W. P. Carey School of Business. But, they may strengthen the team, also. When emotions are involved, funny things can happen both for good and for ill. According to Ashforth, layoffs can bring office RIF survivors together if they feel they're in the same boat. But if they feel it's me against you and everyone is fighting for the same jobs, it can turn pretty nasty. Then, too, there is the distraction of possible further layoffs. When you're concerned about tomorrow, it's hard to bear down and focus on your work today, he adds. On the other hand, people who are worried about the future may be more inclined to hunker down and do their job to avoid being let go next. He says layoffs may improve productivity, though he doesn't recommend fear as a managerial prerogative. It takes a huge toll. It burns people out. What's more, it can derail innovation. People are far less inclined to take chances during tough times, Ashforth notes. It's often hard to get people to do things in a different way when they feel as if their jobs are at stake. For companies concerned about turnover and retention, economic turmoil often keeps employees in their seats. This, too, can have mixed results. When laggards lag : What's the benefit of voluntary turnover? Most people like to keep voluntary turnover low, but there is an upside, says management Professor Peter Hom. Maybe your poor performers will leave. Or, higher-priced employees may leave so you can fill the positions with lower-priced employees. Or, senior people leave, opening up promotional opportunities for those that stay. Also, Hom points to one study that found inventiveness stagnates when research and development teams remain together too long. Team members might form a cohesive group, but they're not as creative. You need some churn on R D teams, he notes. Given these circumstances, having some voluntary turnover can be healthy. What's troubling is when the top-tier people quit -- and that's more likely in a struggling economy. If companies lose only their corporate stars, retention scholars call it dysfunctional turnover, and that's what is happening right now. In fact, Hom says he is hearing about high performers being vulnerable to cherry picking. They're getting poached away from their employers by more aggressive firms. That's not so with the low performers. Studies show that people are more likely to stay put during business downturns, Hom notes. Since low performers are less mobile, they're the folks most likely to hang on. Although it's not a term used in academic scholarship, Hom jokes that this might be called dysfunctional retention. Hom's research shows a direct correlation between unemployment and voluntary quit rates. In a research project Hom conducted on behalf of a major national retailer, he found that, Every time unemployment went up 1 percent, the quit rate went down

12 percent. There is a flip side to this recessionary retention phenomenon: Once the business cycle turns up and unemployment drops, you'll find an explosion of quit rates, Hom adds. And, he warns, If you treat people badly now, they might be leaving in droves. Pink slip-ups : What might constitute bad treatment? Callousness -- assuming employees should be happy just to have a job, Hom says. Shea Stickler, an executive MBA student at the W. P. Carey School of Business, has seen the emotional wallop of layoffs from multiple angles. He's been laid off, he had to lay people off last year in his position as a vice president at a Fortune 500 company, and currently he's in between jobs, since he recently took a buy-out package. According to him, Fear of the other shoe dropping is the biggest concern of employees who are left after a RIF. They're wondering, When is it going to be my turn? he says. Along with fear, he has seen people struggle with survivor's guilt, grief and, of course, the extra workload. According to Ashforth, organizations often cut more than they should. They cut past fat into real meat and bone. In fact, he thinks a lot of layoff pain is self-inflicted, because companies over-downsize and the people left behind have to dance faster to get things done. Ashforth advises companies to think twice and not over-react to tough times. If you don't over-react, you ll have more loyalty down the road, because employees realize how the company's belt-tightening strengthened the company for all, he says. Ashforth also echoes Hom's warnings against insensitivity, claiming emotional support is an important key to keeping employees productive when you've cut staff and need those who remain most. Even if you can't change the fact that people have a lot to do, simply knowing that the organization and managers understand the burden they've imposed goes a long way toward helping those who remain be accepting of the extra workload, he says. When managers are callous, acting as though people should be grateful just to have a job, people resent it. It can become cancerous over time. Seeing the light ahead : The challenges are clear: After a layoff, managers must oversee a stressed workforce and keep top performers from moving on when times rebound. What actions can help you meet these challenges? Communicate, communicate, communicate, says Stickler. If you don't manage communication, people will make up their own stories, and those can be far worse than reality. When communicating, Stickler adds, be honest, but hopeful. Hom has similar advice: Persuade people there is a future with the company, he says. Ashforth, too, counsels honesty mixed with optimism, and he points to President Obama's recent address to the nation as a masterful example of how such communication should be handled. According to him, Obama didn't pull any punches and used pretty brutal language in describing today's economic reality. But, by the end of the address, people felt energized, because he ended on an optimistic note, telling us the things we can do and the core strengths we can draw on to get us through these tough times. For companies facing layoffs, he adds, managers want to remind people of what made the company great all along and what they, as employees, bring to the table to see the company through to better times. Having been in the trenches as a manager forced to reduce his workforce, Stickler has a few more words of wisdom to offer. For one thing, there are logistics to consider in the communications plan. One is timing, which can be particularly tricky for international companies, in which one employee's quitting time is another's daybreak. How terrible is it to learn from some guy in Japan that your group is being cut? he asks. Even for national companies, timing can be a challenge, he adds, noting the three-hour difference between East Coast and W