How do you keep your employees after firing 80 of their friends?

This story relates to the previous company that I’ve worked at.

We had a situation where sales did not hit the targets and our burn rate was too high compared to our income. I will retrospect on that another time, but the fact was that we had to cut our expenses, which meant also layoffs. We didn’t let everyone go at once as we were sure that the get well plan that we had in place will shift things for the better. Bottom line was that we let people go once a year, for 4 consecutive years. In terms of employee retention and keeping everyone happy — that’s a disaster! Surprisingly enough, the number of people leaving was extremely low.

Here are my takeaways on how to make that happen:

1. Transparency — be open about the situation and explain the logic behind the recent actions. People are going to talk about what happened, so it’s better if they get all the facts right and not start speculating.
2. Vision and continuity — your employees must see past the event of people leaving the company, and you’re the one to help them achieve that. Talk about the focus of the company in the upcoming months, and make sure that everyone knows what their current tasks are.
3. Good relationship with your employees — this is the key to everything. If your employees can freely talk to you about what they are thinking, their concerns and fears, then you’ll be able to be pro-active instead of surprised.
4. Talk about it! Don’t make it a one time thing to talk to your employees, have regular one-on-ones with them, or just take them for coffee to check up on them.
5. As a manager you have tools to help preserve your employees like raising their salary, give them a bonus or retention plan. Use them wisely, and remember that it’s not all about compensation. If you can preserve someone by assigning them tasks that interest them or give them more responsibility — that’s more effective for the long run than throwing money at them.

To sum things up I’d say that if you believe in the company and if you care about your people — everything else will follow.