When your company is forced to lay off talented workers and make severe budget cuts to save the business, it may be the right decision… But naturally, your employees will be scared, and there can be a ripple effect that impacts your brand.
Employees that are let go will have to grapple with finding a job and making ends meet. Those that remain will be relieved to have a paycheck, but may struggle with anxiety over the changes or survival guilt for having friends and family members thrown into dire straits.
It’s tough, to say the least. But you have an opportunity to manage this change in a humane way by treating your people right.
Extending your EAP benefits to those employees that must now say good-bye, after dedicating themselves to your business for years, can have a huge impact on how your brand and your leadership is perceived. It can also impact that type of talent you are able to retain and attract in the future.
Employee assistance programs (EAPs) exist to help managers and employees navigate difficult workplace situations and life changes. That can mean joyous life changes like having a child and needing to find daycare, or more sensitive issues like finding an elderly family member care and managing interpersonal relationships in the office.
EAPs are also an extremely cost-effective benefit that can be extended to employees being downsized during turbulent times. By extending your EAP benefits to former employees at no cost to them for up to 18 months, you are extending a lifeline of hope and help that can assist them in finding new employment resources, methods for navigating lifestyle changes and emotional support.
Not only do EAPs help mitigate the risks of employee retaliation, they can significantly impact the reputation and relationship you have with current and future employees and your managers – because EAPs focus on bringing about positive outcomes to challenging situations.
We all know that letting employees go is hard on a business – but it’s even harder on the families that are affected. Don’t forget the men and women that dedicated their careers to you. Give them some extra EAP.
Tags: benefits, budget cuts, business, downsized, EAP, employee assistance, Employee Assistance Program, employees, GM, layoffs, retaliation, workplace
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