Melina Murray

Sometimes I read an article about a company and think, “Brilliant!! Phenomenal!  Every CEO and HR leader should read this and follow suit!“.Today was one of those days.  Thanks to Twitter, I came across this article from Harvard Business Publishing, Why Zappos Pays Its Employees To Quit- And You Should Too.  It is well worth a read, but can be summed up by the last paragraph: 

Companies don’t engage emotionally with their customers—people do. If you want to create a memorable company, you have to fill your company with memorable people. How are you making sure that you’re filling your organization with the right people? And how much are you willing to pay to find out?          

When you have terminations, how do you generally tell the remaining employees?  Is it kept quiet, letting people “figure it out”?  Do you gather immediate co-workers/subordinates and share the information immediately?  Do you hold impromptu staff meetings to disseminate the information?Recently, I heard the story of a termination at a large company.  A well respected, long term Vice President went into a meeting with the new head of the organization and never came back.  Staff were called into a meeting in groups of seniority to be told “X is no longer with us.”  That is it. No other information, no questions were allowed.  But the time the third wave of people were ready to go in, everyone knew and the rumor mill was full of confusion and panic.  Since then, bitterness has continued to stew.  Communication from the top is non-existent and the staff is still in a state of shock, months later. While, in general, it is not appropriate or wise to disclose the reasons for a termination, not allowing any questions or following up with staff after such a major change is a sure-fire way to breed discontent and lower productivity.  The first reaction to news like this is typically, “Why?” and “What does this mean for me?”.  As mentioned above, the “why” is something to be handled carefully. But the “What does this mean for me?” can be handled as simply as saying “You position will remain the same, no other changes are planned.  Thank you for all your patience and your continued contributions during this transition period.”.