It can lead to major problems within your company if your business loses customers, contracts, and market share. Particularly, your human capital.
You might have to lay off letter format for some staff if one of these is lost. This means that you will need a letter [due lack of work] to email to your employees.
Layoffs are always stressful. This is especially true for HR professionals! This is especially true for HR professionals!
This sounds a bit stressful, doesn’t it?
It is important to have a template that you can use in such situations. This will allow you to concentrate on other things, and take one less thing off your plate.
What does it mean to be unemployed?
If your company experiences a shortage of work, this means that you have too many employees, and not enough to keep them engaged.
Think about the group projects that you were involved in at school. It was possible for 5 people to watch and 2 did the majority of the work.
This is an example where there is not enough work for all the people involved. AKA: A lack of work.
This can happen for many reasons, including at work. The most common reason is the loss of a client or contract.
What do you do if your company has a large contract with a client for hundreds of hours of work?
This is a common practice in industries that experience frequent swings in their manpower. They rely on both contract workers and temporary layoffs to maintain staffing alignment.
What about in other situations? What about when things aren’t going as well in business? Oder a new technology decreases the workload.
These situations offer many options. One organization may reduce the work hours or offer salary cuts.
Human resources will often layoff enough employees to ensure that there is sufficient work and staff efficiency within the company.
This is your job as the human resource professional responsible for this. You will need to know your company’s unique situation and use it to guide the methodology behind your workforce planning.
What information should you include in your layoff letter?
As with any letter, the letter due to absence of work must be addressed to the employee by name. Then get straight to the point.
Although it might seem good to just ramble and not tell the truth, it isn’t. This letter will make your employee happy. Start the letter quickly by describing what’s happening.
Explain to the employees that the company is in restructuring because of a lack work. Also, explain that their jobs are being affected. You can go into more detail in the second paragraph.
We now come to the next point.
The middle of the letter
We’re now halfway down the page. This is a good time to briefly explain why the layoff occurred. The layoff meeting will be the same as the one you had. Even if the layoff letters overlap in content, they don’t mean you can have a conversation. You should explain that this is a move made on X grounds.
Do not place blame on the employee. Do not try to console them. Explain openly why your company is undergoing restructuring.
It shows you care and also lets them know what’s going on. It is helpful, but not overwhelming. You are not there to apologize or make it better.
The most important thing you need to remember when writing a letter about a layoff or a lack thereof is to be professional, personal and most importantly, honest. This means that you need to be able to communicate clearly and when to send it in.
The Middle Part Two
Actually, the middle has two parts. (Surprise!) As we have just stated, the first part is about informing staff members of what is going on and how it is affecting them. This part should be concise and direct.
The letter should be converted to layoff. You will need to state that HR will contact the employee to arrange a time to discuss the layoff process.
Inform the staff member that benefits will also be discussed at this meeting. It is possible to inform the staff member that outplacement services will be included in these benefits. This can help ease tension.
If you have a written policy, how severance works can be added. You can, for example, reiterate the policy in the letter if the employee’s tenure is considered a factor in determining severance. You don’t need to explain everything, because that’s why the meeting exists.
