Employee sustainability: Respect is key to employee re-employment

Experts suggest retraining, empowering employees with career counselling and the right to sue are three methods that can make layoffs hurt less.

Trinh Theresa Do, in her recent CBC article interviewed Fraser Johnson, professor at the Ivey Business School at Western University in London, Ont. who says respect should be number one when it comes to firing an employee.

The employers want a clean break, but the layoff obviously comes as a big surprise and shock to the employee, says Anil Verma, professor at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.

He recommends employers to guide older workers toward retraining or give them a chance to enhance their skills increasing the probability of re-absorption into the same corporation or elsewhere.

Ivey School’s Johnson adds that providing career and financial counselling is another way of treating an individual with respect. Giving the employee a severance package may not necessarily make them financially secure, instead providing them with a resource to seek sound financial advice may help them negotiate a better deal.

Speaking of negotiating a better deal, Verma from U of T, believes the severance package can be made more employee-centric by including the right to sue the employer if the package is unacceptable.

Daniel Lublin, partner at employment law firm Whitten & Lublin in Toronto, in his line of work, educates his clients about provincial and federal legislation that entitles them to a minimum amount in severance automatically, but he also encourages they do research so they can try and make the best of their loss of employment.

Maybe keeping respect as top priority when it comes to dealing with a current employee or one being laid off, can help the reabsorption process along. 

For original article visit http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/layoff-shock-how-employers-can-soften-the-blow-1.2936979