> Just as important to build (some...) trust and preserve culture among remaining employees.
This reminds me of how Toyota did it: they calculated roughly how many workers they'd need in a plant (counting expected future optimisations), then they went ahead and just said, "This is how many we think are needed to do the job. As you can see, we have been forced to fire 25% of you. The rest of you have a lifetime guarantee of employment with us."
And, critically, they didn't back down on that guarantee. That always struck me as really understanding how important it is to build trust among the ones that remain.
This reminds me of how Toyota did it: they calculated roughly how many workers they'd need in a plant (counting expected future optimisations), then they went ahead and just said, "This is how many we think are needed to do the job. As you can see, we have been forced to fire 25% of you. The rest of you have a lifetime guarantee of employment with us."
And, critically, they didn't back down on that guarantee. That always struck me as really understanding how important it is to build trust among the ones that remain.