My First RIF

Riley

We are going through a small RIF at one of our locations. Me being new to HR, I have never done this thing before and I have a few questions. What's the length of time we need to give the employees from time of notice to last day? What should the severance package consist of? Any other housekeeping items we need to do before/during/after?

Thanks,
Riley

Whatever

The most important housekeeping you must do is carefully examine the criteria being used to determine who goes and the effect of that criteria. The reason is that somebody is going to unhappy. You do not want to be in a position of appearing to or actually discriminating against anyone.

cmergl

We've done two of these this year. What we do first is an EEOC analysis - what protected classes do we have. If someone is in a protected class, that hasn't ever stopped us from letting them go, but it just helps you to be prepared for what might happen. Also, if anyone is over 40 years old (a protected class), there are certain things you must include in their severance agreement - you must mention the ADEA and OWPA, inform them to review the agreement with an attorney, and give them a set time to review the agreement (at least 21 days) and 7 days after signing the agreement to revoke it. We always do severance agreements. You should have your company attorney write your severance agreement so you make sure all your legal bases are covered - some of the rules may be different in your state. In the agreement, the employee waives their right to sue us in exchange for a severance package - our package is 1 week pay per year of employment (but we do a minimum of 2 weeks pay) and 3 months COBRA paid by the firm.

We typically do this on a Friday or at the end of a pay period. Myself and the CFO/COO meet with the person in the afternoon and inform them that that day is their last day, explain why we are letting them go, explain the severance agreement, and discuss any other adminstrative issues. In explaining the reason for their termination, unless you intend to maybe recall them in the future, don't use the term layoff. We say that we've had to do a staff reduction due to lack of work.

To be on the safe side, you should probably talk with an employment attorney to make sure you do this right. Hope this helps.

Cxjo

Check your state laws for any particulars with timelines of notice that may apply. This appears to be the time where your organization will set policy/procedures and precedence for severance packages. Whatever policy you develop now is one that may be used in the future. You will want to include applicable vacation/PTO etc payouts; continuation of other benefits (if you extending beyond COBRA requirements for example), and any severence payouts (i.e. one week pay for each 5 years of service or whatever you decide upon -- if any at all).

I went through one of these when I had been in a job for 2 weeks; the company had never had any type of RIF. I developed the RIF policy and severance packages for employees (warehouse personnel) who had been there ranging from 4 years to 15 years. Good thing this was in place, becase a year later another department was closed and the company went through it all over agan.

The biggest thing was to communicate with them - be prepared for some anger, some tears and lots of questions. I provided them, one on one, with info on how to file for unemployment, a reminder that they could access our EAP, etc.

Tony Kessler

Riley,
In addition to the other good information that is provided above, you can find an article titled "Rules to RIF by" in the July 2002 issue of Kansas Employment Law Letter. The editors are Doug Stanley and Boyd Byers with the law firm Foulston Siefkin LLP in Wichita. If you don't have the hard copy and you're a subscriber, you can go to the home page for this website, log in (in the top right-hand corner), and search under the "Articles" for "RIF" in "Kansas." Three articles will pop up, but the "Rules to RIF by" is probably what you're looking for. Hope this helps.
Tony Kessler, director of editorial
M. Lee Smith Publishers LLC
(615) 661-0249 x8068

Riley

Thank you all for your great advice! Contacted our attorney and have started the process!

Riley