A full-circle employee experience
Interestingly, the research pointed to a possible disconnect between leaders and employees when it comes to how layoffs are conducted.
What’s driving 90% of employers to plan for 2024 layoffs?
By
Tom Starner
November 17, 2023
Amid ongoing economic uncertainty,
layoffs spread across industries in 2023, and a new report finds that the downsizing trend is expected to continue well into 2024.
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According to Randstad RiseSmart’s
Global Severance report, nine in 10 employers surveyed expect to reduce their workforce size in the upcoming year, based on a survey of 400 HR and procurement professionals from around the globe, including in the U.S. While fears of a recession were often cited for this year’s reductions, those surveyed by Randstad instead pointed to another factor: talent surplus.
Lindsay Witcher, senior vice president at Randstad RiseSmart, says the biggest driver of the downsizing trend is high levels of over-hiring after the pandemic and Great Resignation subsided. Over the last 18 months, business at many organizations has stabilized, she says, and with that, companies are now looking to reduce operating expenses—often through a reduction in headcount.
Other factors include incorporating AI and automation, “strategic evolutions” and increased merger and acquisition activity.
A full-circle employee experience
Interestingly, the research pointed to a possible disconnect between leaders and employees when it comes to how layoffs are conducted.
Lindsay Witcher
For instance, 80% of HR and procurement professionals believe their company handles downsizing actions “very well,” yet Randstad RiseSmart found that just 25% of organizations in the U.S. offer severance packages to
all exiting employees; only 28% of entry-level employees in the U.S. report having received this benefit after a layoff.
For employers planning layoffs in 2024, Witcher advises them to first consider redeployment or
internal talent mobility; some employers, she notes, are reducing a workforce within one department yet still hiring in another.
“Getting a good cultural fit with [new] employees is not easy, so employers should invest more in the existing talent and upskill them to help them grow their careers within the business,” she says.