Earlier in the month, Elon Musk took over Twitter and fired off half of its workforce. While firing people is never easy, there is a way to make it worse and Musk has achieved that. First, there were no clear communications about the upcoming job cuts and then, instead of handling the unsavory task with any compassion, he let people find out the ugly truth when their attempts to log on to their emails failed in the morning.
HR professionals everywhere, as well as others in the tech industry, have been horrified at how poorly and cruelly Musk has let Twitter’s people go —- some of whom were with the company for more than 10 years. If you are a human resource professional and want to avoid anything like this happening in your company, here are some lessons to share with the management.
Exhaust by All Means Before Firing!
When a company is struggling financially, laying people off seems like a quick way to immediately control company spending. Yet, there is a healthy amount of research that warns against this approach. In many cases, layoffs end up costing a company more money than it saves.
If cost-cutting is your goal, there are many other alternatives to layoffs that you could consider that yield much better results. Plus, if your company is in financial turmoil, chances are there are deeper issues going on than a bloated workforce.
So, before you make rash, human-impact decisions, see if you’ve exhausted all your other resources.
Humanize Communication
While there is no good way to tell an employee that they’ve just lost their job, there are worse ways to do it. And Twitter has become a case study for that. It let its employees worry for days, never came clean about decisions, slashed entire teams, and never tried to hold individual meetings with anyone.
When layoffs become inevitable, follow what Stripe did.
Its CEO, Patrick Collison, sent a company-wide email to its employees. The message was short but specific and compassionate. It told everyone the number of job cuts that were going to take place — 14%. He stated the reasons why it was happening. He talked about a difficult economy but took personal responsibility for overhiring. He termed it a painful decision and concluded the message by detailing a financial package for employees that will help smoothen the transition.
The entire process was graceful and helped Stripe gain major brownie points even with those that were being let go.
Follow Employment Laws by Jurisdiction
Geographic parameters and industry factors determine which employment laws apply to a company. The U.S. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, for example, protects employees, their families, and communities by requiring employers with 100 or more employees to provide 60 calendar days' notice of planned closures and mass layoffs. Twitter is being sued by several former employees for failing to comply with the WARN Act.
Twitter, however, claims the lawsuit lacks merit since it informed laid-off employees that their last day would be Jan. 4 or more, over 60 days after the layoffs were made public.
Musk's new venture is also facing two other class actions alleging the company failed to give advance notice to contract workers before they were laid off. In addition, the company denied remote work to disabled workers leading to discrimination claims. Twitter has not yet responded to these lawsuits but a lot of industry pundits don't see the situation as an 'encouraging start’.
Don’t Fire People Whom You May Need Later
The abrupt firing of employees will come back to haunt you when you realize you don’t have enough relevant talent remaining to continue business as usual.
When Musk fired Twitter’s entire content moderation team, advertisers halted their Twitter spending. These are ad dollars that fund 90% of Twitter’s revenue. In a pretty embarrassing fashion, Twitter made a complete about-turn and started contacting some people it had fired, asking them to come back.
A hard lesson to learn here: don’t fire people that you may need later. Before you fire anyone, take a moment to remember the critical work they do for the company and how you may cripple your business without them.
Never Disenchant Those That are Left Behind
Layoff plans must take into account the workload, emotional state, and psychological well-being of employees that remain with the organization. They are the ones who have to take up the slack and may need to work extra hours to do so.
You must also need to think about your workers’ basic emotional states. Inhumane firings like Twitter create chaos, fear, and uncertainty. It speaks of a company culture that doesn’t care about its people. Disenchanted workers do not put their heart and soul into their work and may spend more of their time sending their resumes out to other employers.
Retain A Positive Brand Repute
The insensitive way these firings have taken place has revealed a lot about the company’s current culture. When the dust settles and Twitter starts hiring again — which it has already begun —- it may have trouble attracting top talent. People will remember the way the company treated its former employees and may be wary of joining such a firm.
Letting people go with respect and dignity enables you to retain a positive brand repute too. Something to consider when you start making layoff plans.
Conclusion
Twitter mass layoffs have been a lesson for HR execs everywhere. A case study of things not to do when you are a global corporation and people’s livelihoods depend on you. We hope the lessons we take from this crisis help us create human-centered management policies that treat employees as assets and not expandable features.
