Many organizations are facing economic challenges now that they have never experienced. And in response, some are pulling back or contracting in ways they have never done. Layoffs, closing down locations, divesting business units, or scrapping plans for growth and focusing on holding onto what they have now seem to be the order of the day.

Letting people go from an organization is really difficult. Even if it is just one person or a small group of folks, it still means people are losing their jobs. And there are always ripple effects that result from their departure.

During organizational transition, everyone is affected. There are two groups of people within an organization when people lose their jobs: the people who are leaving the organization, and the people who are left behind and watch the process unfold. People who lose their jobs are obviously impacted; and employees who don't lose jobs may experience guilt that they "survived" and fear that they may be next. The things we do to help both groups transition during the headcount reduction are completely inter-related.

There are some basic change management strategies and tactics that help ease the transition for both groups. First and foremost, there should be an underlying desire during the entire process to treat people with respect. It sounds easy, but is rarely done.

Even if the person or people losing jobs are leaving due to poor performance, acting unethically or acting illegally, they need to be treated such that they can maintain their dignity. The organization and its leaders need to be seen as "taking the high road" by the people left behind.

For people leaving an organization through no fault of their own, leaders need to ask themselves, "Are we doing what I would want to be done if it were me losing my job?" How would you want to find out your job was being eliminated? Most likely, you'd like to hear it directly from your manager in a one on one conversation rather than in a meeting of 50 people. And you probably would want to hear it before anyone else in your group heard it. While it is logistically difficult, the effort pays off.

Remember that the people who lose jobs are also likely friends of people who remain a part of the organization after they are gone. If the people leaving the organization are treated poorly, not only do leaders engender ill-will from organizational alumni who are out there bad-mouthing the organization, but they also plant the seed with employees who stick around that they might not treat them so well either in the future.

The people left behind see what happens and are impacted long term. Much of the effort people expend at work is discretionary. People actually decide how hard they are going to work - maybe not consciously, but certainly subconsciously. The boss can't make someone care about their job, communicate with their co-workers, or be creative in what they do. All of those things are at the employee's discretion. If the employee believes in the leaders of the organization, they give more. If they are mad or sad about what just happened, they give less. It is as simple as that.