Leaders, are you looking at this crisis through a humanitarian lens or an economic one? This is not a trick question: The answer can not be "both." The framework you choose most certainly will shape the future of your company.

If you acknowledged that COVID-19 is a humanitarian crisis, you made a good choice. The biggest issue right now is containing the virus and responding to people's needs in the world at large. If you focus on people now, profits will come back faster when we begin our hike up the rebound mountain.

You are a human first and a leader second

We're all a bit worried. For our family members, friends, colleagues, neighbors and community. Our health, our finances, our uncertain futures. Acknowledge this vivid truth. Embrace it and let your employees know that we're all in this together. Recently, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos sent an email to employees that was a good model for us all to follow. He explained Amazon's vital role in fulfilling basic human needs, explained how the company is protecting its workers' health and rewarding them for their service and, finally, spoke on a personal level about his own fears. Showing vulnerability is a great way to lead, especially when the vast majority of the world is also vulnerable.

Make layoffs a last resort

We're reading, hourly, about more layoffs. We know Q2 is going to be very tough, but I beg you to please slow down for a minute. If you can, try to buck the layoff mentality. The bigger issue right now is containment of the virus and responding to people's immediate needs in the world. CEOs who have jumped to cut staff may regret this action, especially when there may be many other alternatives.

The reason for this is economic, mixed with a very human attribute — optimism. Your people are your best offense and defense for 2020 and if you don't secure your own talent, you're at risk others will leave and they won't be coming back when you need them. We will recover from this global economic strain and your actions today tell a lot about you and your organization. Keep in mind that training a new workforce is much more expensive than keeping people on in the short-ish term. So losing 25 percent of your staff now could delay your recovery for another year. In addition to cost, getting a new workforce up to speed could be a drag on the acceleration of your business when it's time.

Layoffs now also tell employees that you don't care. Do you want your best people getting the wrong message and going out and looking for a new job when the economy rebounds?

Exhaust every option. Instead, try to maintain as much of your workforce as possible so that things will be steady enough. Carefully examine the alternatives. While maintaining benefits, you can ask employees to take unpaid leave. Consider reducing their hours, or offering half-pay for the next three weeks. Ask your executive team to take a reduction in pay; chances are they can give back and live on less. Are there any government loan programs for short-term funding? Can you find another pool of liquidity that you can pull from? You must do all you can to secure your workforce and think ahead. Decisions made solely with today's data are incomplete at best.

Now, there may be limited demand for your product or service. Consider ways to keep people working with new products and services that impact your ecosystem. UberEats is donating free delivery from mom and pop shops. National sports franchises are raising money to support stadium employees.

Do this right, and you help your business and other businesses be better positioned to move forward when it comes time. You're going to have to be operationally efficient, to rebuild inventory, to rebuild everything and you will need a staff who knows things. You won't be able to return without people.

If you have to lay people off, do it with care. This shouldn't be so hard to do if you have laid the groundwork at your company to treat the workforce humanely in the first place. The New York Times reported that a waitress at LaGuardia airport was dismissed last Tuesday after 30 years of work there, with no severance, limited health care and no open communication. The abruptness, the lack of communication, the confusion and feelings of betrayal sends the message that you don't care about people when the whole world is focused on doing just that. What a shame that a 30-year veteran employee would be impacted so significantly by a virus that's been a threat for three months.

Plan for the next crisis now

If you didn't have a crisis plan in place before, now is the time to revisit your policies and change them to set up a safety net for people who may be impacted, not by a horrible global pandemic, but by other predictable ebbs that they may face in their lives and that your business may face.

These shifts may require a change in the way you lead and getting unstuck from traditional frameworks of success, like profitability. Now that the rules of engagement have faltered, it's time to write new rules for this new world. This crisis is teaching us all how to do the hard things well. Heed these new lessons. In 2008, when Southwest Airlines announced they would be adhering to their longstanding promise of no layoffs, stock prices shot up, not down. And, the Fed is rushing stimulus to the U.S. airlines who have each promised no layoffs if they get funding before September 1, 2020.

Keep talking

Now, more than ever, is the time to talk, to reach out, to keep communication flowing with your workforce. Keep the output steady. Daily, if possible. If you haven't set up a mechanism to talk with them, do it now. At 8 a.m. each morning, I post on our company Yammer page; even if I don't have new information, they hear what's happening. Create moments for your people to feel like people, whether it's a virtual company happy hour, like the ones we've instituted here, lunch hours by Zoom, or more creative virtual gatherings that take into account employees are working with their kids and pets in the room. Find new ways to show your appreciation. These virtual gatherings are proof of our need to connect and to be creative. This is a good outcome of this pandemic and an opportunity to engage your entire workforce.

Right now, China is getting back to business. Apple and Starbucks have reopened there. People are returning to the streets. We still may have weeks or months of uncertainty ahead of us. As leaders, now is your opportunity to seize your biggest, most important moment and to declare that you truly care about people. What an enormous contribution that would make to the world that works.

Scott Cawood is president and CEO, WorldatWork, a nonprofit professional association in compensation and total rewards.

Instant Insights /

Don't look now, leaders: Your human side is showing

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