How to Layoff or Furlough Employees with Compassion and Leave Their Dignity Intact

As an employer, you probably have had to make some very difficult decisions lately regarding your workforce. As of writing this article, the number of unemployed Americans is 22 million, which means approximately 1 in 4 working adults have lost their jobs. In addition, Coronavirus-related unemployment insurance claims over the last 6 weeks reached 30.3 million, and this doesn’t account for those workers furloughed. 

Odds are, you recently had to lay off workers, or you will be doing so in the coming days and weeks. You’re now faced with figuring out how to get personal belongings to these impacted former employees since they probably were not onsite the past several weeks. Here are a few tips to do that in ways that may align with your corporate culture, demonstrates your company has compassion, and treats your impacted employees with dignity and mutual respect.

• Termination of employment notification and assistance should be done as personally as possible. This may mean virtually with Zoom, Skype, WebEx or any camera-enabled service if you and the employee are observing the shelter in place mandate. 
• Most workers want to hear the news from their immediate manager and not someone from your HR department. At least have the immediate manager deliver the difficult news if HR needs to attend. 
• Follow up this meeting with a written notification and include the former employee’s name and reason for the termination with information on how to properly file for unemployment. This simple personal touch goes a long way and helps to ensure they receive unemployment benefits in a timely manner. Any inconsistency in what you send to unemployment and how your former employee completes their unemployment application can delay their payments by weeks. 
• Many layoffs are due to COVID-19, which may enable your former employee to receive PUA (Pandemic Unemployment Assistance). Make sure you let them know whether or not they are eligible for PUA at the termination meeting and in the written notification. 
• Offer a severance package and/or outplacement service, if possible, to give your former employees a buffer until they find alternate employment. If severance is not offered to every employee, include an explanation during the meeting and include the written policy in the notification. Former employees want to know your practices are fair and applied consistently. If severance is not offered, provide outplacement services and inform them of the duration of the benefit. These services often include a career coach, online resources, webinar classes, and resume writing assistance. This is important because some of your employees may not have had to compete for employment for years or even decades. These resources help to upskill and prepare for interviews, conduct salary market research, and negotiate employment offers.
• Pre-reopening day personal belongings retrieval for former employees can be scheduled a day or two before your corporate campus re-opens to current employees. This provides former employees an opportunity to come on campus (with increased security escort recommended) to pack their own personal belongings. It gives these individuals an opportunity to establish closure, say goodbye, and carefully pack their personal belongings in a way that only the owner of the items would. Company-provided complimentary boxes and packing materials should be made available to make this emotional task easier for all involved.
• Leverage a phased timeframe (i.e., Saturday and Sunday between 10am and 2pm) to safely allow former employees to enter your facility (in numbers your security can safely manage). This would be consistent with what employees expect a ‘best place to work’ company would do, and a compassionate employer would support.
• Send an email communication at least one week in advance to let former employees know a Personal Belongings Retrieval Day is scheduled. Provide a link for them to schedule a 30 minute time slot to sign up to retrieve their belongings. This enables security to control the number of departing employees in the building at any given time, and know who they are by name for the safety and security of the former employee and company facilities. 
• Concierge service for belongings pick up for those former employees who were unable to participate in the retrieval option can also be provided. First, suspend your judgement. Former employees are out of work. They may not have access to transportation, they or a family member may have the virus and under self quarantine, or they just may not emotionally be able to return to your facility. 
• Encourage remaining employee to volunteer to help you carefully pack up personal belongings in workstations of former employees. Some packers might want to include handwritten notes in the box to encourage and/or say goodbye to their former co-workers. If you have volunteer employee ambassadors or other employee affinity groups who participate, recognize them for their service as ‘helpful caring hands’ during difficult times. 
• Ask your warehouse staff or HR team to pack former employees’ items and make the sealed boxes retrievable at your security desk during business hours for a designated number of weeks. Encourage employees to let you know when they will pick them up in case they need assistance. You might want to reserve communicating this option until after the personal belongings retrieval date has passed and send it to those remaining former employee who didn’t participate. 
• Ship unclaimed belongings to former employees if belongings are left after the deadline. Be sure to reach out to former employee and obtain their current residence in case they have moved, and ship them their belongings at no cost to them. 

These are just a few recommended best practices companies can consider as you adjust your staffing levels as a result of the Coronavirus. These options do not apply to every work environment or company situation, but I hope there are a few things you can take away that you will find of value.

If you have other ideas, recommendations, or procedures you want to add, please ‘Like’ this article and add a comment. My wish for all of us is that we stay safe, remain healthy, and shelter in place with our loved ones.

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