You’ve decided you must layoff or furlough employees, but how many and who? Setting criteria is crucial for making the process streamlined and non-discriminatory to avoid lawsuits.

One of the first questions you should ask your team to arrive at the answer of “how many people and who,” is to determine what are the future goals for the company?

Other questions that will get you to your answer fast include,

• Is there a plan to outsource any work?
• Does a whole department no longer fit into the future plans?
• Are we growing or shrinking in certain areas of the business?
• What are the must have positions and skills?

For legal reasons, you’ll want to determine objective criteria for adding departments, positions and individuals to the layoff list. Likewise, you may need an objective list for reasons to keep certain individuals like seniority, sales, productivity, etc.

Once your list is determined, you’ll want to view it from a big picture perspective to make sure nothing stands out from a discriminatory perspective. Make sure the list isn’t overwhelmingly unfavorable to a certain race, gender, age group, sexual orientation, etc. If anything stands out, you may want to make adjustments.

And, in the end make sure that you keep enough people to get the vital jobs done. Piling additional work on your surviving employees will only set you up for failure.

Wimbush & Associates, INC industry focus is in manufacturing, lighting, electrical, architecture, engineering and construction. Hire right the first time. Schedule a strategy or outplacement consultation call with Wimbush & Associates today. Call (714) 988-2230 or email us at [email protected].