Ok. I guess this would be ‘offboarding’. This is for all of you having to terminate staff, in good times or bad. Guy Kawasaki offers sage advice.
A quick summary of his key points:
1. Take responsibility. Your company needs a leader and the leader must accept this responsibility.
2. Cut deep and cut once. Multiple cuts are terrible for morale.
3. Move fast. Inform the team.
4. Clean House. It is an opportunity to terminate poor performers and positions you are eliminating.
5. Whack Teddy. Make sure competence counts over cronyism.
6. Share the pain. Key management may have to make adjustments.
7. Show consistency. Be mindful of claims of cutbacks and then over generous severance packages.
Thanks for posting this Sarah. I’ll use Guy’s article as a reference for any clients going through layoffs.
Regardless of the reason it’s challenging to have to end employment for anyone. I like Guy’s no “bull shitakae” (as he would say) approach. It speaks to being authentic and taking responsibility and those are two things CEOs need in spades.