Job-Search Efforts After a Layoff.

1 in 3 May Sabotage Their Job-Search Efforts After a Layoff

According to Right Management research, one in three people may sabotage their job-search efforts by acting with haste after a job loss. Right Management is a provider of integrated human capital consulting services and solutions across the employment life cycle.

Two-thirds (66 percent) of 1,029 survey respondents recognized that people who are displaced from their jobs should initially take time off to re-evaluate and develop a plan. Thirty-four percent indicated they would immediately jump into a job search, potentially sabotaging the very goal they set out to achieve by being unprepared and reactive.

"You should avoid rushing into the job market," cautioned Douglas J. Matthews, president and chief operating officer of Right Management. "Don't panic. Take time to think about what you want to do next in your career. You may wish to explore career possibilities such as changing functions, industries, or even a range of work-life options such as part-time employment, entrepreneurial and retirement alternatives.

"Matthews recommends what NOT to do immediately after a job loss:

1. Don't make calls and send e-mails to networking contacts asking for job leads.

2. Don't contact recruiters, respond to ads or post to Internet job boards until you've carefully reviewed and updated your resume, set clear goals and developed a plan.

3. Avoid making negative comments about your previous employer. Try to project a positive attitude.


Matthews offers this advice to employees facing a new job search:


1. Take time off to reassess your career and determine what you want to do next.

Immediately following the loss of a job, many people are not completely prepared, are still too emotional and have no comprehensive plan to launch an employment search. Assess strengths, identify goals, focus on the future and create an action plan before moving forward.

2. Continually build and maintain professional relationships in your network. Successful networking means gathering and sharing ideas and information. A helpful attitude and a genuine desire to be a useful contact or resource for others will make you a valuable connector. Right Management research shows that more than 50 percent of new jobs are found through networking. Leverage online professional networking to expand the reach of your traditional network.

3. Be prepared. Most employees can typically expect to be displaced from their jobs at least once during their careers. Keep your resume up-to-date. It should describe you at your highest level of accomplishment, telling the story of your career, how you can help contribute to an organization and provide solutions to their needs.

Ref: Right.com

Layoffs can increase your liability

As the economy continues to contract, both large and small companies are facing layoffs. When downsizing, organizations face an increase in work-related injuries and claims alleging disparate treatment. Even though the employee who files the claim may no longer work for you, the claim will continue hurt your workers’ compensation loss history, sometimes for many years. Employment claims, which cost literally tens of thousands of dollars just to defend, will adversely affect your loss record, as well.

Facing layoffs, a proactive plan to prevent post-layoff injury reporting and avoid employment claims can help protect your company.

Here are steps you can take to minimize the risk of post-layoff claims.

1. Develop a lay-off plan before cuts are necessary. With a plan in place before you need it, you can prevent a great deal of workplace turmoil. Ensure that your plan doesn’t adversely impact protected groups—women, minorities or workers over 40. In larger operations, this simply cannot be done without expert assistance. With your broker’s help, you may be able to involve your insurance carrier in the process to help design and implement a pre-layoff process that protects your organization. The cost of developing the plan may be only a fraction of the cost of defending one employment claim.

2. Use a performance-based layoff plan with written criteria for termination. Don’t be afraid to eliminate slackers. This tells your star performers that you appreciate their hard work and loyalty. But before you make a subjective decision to terminate, be sure you base that conclusion on objective standards. Consistently reviewing and documenting performance before terminations makes it is easier to defend disparate treatment claims.

3. Train supervisors and managers who will make employment decisions. Managers should be well-versed in the termination process and know enough financial details to explain the layoffs. Clearly stating to employees why they are being terminated can help if you are later faced with an employment claim.

4. Conduct exit interviews with every employee who will be laid off or terminated. Ensure at least one company executive, and if possible a legal consultant such as a human resources consultant or attorney attends, as well. During the interview, ask that employees help you to complete and then ask them to sign a standardized checklist that includes administrative details such as key surrender. Ask on that questionnaire if the employee has suffered a workplace injury and the current status of that injury.

If non-English speaking employees work in your facilities, have forms available in other languages. While some experts recommend employees sign injury waivers, waivers rarely work as intended and could be perceived as a sign of bad faith. If your downsizing generates publicity, the way in which you handle the closure will be closely scrutinized by attorneys and the media.

5. Offer post-placement assistance such as skills assessments, resume assistance and job search help. The sweeter the severance packages the better. This includes extended help with health benefits and other goodwill efforts.

6. Act quickly, but be careful what you promise. Statements like “We’re through with the cuts” can backfire. Once the decision is made to cut jobs, do so quickly, because not matter how closely organizations guard their decisions, word will probably leak out and your workforce will be negatively impacted.

Eliminating positions is never easy, but the way you handle layoffs is critical. Treat employees with dignity and respect, not just because disgruntled employees can damage your reputation, but because it is the right thing to do. Remember that you may be faced with unwanted media attention and a barrage of plaintiff firms targeting your former employees. Be sure to empathize with employees’ feelings and stressors that accompany a layoff, but protect your organization in the process.

Downsizings and Mergers

Firm’s often use downsizing – reducing, usually dramatically, the number of people the firm employs to better their financial position. Yet many firms discover operating earnings don’t rise after major cuts. Low morale among those remaining may be part of the problem.

From a practical point of view, firms can take steps to reduce the remaining employees’ uncertainty and to boost their morale. A post-downsizing program at Duracell, Inc., (now part of Dow), illustrates what you can do. The program had post-downsizing announcement activities, including a full staff meeting at the facility; immediate follow up in which remaining employees were split into groups with senior managers to express their concerns and have their questions answered; and long term support, for instance by encouraging supervisors to meet with employees frequently and informally to encourage an open door atmosphere. Other companies, such as the Diners Club subsidiary of Citigroup used attitude surveys to help management monitor how post-downsizing effort are progressing.

Regardless of why you’re downsizing, think through the process, both to avoid unnecessary consequences and to ensure the process is fair. Here are some guidelines for implementing a reduction in force.

Identify objectives and constraints: For example, decide how many positions to eliminate at which locations, and what criteria to use to pinpoint the employees to whom you’ll offer voluntary exit incentives.

Form a downsizing team: This management team should prepare a communication strategy for explaining the downsizing; establish hiring and promotion levels; produce a downsizing schedule; and supervise the displaced employees’ benefit programs.

Address legal issues: You’ll want to ensure that others won’t view downsizing as a subterfuge to lay off protected classes of employees. Therefore, review factors such as age, race, and gender before finalizing and communicating any dismissals.

Plan post-implementation actions: Activities such as surveys and explanatory meetings can help maintain morale. Similarly, some suggest a hiring freeze of at least six months after the layoffs have taken effect.

Dress security concerns: As with any large layoffs, it may be wise to have security personnel in place in case there’s a problem from one or two employees and to follow the dismissal checklist discussed earlier.

Downsizings needn’t necessarily suggest the horror stories the press occasionally characterizes them as. Information sharing in terms of providing advanced notice regarding the layoff, and interpersonal sensitivity in terms of the manager’s demeanor during lay-offs can both help cushion the otherwise negative effects.

One lawyer contends that when employees seek out lawyers after layoffs it’s often because they’re unhappy with the layoff was achieved. The people who will actually be announcing the downsizing and dealing with the employees need to be able to explain factually what is happening and what the employees’ rights are, and must limit their comments to what is true.

In terms of dismissal, mergers and acquisitions are usually one-sided. One company essentially acquires the other, and it is often the employees of the latter who find themselves looking for new jobs. In such a situation, the remaining employees in the acquired firm may be hypersensitive to mistreatment of their colleagues. Seeing your former colleagues fired is bad enough for morale. Seeing them fired under conditions that smack of unfairness poisons the relationship. As a rule, therefore:

1. Avoid the appearance of power and domination
2. Avoid win-lose behavior
3. Remain businesslike and professional in all dealings
4. Maintain as positive a feeling about the acquired company as possible
5. Remember that the degree to which your organization treats the acquired group with care and dignity will affect the confidence, productivity, and commitment of those who remain.

THE ‘LAY-OFF’ TRAP

LAYING OFF EMPLOYEES IN BULK IS NEVER AN EASY TASK. EXPERTS FROM CORPORATE INDIA TELL RAMIYA BHAS HOW THIS EXERCISE CAN BE CARRIED OUT WITH A LITTLE SENSITIVITY AND EMPATHY TOWARDS EMPLOYEE NEEDS

Recently, a leading MNC in the country decided to lay off more than 500 of their employees from different verticals on grounds of poor performance. The organisation believed that they had given these 500 and more employees a chance to redeem themselves but all efforts seemed to have gone in vain as they showed little or no signs of improvement and were hence asked to put in their papers, voluntarily. Though, in the past, this practice was exercised by organisations occasionally, only in times of dire crisis; in today’s corporate scenario, there are quite a few number of organisations laying off people especially in bulk. There are such times in every organisation when they need to make a decision as to who has to be retained and who has to be let off, especially during situations like mergers and acquisitions, bankruptcy, poor performance, crisis etc. But today, there are ways through which organisations can help their employees under such circumstances by showing a little empathy, concern and a whole lot of counselling.

FACING THE DILEMMA

Though not an easy time in an organisation, such situations are known to arise when the employees least expect. Shiv Agarwal, CEO, ABC Consultants says that such situations can be planned or unplanned and the organisation has to be ready to face the grind. "The most common reason for an unplanned reactive move is a severe economic crisis – if the company faces a sudden financial slump, either in the country it is operating in or elsewhere. In the case of a planned layoff, the employees should be given adequate warning so that they can make alternate provisions. Their economic interest must also be looked after," he explains.

Once in the face of the situation, there is not much one can do to change anything. However, organisations have to be prepared in their own way and be ready with a plan of action to handle the situation. Experts say that having a plan of sorts can help them to break the news to the employees. "Before letting any of the employees off, no matter how large the employee base, the news has to be communicated to the 'laid off employees' and the reason too of doing so. Every employee needs to be told that they are being let off because the situation has called for it," expresses Sampat Shetty, VP, TeamLease Services Pvt. Ltd.

Vishal Khanna, Head, Management Development, Ceat Ltd. further explains, "There needs to be a strategically appointed committee involving people from all the affected functions for communicating such matters as HR alone may not be the only equipped function to break the news."

CONTROLLING THE CAUSE

Experts say that while letting off people, it is the HR department that plays a very crucial role. It is at this time when they can help the heads of the department to evaluate and figure out who has to be let off and who can be retained. Agarwal explains, "The HR department should address the situation in a dignified and controlled manner. There are companies giving a few hours notice for its employees to pack up and leave. It is a very sensitive matter and therefore the process becomes tough and painful. There have been cases where the HR has handled the whole situation very badly and it has only showed lack of maturity and insensitiveness on the part of the company. At times like these, it is necessary that HR should announce layoffs in advance, giving their stockholders, employees and other participants advance notice."

Khanna says that HR's main role is to is to carefully and sensitively manage the decision making process, the communication process and the culture before, during and after the retrenchment as there is going to be a great sense of job insecurity and how the process is handled will define the future of the organisation and its employer brand in the market."

SUPPORTING THE PEOPLE

Laying off people is not an easy task, however in the end it has to be done. But experts today also emphasise that there are various ways through which they can help the employees in getting things back in order. "Companies usually say that bulk layoffs are done because the employees were not performing. This is done to avoid legal hassles etc. However, they could be a little more upfront and call it a kind of an ‘austerity measure' rather than putting the blame on the employees. Further, companies can hire counsellors to address the grievances of ‘to-be laid off’ employees and advise them on the prospects of employment. Professional consultants who address them are expected to take a positive stand. They collect the CVs and assure them of jobs elsewhere in the industry," explains Agarwal. Shetty adds that organisations can help these 'laid off' employees by giving them a second chance within the organisation. He explains, "These employees should be the first choice of employment in case an opening within the organisation opens up.” Another alternative that Khanna suggests is that some of these employees can be re-skilled or be put up in different roles and can be hired as per the work requirement. "The organisation can also provide them with positive service certificates and reference certificates to facilitate their employment search," he adds.

Agarwal further adds, "Companies should provide career counselling. Further, the job market leans heavily on referrals."

In the end, when employees have to be laid off, there is nothing much one can do about it. However, the organisation can help in their own way and keep in mind that when the time comes to hire someone new, they will think of their exemployees first.

Reference: Ramiya Bhas (TOI)