Conducting a RIF with Dignity
If you’ve been a People Ops leader since the tech startup world came down from the pandemic-induced valuation frenzy, there’s a good chance that you’ve been asked to reduce organizational headcount one, or multiple times. I have yet to meet anyone who got into People Ops because they genuinely enjoy the project management and emotional toll that comes with leading a reduction in force (RIF). It’s the worst part of the job. And it should stay that way – because if running widespread layoffs becomes routine or business as usual, we’ve strayed very far from the core tenets of the People function.
Conducting a RIF, while sometimes operationally required or essentially market-mandated, is fraught with pain on all sides. The list of things that could go wrong is substantial – deliberately bad or poorly-thought out treatment of team members, poor internal communications, security compromises, negative press coverage and more.
That said, there are well-considered ways to run a RIF, there are worse ways, and there are abysmal ways. This post shares just a couple ways to center the team members experiencing the RIF — focusing on dignity and a job that goes beyond pushing the “terminate employment” button in an HRIS.
Values Based Principles
IF you are leading a RIF, get your leadership team to agree to some values based principles. For your leadership team, RIFs are as uncomfortable as it gets – after all, they’ve been selling a vision that is at least temporarily getting trimmed. By developing alignment around these principles, you’re providing the compass for moving forward:
Focus on the dignity of outgoing team members: No one is dying, but layoffs feel as good as ice water thrown in your face on a snow day – centering dignity often means challenging common ways RIFs are executed.
Communicate clearly and consistently: Don’t leave anyone in the dark wondering what happened, and with deep concern for what else might happen. RIF-related anxiety distracts from the work that needs to happen next.
Commit to operational excellence: Layoffs suck, and sloppy layoffs are even worse – well executed RIFs are an anesthetic to decrease the pain.
With these team aligned around these principles, you can move to considerations related to exit packages and communications. Note: the perspective represented is non-comprehensive and is that of a small company not subject to the WARN act.
Prepare packages to exit individuals
Genuinely supporting individuals leaving is the right thing to do, regardless of legal obligations. A well thought out package preserves team member dignity, is clearly communicated, and is effectively executed. Some considerations:
Determine how generous the company can be with separation packages. An appropriate severance offering financially stabilizes impacted individuals, helps staying team members feel good about the way their colleagues have been treated, and preserves long term goodwill for the employer brand. It might even encourage so-called boomerang employees, where team members are actually willing to come back in the future, even after a RIF.
Standardize the approach to exit packages offered – Some teams do this based on tenure, some choose to give packages based on level, and some give the same packages to everyone. Having a clear structure — based on your values — will help prevent individual negotiating or treat people unfairly.
Consider everything that needs to be in a package – severance, accelerated vesting (Should an exiting employee with one month to go before vesting their options really lose the chance to exercise anything? Asking the question out loud can help you determine when something doesn’t feel right.), keeping their (wiped) laptop, or even outplacement support and resources (this can even be offered by your talent acquisition team after exit - they are resume experts with deep industry knowledge!).
Prepare for communications
In the past, layoffs tended to be conducted with fairly harsh methods of execution - mostly in the name of limiting risk to the company. However, there are different ways to approach it. Contrast these two options:
Meet with individuals in private meetings to let them know they are being let go. Cut off their access to company system’s immediately - after all, it’s just too risky for any other approach. After the meetings are complete, discuss the changes in a Company-Wide Meeting. Limit visibility into these changes and focus on moving on.
Announce to the entire company in a meeting that a restructuring will take place. Focus on providing factual information (i.e., % of the company exiting) and 1-2 big picture reasons for the decision. Let everyone know they will receive an email to their work account immediately after the meeting ends. Ensure the time to email is VERY short to reduce anxiety. Follow up with calendar invites for exiting team members to meet with their manager and the People Team to discuss the logistics individually. Allow exiting team members to communicate with their colleagues through the end of the day.
With the second approach, everyone at the company understands what is happening at the same time, the company gets to own the narrative and prevent rumors + widespread anxiety. Rather than walking people immediately out the real or virtual door, partner with your security team to monitor systems and allow the people exiting to have meaningful goodbyes with the people they’ve been working with side-by-side. It doesn’t change the end result, but the process feels much more human and dignified.
Centering the dignity of the team member means that the person who manages them should be speaking with them about the decision, with a People Team member there to support the conversation. You’ll need to train managers on the approach (especially managers who’ve never been part of a RIF before) and provide a script that can be customized so it isn’t robotic. A basic script for a manager could look like the following:
Unfortunately, as you already know today is your last day. I want you to know that I’ve really enjoyed the chance to work with you and particularly appreciated [opportunity for custom gratitude message]. [Name of People Team member] is here to walk through logistics with you, but I want you to know I can continue to be a resource for you and am happy to [do reference phone calls/make intros to my network/write a letter of recommendation for you].
This process isn’t easy. It’s emotionally exhausting, and full of logistical challenges. However, with a focus on values based principles, you can design and execute a RIF with dignity and champion your people—those staying and those leaving—at every step of the process.
Note: After I wrote this post, I came across 11 Ways to Conduct More Empathetic, Respectful Layoffs, which outlines some really thoughtful steps that can be taken during this process - definitely recommended for those tasked with project managing a layoff.