As more organizations shifted to hybrid or fully remote workplaces, many traditional HR and leadership practices have evolved. Some practices have become less relevant, while others have adapted to new work environments. In 2024, layoffs increased across various industries, including major tech firms like Google and Apple, as well as other large and medium-sized organizations. Employees responded by sharing their experiences on social media, with some highlighting concerns about how these layoffs were conducted.
While some business leaders issued apologies, mass layoffs via digital communication methods, such as emails or calendar invites, remained common. Some view this as an unavoidable aspect of modern, remote-first workforces, while others worry about its impact on morale. As workplace norms continue to shift, it’s worth considering the long-term effects of your layoff strategies. Here are some of the key things to consider:
Why are employees so angry?
The public outrage over these practices reflects shifting expectations — there are few ways to make a layoff feel good, but most organizations will take the time to meet with everyone affected to ensure they understand their rights, the reasons for the decision, and receive support. Layoffs conducted via email, by contrast, feel dismissive and can make employees feel highly expendable. For mission-driven organizations like nonprofits, these experiences can be even more difficult, as people are being cut off not just from income but from a cause they cared about and were dedicated to.
Why are organizations embracing this practice?
While layoff practices vary by organization, the scale and frequency of the 2024 layoffs meant that many companies sought approaches that were more time-efficient than scheduling individual meetings. While a single layoff meeting may not be a significant undertaking, coordinating 1,000 such meetings presents logistical challenges, particularly for organizations focused on streamlining operations.
Key considerations for your next layoff
Reading between the lines of articles covering the mass layoffs, there are some key takeaways, the most important of which is that there doesn’t seem to be an agreed-upon “best practice” for conducting layoffs. Each organization has a different culture and set of expectations, and some industries are more prone to turnover than others. As a nonprofit leader, it’s important to take note of these practices and consider how they might play out at a mission-driven organization like yours.
Efficiency gains
Nonprofits rarely have the financial and organizational resources comparable to private sector organizations, let alone large tech corporations. As such, embracing the attitude that efficiency should be pursued above all else could make sense, as your nonprofit needs to maximize every minute and every dollar. If you’re conducting a large round of layoffs, and the prospect of losing several person-hours to lengthy meetings will set your organization’s goals back too much, you could explore the ways companies have cut back on the layoff process. However, if you choose this path, there are a number of things to consider.
Morale hit
There has been extensive research into the impact layoffs can have on the organization. Some research shows that it leads to a significant hit to productivity and morale, from which can take up to 18 months to rebound. It’s fair to assume that organizations that embraced layoff s via email or other outrage-inducing methods may be dealing with even more significant drops in morale and productivity. Many report taking the layoff of their peers as a signal that they should move on from the company, as the nature of the dismissal left both the former and remaining employees feeling highly devalued. For a nonprofit which depends on organizational dedication and morale, this cost would likely be even higher.
Recruiting impacts
Another key criticism of this new layoff protocol is the way it impacts an organization’s reputation. While some tech companies may embrace the attitude that employees who do not perform at extremely high levels are expendable, most organizations are less cavalier. Nonprofits can struggle to recruit at the same level as these sorts of companies, which makes their reputation as a good place to work much more important. If a prospective new hire learns that your organization handled layoffs in a way that felt dismissive, they may think twice about joining up.
Meeting everyone’s expectations
Layoffs are incredibly difficult, and there is no imaginable circumstance where they have no impact on staff morale. It’s well-known that HR leaders are continually experimenting with different approaches to layoffs, but the fact remains that each employee, team, and organization is going to have a different set of expectations, and layoffs will never be popular. Even the most gentle, considerate, and generous layoff process will make your team feel uncomfortable and worried about the state of the organization. Unfortunately, three is no layoff protocol that will undo the fundamental difficulty of these decisions.
We can help provide expert insight for these difficult decisions
As long-time nonprofit HR professionals, we have been through many, if not all, of the hurdles nonprofits face. We understand the decisions you must make to continue your mission, and we can help you handle these challenges with advice, resources, and an outside perspective. Whether you are anticipating layoffs in the coming year or just want to be prepared, you can count on us to help you find new resources and approaches to help weather these moments. If you’d like to learn more about how we can help, reach out to us today.
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The information contained in this article is not a substitute for legal advice or counsel and has been pulled from multiple sources.
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