How to Motivate Employees After Layoffs with Digital Sigange

The current job market is no different from a whiplash. To explain, the economic landscape experienced a substantial pent-up demand for workers a few months ago as it was recovering from the pandemic. Many companies needed additional workers to help them get back up and running. As such, the job market was so hot that discussions revolved around the Great Resignation, which saw approximately 4 million Americans quit their jobs monthly. Furthermore, job seekers felt they had multiple offers, but companies complained of not finding enough workers with the relevant skills and experience.

In what seems like an overnight turn of events, the country has woken up to the new reality of inflation, affecting the job market significantly. For example, in trying to keep the economy afloat, the Federal Reserve Bank and the US government pumped millions of dollars into the marketplace. The funds were to cushion families against the harsh effects of unemployment, besides other fiscal measures.

The Effects of Inflation on the Job Market

There’s now fear that the growing inflation may lead to a recession with hiring freezes and massive job cuts. While some sectors like tourism seem to be bouncing back, others are on a slowdown. Markedly, most tech companies that reported boosts during the lockdown experienced a drop in sales as the country recovered.

Some tech companies already experiencing hiccups in the job market include Microsoft, Uber, Meta, Twitter, and Snap. They’re either putting hiring freezes or slowing down hiring. On the other hand, Carvana and Peloton laid-off employees, not forgetting Netflix, which eliminated about 450 positions.

As the Fed continues to pump brakes on the economy, many American companies have no choice but to retrench their employees. It’s unclear whether this is just the tip of the iceberg that points to more job cuts in the pipeline or if the situation will change for the better.

However, one sure thing is that it’s a stressful time for companies and employees alike. With this in mind, let’s delve into how to motivate employees after layoffs. Indeed, it can be tough to keep the workforce that remains behind motivated during these challenging times, but here’s how to go about it:

1.  Use Digital Signage to Maintain Active Communication

Studies show that employees can’t improve their performance without encouragement and respect, even if they want to. As such, employers and managers should devise ways to motivate their staff to provide outstanding service and be more productive despite the hard times. With this in mind, one way to motivate employees after layoffs is to use digital signage displays to demonstrate to the remaining staff that they’re valuable to the organization.

For example, you could use digital signage content to build the employees’ self-esteem and help them invest in career development. Inspirational messages and personal achievements posted on digital screens can be daily reminders to help motivate employees after layoffs.

Additionally, you can leverage interactive digital signage to shift employees’ focus from layoffs to thoughtful innovation. While you may have eliminated some positions, there might be additional work for the remaining team, at least for a while. Let managers and the remaining employees use digital signage to communicate how to modify processes and redistribute their workload. In other words, ensure everyone makes an input in finding solutions. At the same time, acknowledge the impact of the current situation on the work relationships, workloads, and workflows.

2.  Strive to Effectively Address Changes With Digital Signage

Undoubtedly, the employees who remain behind will have several questions running in their minds, especially concerning their job security. Survivor’s guilt may lead them to ask themselves:

• If they’re also on their way to losing their jobs
• How their colleagues who lost their positions will survive the job loss
• Whether and how their former colleagues will be able to support their families.

Ensure you maintain active engagement levels to minimize the opportunities for employees to “fill in the gaps.” A negative perception of the situation can cause people to spiral into disengagement, especially toward the human resources team. Use digital signage to communicate messages and offer assurance to every department. Show the value you have in every member on your team spotlighting team members

Creating active employee engagement isn’t a one-off event. Instead, it’s an ongoing, living, and breathing effort that leaders should stay ahead of, maintaining open communication. At the same time, it helps to share as much information as possible on:

• The facts: Explaining why the layoff happened
• Bringing teams together: Helping employees in restructuring their priorities and encouraging managers to empower them.
• How much you value the retained employees: Motivating employees to use recognition to communicate value in real-time.

3.  Collect and Respond to Feedback

Employee communication and feedback after corporate layoffs are crucial in giving the layoff survivors a voice. That’s especially true when they might be feeling unvalued. When you ask for their views and opinion, you can better understand and address their perceptions on the layoff and how they envision the future. In addition, you’ll better be able to identify the risks and opportunities your company faces. Further, you’ll gain insights into improving communication and the layoff process in the future.

Consider continuing with frequent one-on-one meetings to encourage the teams to share feedback in a safe and consistent environment. Such meetings are an excellent way to foster better working relationships between the HR leaders and the surviving employees. Also, use digital signage to announce the implementation of ideas and shared feedback that will take place.

4.  Consider Holding Mindfulness Training

Creating workplace mindfulness intervention programs at the workplace can improve employees’ psychological well-being and productivity. Mindfulness training encourages participants to embrace the idea of being fully present in the moment. It enables them to overcome the harsh reality of the difficult times in their minds.

Further, it’s about paying full attention to their actions, thoughts, and feelings as they happen, without judging them. Being mindful in the moment can help:

• Bring stressful situations into perspective
• Reduce conflict in the workplace and boost communication in the team
• Boost initiatives and creativity
• Improve focus and decision-making skills
• Employees better adapt to changes at work
• Increase engagement, resilience, and self-awareness

You can incorporate mindfulness training into the employee wellness or development program to make it part of the company culture. Use meeting room digital sigange to communicate to employees about the upcoming training so that everyone in the office is aware and can save the date. This ensures everyone feels that they’ve been properly communicated to and will proactively engage in the upcoming training.

5.  Build on the Team’s Success

There’s no such thing as too much acknowledgment. So, ensure you keep charting the team’s progress and giving plenty of private and public praise. Every project the team takes on should have a timeline and a target completion date. When accomplished, celebrate with the team and provide a tangible reward. Statistics show that employee recognition improves engagement, performance, and productivity by 14%. More interestingly, 92% of workers will likely repeat a specific desirable action after receiving credit. Therefore, highlight people’s particular contributions and allow coworkers to point out how team members went above and beyond.

Use progress meters on your digital signage to highlight top-performing departments and employees, posting their pictures and offering celebrated statements. Acknowledgement is the key to engagement and what better way to show how proud you are of their accomplishment than on captivating digital signage.

Motivating Employees After Layoffs is Hard Work, But Crucial

Downsizing can detrimentally hurt an organization and impact employee morale and motivation. As the country seems to be entering a recession, many companies have no choice but to lay off their workers. Consequently, the leadership and management in most organizations are trying to understand how to motivate employees after layoffs. While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, the above tips can help you get started. Brainstorm on more creative ways to survive the tough times with the rest of the leadership team.