Last week, global finance company Intuit announced it was laying off 10% of its employees.
That’s 1800 people.
If you haven’t heard of Intuit, you may have heard of some of its brands.
They include Turbo Tax, Quickbooks and Mailchimp.
The reason for the layoffs was not to save money or to cut costs.
It was to remove underperforming staff.
To quote CEO Sasan Doodouzi,
“About 1050 employees who are not meeting expectations are leaving the company.”
He went on to say that,
“Intuit has significantly raised the bar on our expectations of employee performance.”
To ram home the point that this wasn’t about cost-cutting, Intuit also announced plans to hire 1800 new recruits.
The culling of “underperforming” staff is not new.
It’s also easier to do in the US, where restraints on firing are less stringent than in the UK.
In the 1980s, Jack Welch, or “Neutron Jack” as he was known in some circles, headed the General Electric Corporation.
In the first half of that decade, he laid off more than 100,000 GE workers.
GE’s annual appraisal system was infamous.
Anyone in the bottom ten per cent of a company or division lost their job.
That happened every year.
NJ sold or closed businesses not number one or two in their field.
He believed in firing nonperformers, be they people or businesses, without regret.
Shareholders loved him, but his legacy as a manager for long-term value and growth is in tatters.
Your company probably isn’t as big as GE.
You may also feel that the people you’ve hired or inherited are good.
They have potential.
Some could be great.
Both you and the company have invested in them.
You want them to do well.
Investing in their training and development is one way to ensure that happens.
Perhaps you do already.
We can help in the area of trade show marketing.
And that’s timely because the autumn show season is not that far away.
Ten Days To Trade Show Ready is up to the job if you plan to delegate some or all event-related tasks.
The training and support provided will help your trainee score highly in this area at their next review.
You can find all the details on this page.
Very best,
David O’Beirne