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When organizations must reduce headcount, how they do it matters just as much as the decision itself. Four HR leaders share what it truly takes to navigate layoffs with humanity.
FEATURED PANELISTS:
In a recent panel hosted by Connex, four senior HR leaders were asked what "ethical rightsizing" looks like when the headcount genuinely has to change. Their answers kept circling back to one uncomfortable truth: you cannot manufacture trust in a crisis.
Layoffs are never just a business decision. They are deeply human events, ones that can shake the foundation of an organization's culture if handled poorly, or reinforce it if handled well. And the pressure is not letting up. AI and automation, interest-rate swings, supply chain disruption, and post-pandemic recalibration have turned restructuring from an occasional event into a recurring leadership test. The panelists, four experienced Chief People Officers and talent leaders, came together to share hard-won lessons on what ethical rightsizing actually looks like in practice.
01 — Foundation
Trust is built long before the difficult conversation
The single most consistent message from the panel: you cannot manufacture trust in a crisis. "To do this well, you have to do it all the time," said Estrella Parker of Cupertino Electric. "You have to think about creating an environment that is constantly building trust and constantly promoting human connection, so that when you are doing this very hard work, the system is already ready to be human to each other."
Jobina Gonsalves of Forrester echoed the sentiment, noting that trust erodes quickly if an organization restructures too frequently without rebuilding what was lost. The implication is clear: rightsizing done well is a reflection of organizational health, not a patch for it.
02 — Process
Structure, sequence, and manager readiness
Good intentions without logistics fall apart under pressure. Gonsalves emphasized having "a structured, thoughtful sequence of events, well thought out in terms of who does what and when." Managers are often the weakest link. Most will conduct this kind of conversation once or twice in a career, and without preparation they default to easing their own discomfort rather than caring for the person in front of them.
Parker's team addresses this head-on by building difficult conversations into leadership training from the start. "We've already included it in management 101, what are some of the toughest conversations you might have, and you role-play it, so that when it actually has to happen, they've had some experience with it already."
03 — Support
Outplacement is a starting point, not a finish line
The panel was unanimous: support for impacted employees should be substantive, and it should be documented in policy before a crisis occurs. "If you have a policy on this, it's good to communicate it. This is our position, this is how we stand when the situation happens," said Parker. People need to know what they will receive before they need it.
Support options the panel pointed to included:
Sonya Morrison's approach at VTA goes further than most: departing employees are welcomed back into their former or equivalent roles for up to two to three years. "We try not to just let people completely separate," she said. "We build in touch points. Where are you at one month, three months, six months?"
04 — Survivors
The people who stay need just as much attention
Survivor's guilt is real and often underestimated. Remaining employees grieve the colleagues they have lost, worry about whether they are next, and quietly wonder who will absorb the extra workload. "They carry that weight for longer than you would think," said Gonsalves. "Management has moved on to the new strategy for the quarter, but the employees are still carrying it."
Practical recommendations included announcing the new organizational structure quickly, doubling communication frequency, running open forums at the division and company level, making executives more visible and genuinely present, and activating informal leaders as messengers throughout the transition.
05 — Self-care
HR professionals carry more than most people realize
Nobody joins HR to conduct layoffs. Yet HR teams are often the ones who have been working on a restructuring for three to four months before it is announced, who carry the weight of every difficult conversation, and who keep managing regulatory and union obligations long after the rest of the organization has moved on.
The panel was candid about what this costs. "We deal with everybody else's bad day, and then we bring it home as well," said Morrison. Her standing rule for every manager she hires: you cannot create more stress for your staff. No after-hours emails. No calls during vacation. "If you need something immediately, message me."
Parker emphasized the importance of physical practice, yoga, hiking, and paddleboarding as a way to release the emotional intensity of the work. "Your body is the emotional vessel. If you don't do something to release this intensity, it's hard to keep being a stable vessel." Gonsalves added the value of compartmentalizing: "Be very mindful of what is your circle of influence and where you should not be wasting your emotions."
06 — Resilience
Building for the next time — because there will be a next time
The macroeconomic environment of the past several years has accelerated the pace of organizational change. AI and automation, interest rates, supply chain disruptions, post-pandemic recalibrations: none of these are one-time events, and several are reshaping which roles exist at all. Resilience, the panelists agreed, is no longer a nice-to-have. It is a leadership competency.
"Resilience is the most important skill for today, for the future, for all careers," said Gonsalves. "The world around us is changing every minute, and if you cannot pick yourself back up and start again, it is going to be very difficult." The encouraging observation: organizations and employees that have navigated repeated change are building a higher threshold for uncertainty, not without pain, but with growing capacity.
For HR leaders, the practical translation is straightforward: communicate more than feels necessary, document your policies before a crisis, give employees choices wherever possible, and never treat a restructuring as a single event with a neat ending. The work of rebuilding trust begins the moment the announcement is made, and it does not stop until people feel safe again.
BE PART OF THE DIALOGUE
This candid, off-the-record exchange runs deeper than any article can capture, and Connex members are in conversations like it year-round: peer-to-peer, behind closed doors, with the people navigating the same decisions.
