Another week, another round of mass layoffs in the tech sector. With Amazon (AWS) and Meta cutting thousands of jobs, and further layoffs at Salesforce and of course Twitter, it has felt a bit like the tech world has been imploding of late. This is of course concerning for us working in B2B tech PR, 但对开发者来说更重要的是, 工程师, 产品经理, in fact anyone who has been made redundant from these businesses, considering how they have been let go and what they will do next is worrying. The pendulum seems to have swung from there being a dearth of tech talent with businesses fighting over it not that long ago, 到供过于求的情况.
However, the outlook may not be as gloomy as it sometimes feels. 事实上, 许多分析人士认为 that this contraction is more of a market correction following the rush to digitisation as a result of the pandemic. 是的, the tech industry seems to have been hit hardest – but no industry is immune from the rising costs that are causing redundancies to be made everywhere.
无论未来如何, the situation for many businesses is that it’s simply not viable to retain talent any longer. But the way in which you communicate these cost-cutting measures could have long-lasting consequences for the media profile of your business and the way you are viewed, both from the outside and from within your organisation. 这反过来又可能影响投资者的决策, 未来的人才获取, 保留, and of course have potential negative consequences in the media.
下面是一些需要记住的事情, 从PR的角度来看, should you be in the unenviable position of having to make forced layoffs.
记住,这是 人类 资源
员工不是机器. It can sometimes feel like tech companies operate in a way which feels transactional in its communications. Yet it’s vital for the employee and for the reputation of the business to ensure news of cuts is conveyed to staff in the right way.
虽然不是一家科技公司，但请记住 P&O渡船失事的公关灾难? The impact of laying off your entire workforce in an unexpected, pre-recorded video message sent shudders through the comms world as an exercise in what not to do. The apparent brutality of the way the news was imparted was far-reaching and went way beyond the impact on employees; P .品牌认知&O暴跌 在事件发生后的几个月里.
Such a media maelstrom can have serious long-term impact on your bottom line, for any business. 客户, 无论是消费者还是企业, are humans too – and they want to buy from businesses that value their employees and treat them well.
不要在Twitter上解雇员工
这似乎是一门基本的礼仪课, 而是在推特上告诉人们, 或间接通过任何公共渠道或媒介, 而不是当面, 是不明智的.
这取决于你的业务规模, you may want to consider releasing a statement to the press from the CEO explaining why such difficult decisions have had to be made. This will help people to understand the processes involved and to reassure investors. Social media is a great tool for the senior leadership team to add any further colour to the reasons they have had to take these steps and why this is necessary to secure the future of the business. 重要的是, 这需要是真实的, as opposed to a copy and paste job filled with corporate jargon. Audiences want authenticity from a brand in good times and bad. 记住, 公开羞辱员工 when you’re the boss is never a good idea; it may end up with 你在自己的办公室里需要一个保镖.
展望未来
The way in which your tech business is viewed both from the investor community, 潜在客户, 现在的员工, can be revitalised through PR whether you’re in a period of restructuring or not. A consistent PR programme that includes a drumbeat of positive news stories, 以及相关意见, will help you to sustain momentum among your target audiences, focusing on the key messages you want to communicate.
It used to be the case that today’s bad news was tomorrow’s fish and chip wrapping. We can’t rely on that anymore; a company’s digital footprint isn’t going anywhere. And you don’t want the first thing your next potential investor to see being disgruntled former employees complaining about how they’ve been treated on Glassdoor.
Ultimately, this comes down to respect for each other. 我们都知道企业正面临艰难时期. Treating people badly will only make the recovery harder.
