Four communication don’ts when announcing a layoff

Another day, another layoff announcement.

Website-building software company Wix is reducing its 5,300-person workforce by 20%, a move that will impact more than 1,000 roles, Business Insider reported. The company cited AI and a need for a flatter corporate structure as reasons for the reduction in force.

“This is a very hard decision because I will be saying goodbye to many people who have worked with me for years, many whom I call friends, people I trust and respect, friends who poured their energy and talent into Wix,” CEO Avishai Abrahami said in the memo to employees, which was posted in full by Business Insider. “Team members I know personally, and team members I never had the chance to meet, but whose commitment and contribution I have witnessed.”

While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to layoff communications, the main focus should be the impact on employees, not leadership, Deborah Grayson Riegel, executive and communication coach and co-author of Aim High and Bounce Back, told HR Brew.

She said if you’re in a leadership or HR position, you might want to say “This must feel awful, and I’m sorry this happened” so that there’s “an olive branch of a relationship there…but whether you’re the decision-maker or the mouthpiece, the message should be about them not you.”

She added that saying, “‘This is hard for me. I lost friends.’ Nobody cares. It’s not about you. That’s something that you share with your partner at home.”

What to focus on instead. The feelings of laid-off employees should be the primary focus in layoff communications, as well as that of remaining employees who may be experiencing survivor’s guilt and anxiety, Grayson Riegel said.

She recommended that HR pros be mindful of a few communication “don’ts”:

• “Don’t assume your intention and your impact will be interpreted the same way. You might have the best of intentions and have the worst of impacts,” she said.
• Don’t communicate an announcement without getting feedback, including from people who have different perspectives and ways of communicating.
• Don’t forget about the remaining employees.
• Don’t center HR or leadership in the announcement.

“If you are going to bring yourself into it, it shouldn’t be any more than: ‘Like you, I am heartbroken, sad, but that is nothing compared to how the people we let go are feeling,’” she said.

Wix did not respond to HR Brew’s request for comment by the time of publication.