Dismissal Meeting
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Dismissal Meeting
Employee layoff refers to the termination of an employee’s work contract either on a permanent or temporary basis due to various corporate business reasons. In contrast with firing, laying off an employee is due to business reasons and not the employees’ fault. Some of the reasons why layoffs occur include redundancies of certain job positions, reducing corporate operation costs, business buyouts or mergers, and relocation of companies.
Employee layoffs have a huge impact on the business environment. The managers have to deal with certain emotions such as guilt and sadness after laying off employees because of how difficult their decision will be to those being laid off. The laid-off employees lose their source of livelihoods, which affect their mental and physical health due to the accompanying high-stress levels. This may spill over to affect their family and marital lives and cause anxiety, depression, and feelings of isolation. The remaining employees may also start to panic on seeing their colleagues leave, which may affect their productivity and trust in the company. Some of the employees may even end up quitting to look for a ‘safer’ work environment. The negative impact of a layoff is huge and is accompanied by a lot of negative emotions from all sides of the business equilibrium. The ways in which a manager can cope with the negative emotions accompanying a layoff include:
Effective Communication. This is to be done in a variety of ways. First and foremost, the employees being laid off have to be communicated clearly to understand why the process is happening in the first place. They have to be reassured that it is not their fault but rather the company’s business strategies (“How to Lead and Rally a Company Through a Layoff,” 2020). The managers should also be straight to the point and explain factual information without beating around the bush. The employees being laid off should be given a chance to speak and vent out to relieve their emotions. While speaking, managers should exhibit compassion and allow the employees to be vulnerable.
Rumors and gossip that result from the layoff s should be quelled, and the remaining employees should be fed with the facts and figures of the layoff process. The remaining staff should also be reassured that the layoff was necessary, and it will not affect them.
Directly assist the employees being laid off. To minimize the employees’ anger and negative emotions, the manager should try to assist them in their life of unemployment. The manager could write recommendation letters for the employees to help them seek employment opportunities elsewhere (“How to Lead and Rally a Company Through a Layoff”, 2020). There should also be a compensation plan to help cushion the employees after their contracts are terminated. The employees can also be provided with outplacement services if possible. This plan should be communicated effectively about the amount of compensation and the timeline of disbursement and executed promptly as outlined.
Manage the company’s transition to a new norm. The managers should be available to manage the activities after the layoff. This availability is especially essential to the remaining employees. The managers should assign roles and responsibilities afresh, ask for input from employees, redesign work processes accordingly, and monitor the progress of the now restructured company (“3 Essentials to Keep Your Team’s Trust”, 2019). Employees’ issues and concerns should be answered or solved efficiently to maintain their faith and trust in the company and alleviate any negative concerns and emotions they may be experiencing. They must understand that the process was necessary to keep the business afloat.
Step-by-step Process of Conducting the Dismissal Meeting
The dismissal of employees in any organization is very emotionally painful and a very vulnerable moment. Employees have to worry about the uncertainties of the future and their survival after dismissal. The remaining employees will also have many questions and lack faith in the system after the layoff. Research shows that after a layoff, the employees’ trust in the organizations is broken irrevocably, especially if it was done in a humiliating and non-considerate manner. Therefore, the meeting held to dismiss employees is very crucial. It has to be done in the best way possible, considering it has a life-changing effect on the employees to be dismissed and those ‘safe’ from the dismissal. I will discuss below how to conduct the dismissal meeting effectively.
Preparations
Before conducting the dismissal meeting, enough preparations should be made for a smooth meeting to take place. This includes:
Planning the location. The meeting should be held in a private area with no prying eyes or ears (“Conducting a Termination Meeting,” 2018). This raises the employees’ comfort levels to be dismissed and allows an effective meeting to take place.
Planning on the attendees. Those to attend the meeting should be informed and be ready to show up when the time comes. Besides the employees, other people may be invited to bear witness (Miller, 2014). These people may be the employees’ direct managers/supervisors to be laid off or a Human Resource representative from the HR department. A security officer can also be invited for security purposes.
Preparing the final paycheck. To avoid any legal issues, the employees’ final paychecks must be given to them on their dismissal day (Miller, 2014), and if it’s not possible, they have to be communicated to on when they will receive their paycheck.
Preparing a list of company items that need to be returned. The employee should return company items such as tags, keys, and cards (“Conducting a Termination Meeting,” 2018). This list should be compiled beforehand.
Having outplacement services and their respective institutions ready. If the company offers outplacement services, they should link the dismissed employees to the service providers.
Layoffs, if not done right, can lead to lawsuits and tear the company’s image. Therefore, enough preparation must be done to ensure the meeting and the events thereafter go smoothly as planned. The managers should ensure that no legally binding obligations or contracts are breached. The managers can also carry a script with them outlining the meeting process so as not to forget anything.
Conducting the Meeting
When the day and hour comes, all attendees should be present. The meeting should be short but as effective as possible. The steps during the meeting include:
Be blunt and straight to the point. The employee should be told exactly why the meeting is being held and what led to the decisions (Miller, 2014).
Appreciate the employees’ efforts. The employee should be appreciated for the organization’s work and should be made to understand that the layoff is not their fault. The reasons for the layoff have to be outlined clearly (“Conducting a Termination Meeting,” 2018).
Show compassion and be ready to deal with the resulting emotions. Obviously, the news of dismissal is going to cause a chain of emotions in the employees. The managers have to be calm and allow them to speak up and let out their emotions and frustrations. Any questions from the employees should be answered precisely and truthfully (“Conducting a Termination Meeting,” 2018). Also, any requests or concerns by the employees should be considered and addressed.
Talk about rights, benefits, and compensations. All the payoffs, compensation, and insurance policies should be explained to the employees. If the company offers outplacement services, they should also communicate with the employees about the services. The whole scope of the post-dismissal benefits should be clearly explained according to the relevant laws to avoid lawsuits that may result thereafter (Miller, 2014). This includes: how much and when they will get paid, what has been waived, and the benefits they won’t receive.
Ensure the company’s items are returned. The employees should be told how to return the items that belong to the companies and when to leave the companies’ premises.
End the meeting. After every step has been covered and concerns addressed, the meeting should be terminated.
The dismissed employees should be allowed to pick their personal items, return the company’s items before being told to vacate the premises immediately.
All the termination meeting’s processes should be documented, including all concerns raised by the employees to be dismissed. The documents should then be kept in the respective employees’ files and stored safely for future references.
Compensations to be Provided to the Ex-employee
The ex-employee will receive the following benefits (Liu, 2020) after the termination of the contract:
Money owed by the company. The employee will receive his final paycheck of $1600 the day after termination. All commissions and bonuses he earned ($400), which have not been paid, will be paid the following week on Monday.
Severance pay. According to the company’s policies, all laid-off workers who have been employed for more than a year are to receive a base severance pay of $1000. The employee will receive this pay together with the bonuses on Monday the following week.
Health insurance. The employee will receive the full annual premiums for individual health insurance of $7500 till the end of the year.
Chart 1
Compensation Outline
How the Layoff may affect the Company
Laying off employees may seem insignificant on paper, but in reality, it’s a big deal and can have huge negative impacts on the company. Some of the ways in which the company may be affected include:
Demoralization of remaining employees
The survivors of a forced layoff are affected immensely. First and foremost, their colleagues’ thought and possibly friends being dismissed affect their morale (Carrington, 2016). They have to be restructured and re-assigned roles with new teams. Thus new bonds have to be created, which is another process by itself. The remaining staff begins to fear for their employment because they don’t know if they will be laid off in the next bunch of employees. Their trust and faith in the company fades away and thus their loyalty to the company is reduced. Increased workloads for the remaining employees also causes demoralization. Some employees may quit their jobs and apply for employment somewhere else leading to loss of important workforce and intellectual property. Research also shows that some employees experience high emotional distress and feelings of guilt and anger by feeling responsible for their colleagues being dismissed (Landsman & Stremersch, 2020.
Weakened Business Relationships
After a layoff, the news will be covered in the media and reach the masses. The customers may lose trust in the company and stop buying their products because of the perceived image that the company is struggling (Landsman & Stremersch, 2020). If the layoff is reported in the media to be malicious and uncalled for, the customers may get angry at the company for being ‘greedy’ and inconsiderate. This will affect the consumer demand of the company. Friends and families of the fired employees may also stop dealing with the company to support their resentment. If an employee who had very good personal relationships with certain clients is fired, those clients may leave and partner with other businesses (Carrington, 2016). These consumer behaviors may end up hurting the business sales and even reduce revenue in the long run.
Loss of intellectual property and innovation
Some of the dismissed employees are crucial in the growth of the company. Their ideas, workforce and suggestions may have had huge positive impact on the company’s growth. Laying off the employees robs the company of smart and innovative minds which will be difficult to hire in the future (Patel, 2020). Also, teams may be broken up after some of them get laid off. The remaining employees have to regroup to continue with the tasks. Building new productive teams requires effort and a lot of time. In the future, when the company needs more workforce, the management has to use a lot of money in hiring, interviewing and tasking the new employees (Landsman & Stremersch, 2020. It’s proven that newly employed personnel may take up to two years to become fully proficient (Carrington, 2016). This may slow down the company’s trajectory on innovation and growth.
References
3 Essentials to Keep Your Team’s Trust AFTER a Layoff. (2019). IMPACT GROUP. Available from https://www.impactgrouphr.com/insights/3-essentials-to-keep-your-teams-trust-after-a-layoff
How to Lead and Rally a Company Through a Layoff. (2020). First Round. Available from https://firstround.com/review/how-to-lead-and-rally-a-company-through-a-layoff/
Miller, B. (2014). What Should Happen at a Termination Meeting? HR Daily Advisor. Available from https://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2014/08/29/what-should-happen-at-a-termination-meeting/
Conducting a Termination Meeting. (2018). Wolters Kluwer. Available from https://www.bizfilings.com/toolkit/research-topics/office-hr/conducting-a-termination-meeting
Liu, J. (2020). What to know about severance pay, insurance and benefits if you’re laid off from your job. cnbc. Available from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/17/what-to-know-about-severance-insurance-and-benefits-if-youre-laid-off.html
Carrington, L. (2016). A qualitative phenomenological study of employee perceptions of the impact of layoffs.
Landsman, V., & Stremersch, S. (2020). The Commercial Consequences of Collective Layoffs: Close the Plant, Lose the Brand?. Journal of Marketing, 84(3), 122-141.
Nurmi, E. (2018). Regional effects of mass layoffs in Finland.
Patel, Z. (2020). The Impact of “Layoff” on Organization. Medium. Available from https://medium.com/@zarana_patel1/the-impact-of-layoff-on-organization-141ea7ff5d5e