Downsizing dilemma solved by a team approach

The need to trim staff put a huge strain on both employer and employee over the past few years. Here’s how one company pulled together and came out the other side — happier and more profitable.
As related by the president/CEO of an Arizona manufacturing firm:
We had to face facts: We were close to breaking our “no layoffs” policy.
For nearly 20 years, we’d successfully avoided laying off any employees – a fact we were proud of.
But when the economy took a hit, we didn’t need a crystal ball to know that things would get tough.
Looking forward, we could see we wouldn’t have enough work for our staff members several months down the line.
That put us in a hard spot: Would we have to let people go?
We knew that in tough times, other firms had implemented furloughs to make ends meet.
Could that work for us – and allow us to keep our workforce intact?
Voluntary leave
We knew this wasn’t a situation that we could explain in an email or  a letter.
So we called a staff meeting and laid it all out for our employees.
To our relief, some workers stepped forward and said they’d be willing to take voluntary unpaid leaves of absence.
Some staffers used their week off  to travel. Other took the time to do much-need work around their houses.
And in the end, the voluntary furloughs helped a great deal.
But they weren’t enough.
Communicating effectively
About a month after our initial staff meeting, we called another one to say that we’d be implementing involuntary leaves of absence for some workers in nearly every department of the company.
Obviously some employees weren’t happy – and they let us know that.
But we made it clear that our backs were against the wall. We simply didn’t have many alternatives besides layoffs.
We communicated that we were doing everything we could to help them keep their jobs – so far we’d stopped hiring and we’d moved people around to different departments where there was work available – and this was the next best step for everyone.
By the end of the month of furloughs, our workload had increased enough to be able to bring everyone back full-time – and it hasn’t dipped below that level since.
 Now at 20-plus years
In the end, about 25% of the company – including 80% of our Board of Directors – took voluntary or involuntary furloughs.
Thanks to those people, we were able to avoid letting anyone go – and now we have the needed manpower to handle the record sales we’ve been experiencing lately.
We recently celebrated 20 years with no layoffs, and we held a catered lunch for all staff members, thanking them for their commitment to the company.
The best part: Not only have we not laid anyone off, but we’ve been able to increase the size of our workforce by 15% over the last two years.