Yet another survey, this time from People Management, points to how badly most employers go about force reductions:
As half of UK businesses consider making redundancies within months, the damaging effect on morale has been highlighted by a CIPD survey of 3,000 employees. The YouGov survey found that 70 per cent of employees said redundancies had damaged morale, with 22 per cent so unhappy about how redundancies were being handled that they were looking to change jobs as soon as the labour market improved. Just over a quarter said they were less motivated as a result of redundancies.
Some 81 per cent believed senior managers needed to restore or improve trust in their leadership, as only a quarter said that they were consulted on important decisions. Just over half of employees said frequent and honest communications would have the greatest impact on improving trust. Public outrage at “rewards for failure” was also reflected in the survey, as 29 per cent said not rewarding failing senior managers was key to rebuilding trust.
Ben Willmott, CIPD senior adviser, public policy, said: “Survivors of redundancy programmes left ‘punch drunk’ by the process may not have the levels of motivation and commitment needed for their employers to capitalise on any recovery. Many disillusioned employees will vote with their feet and leave as soon as the labour market picks up.
Terribly sad, really. By leaving employees “sucker punched”, leaders risk losing those employees who survive the layoff. In the employee engagement surveys we’ve analyzed for our book Re-Engage!, we see many employees who are, to coin a phrase, “sullen and near mutinous.
Mark Hirschfeld 
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