35%+ of your workforce likely never experienced a downturn – too young for the 2008 financial crisis.
Seeing companies going through layoffs, hiring freezes, and rescinding job offers makes team members anxious and concerned.
Harvard Business Review study How to Support Your Remaining Employees After a Layoff showed that 74% of employees retained after a layoff saw their productivity decline after it, while 69% said that the quality of their company’s product deteriorated.
Employees expressed the feeling of guilt, anxiety, and anger.
However, workers who felt that their managers were visible, approachable, and open were more than 70% less likely to report a productivity drop, and 65% less likely to report a decline in the quality of the product.
Amy Edmondson, Professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School, provides actionable advice for managers in her How to lead in a crisis TED Talk:
(1) Be Transparent
– Share what you know and admit what you don’t know.
– Paradoxically, that honesty creates more psychological safety for people, not less.
(2) Act with Urgency
– Fast action is often the only way to get more information.
– Act even if you don’t have complete information. Inaction leaves people feeling unstable.
(3) Follow Your Values
– Hold purpose steady even as goals and situations change.
– Be very transparent about what your values are and use them to guide decisions you make.
(4) Share the Power
– This provokes innovation and gives people a sense of meaning.
– Sharing power requires you being clear that you can’t do it alone and asking for help.
Teamraderie experiences help team managers become more open and approachable, and establish a foundation of psychological safety.
Experiences start at $50 per person and can be booked in a few simple steps.
