Engagement goes for a six during lay-offs
Chaitali Mukherjee, Country Manager – India, Right Management, on downsizing and how it affects employee engagement
What causes a lot of disappointment to the employees is when they can see the writing on the wall, but the business was not agile enough to react to it
Q. What are the short and long term effects of lay-offs?
A. The No.1 short-term impact of a lay-off is engagement in the organisation. Suddenly, the engagement levels drop. When the communication is not handled well, it leads to a lot of commotion, confusion and a lack of trust. If the employees are not made to understand the rationale behind the decision, it will have a serious impact on how people are looking at things. The trust level goes down and if you haven’t communicated well, then you end up losing the talent you don’t really want to lose. From a mid- to long-term perspective, one of the most important aspects of getting the engagement back on track is ensuring that the brand doesn’t get eroded and that productivity doesn’t go down. There is a certain level of insecurity among your High Potentials and other employees and if they are not aware of the rationale behind the decision, then they tend to start looking out.
Q. If a company is planning to down...
