Mark Zuckerberg and other leaders at Meta aren’t beating around the bush: Their recent layoffs have hit employees hard. The CEO recently acknowledged the company “made mistakes” in how it rolled out the massive job cuts, where 8,000 were laid off and another 7,000 transferred. Meanwhile, Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth said company morale is it at its lowest point in his two decades with the organization.
According to new research, Meta, as well as the many other companies that have issued sweeping layoffs in the last few months, may face a long road until company culture bounces back.
In fact, the study from Careerminds puts a number to it: 7.2 months.
The global workforce solutions firm surveyed more than 600 HR leaders at U.S.-based companies that have had layoffs in the last two years, finding that about 70% said their organization’s culture had recovered to its pre-layoff stage. On average, it took about seven months. About 60% said the culture had bounced back by about 12 months, while a quarter put it under six. Meanwhile, about one-quarter said the culture still hadn’t recovered.
A key influence over culture damage and recovery is trust in leadership and the organization.
In the immediate weeks following a layoff, those surveyed said employee trust in the company’s future fell by more than 19%, with broken trust in senior leadership and managers nearly as common.
Trust in supervisors has rebounded the quickest, the survey found, but is still more than 7% lower than before the layoff. Confidence in the organization and senior leaders are both more than 10% lower.
Prioritizing long-term talent gains in the layoff strategy
Culture troubles are largely a given after a layoff, yet HR can make critical decisions to blunt the impact and speed recovery, the report finds.
When comparing post-layoff culture to strategies surveyed organizations deployed, Careerminds found that team-building events, refreshed company values and a commitment to rehire laid-off employees all sped up culture repair the most.
“Team-building activities are often viewed as discretionary spending, especially after a RIF, but our findings suggest they can play an important role in speeding up culture recovery,” says Amanda Augustine, CPCC and resident career expert at Careerminds. Layoffs cause employees to lose important relationships, their informal networks and an overall sense of stability. So intentionally rebuilding those connections among retained employees is critical to boost trust, purpose—and, ultimately, culture.
Team-building, Augustine says, isn’t a “cure-all,” but does provide a “visible signal” that leadership is invested in talent and cares about their connectedness to one another and the organization.
However, the research found many HR leaders focused on the wrong culture improvement priorities; for instance, manager/employee 1:1s had the highest HR adoption rate, yet ranked sixth on the 10 strategies most likely to fix culture post-layoffs.
There is a similar disconnect when it comes to the tactics that can damage culture amid layoffs. All-hands or town hall meetings with retained employees, for instance, are common occurrences; yet, they only speed culture recovery by 0.3%.
Given the disruption of layoffs, it’s common for organizations to prioritize communication and policy-making for departing employees—and rightfully so, Augustine says. But they need to be just as intentional about explaining what comes next to retained employees.
“Employees pay close attention to what happens after a layoff,” Augustine says. “When they see continued investment in their development, wellbeing and career growth, it sends a powerful signal that they still have a place in the organization’s future.”
HR needs to be the voice in the room, emphasizing to the rest of the C-suite the long-term ROI of supporting retained employees through a layoff, advancing the notion that morale-boosting efforts have a long-term business payoff.
“The strongest post-layoff recovery strategies tend to have one thing in common: They demonstrate continued investment in the people who remain,” she says. “Whether that’s team-rebuilding events, mentorship programs, leadership development or other career growth opportunities, these initiatives help reinforce confidence in the organization’s future and strengthen retention over time.”
Credit: Source link
