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This case examines the mass layoffs that swept through the tech industry (2022-2023) through the lens of four companies: Twitter, Stripe, Meta, and Google. How these companies implemented workforce change through mass layoffs raises critical questions applicable beyond the tech industry. During economic downturns, most companies may consider layoffs to cut costs. The case compares how different companies conducted mass layoffs at scale and discussed the long-term consequences that layoffs have on the company's financial performance, innovation, quality of service, staff commitment, and ability to attract future talent.

In October 2019, the director of human resources at SMP India Design Centre had a difficult situation to address. She had received a sexual harassment complaint against a senior team member from two female employees, both of whom were relatively new in the organization. Acting promptly based on the organization’s procedures manual and policies, the director initiated an enquiry. A detailed investigation found the accused guilty of gross misconduct. However, the surprising punishment handed down by the organization was only a warning letter. It seemed that taking any other action would go against the company’s best interests. The director of human resources felt torn between her responsibility to provide a safe and positive workplace for employees versus being a custodian of the corporate brand and public image. But how could she ensure a healthy working environment if the company ignored serious issues such as sexual harassment against its own employees? Should she fight the company’s ruling and provide her own advice to employees? Would her loyalty to the organization be questioned if she decided to support the two victims of sexual harassment?

In October 2019, the director of human resources at SMP India Design Centre had a difficult situation to address. She had received a sexual harassment complaint against a senior team member from two female employees, both of whom were relatively new in the organization. Acting promptly based on the organization's procedures manual and policies, the director initiated an enquiry. A detailed investigation found the accused guilty of gross misconduct. However, the surprising punishment handed down by the organization was only a warning letter. It seemed that taking any other action would go against the company's best interests. The director of human resources felt torn between her responsibility to provide a safe and positive workplace for employees versus being a custodian of the corporate brand and public image. But how could she ensure a healthy working environment if the company ignored serious issues such as sexual harassment against its own employees? Should she fight the company's ruling and provide her own advice to employees? Would her loyalty to the organization be questioned if she decided to support the two victims of sexual harassment?

The turnaround coordinator at Chem-ARC Industries (Chem-ARC) had to solve a dispute involving multiple stakeholders within the Turnaround Scheduling and Planning Department. Chem-ARC had been only two days into a company-wide shutdown when a delay on the plant floor sent the outage schedule into disarray. Members of the department started to blame one another for the issues Chem-ARC was facing. With a group of disgruntled employees, a costly problem that urgently needed fixing, and a senior management team pressing for answers, the coordinator had to find a way to improve teamwork within her department while conveying to upper management that she was capable of her position as leader.

Many workers today are stuck in low-paying jobs, unable to advance simply because they don't have a bachelor's degree. At the same time, many companies are desperate for workers and not meeting the diversity goals that could help them perform better while also reducing social and economic inequality. All these problems could be alleviated, the authors say, if employers focused on job candidates' skills instead of their degree status. Drawing on their interviews with corporate leaders, along with their own experience in academia and the business world, the authors outline a "skills-first" approach to hiring and managing talent. It involves writing job descriptions that emphasize capabilities, not credentials; creating apprenticeships, internships, and training programs for people without college degrees; collaborating with educational institutions and other outside partners to expand the talent pool; helping hiring managers embrace skills-first thinking; bringing on board a critical mass of non­degreed workers; and building a supportive organizational culture. IBM, Aon, Cleveland Clinic, Delta Air Lines, Bank of America, and Merck are among the companies taking this approach-and demonstrating its benefits for firms, workers, and society as a whole.

A growing web of regulatory minutiae governing flexible working arrangements around the world poses an acute challenge for multinationals. These companies must now contend with different compliance requirements in different jurisdictions, depending on how governments define and interpret terms like remote work, teleworking, and work from home.

This article, adapted from the new book Tomorrowmind, looks at how having siloed HR functions hinders the development and implementation of programs that could better support employee mental health and thriving. The authors discuss four hurdles that make it difficult to proactively prevent the onset of physical or psychological health issues and suggest ways that Benefits and L&D teams can work together to execute effective interventions to mitigate workplace stressors.

Julia Miller was the lead project coordinator for Construct Water Company on a water line construction project in Bakersfield, California. Miller had been recently been promoted when her new boss came to her hotel room for a meeting, but kissed her without her consent. Over the next few months, Miller faced more conflict and had to make an increasingly complicated decision about what to do next, including whether to report the original misconduct. Miller repeatedly chose not to report the incident because she worried about a negative reaction from the company’s human resources office and potential retaliation from her mostly male superiors. She decided instead to follow the advice of a co-worker to avoid conflict. Miller was constantly trying to figure out what she should do, and wondered why the organizational environment had made these decisions so difficult for female employees like her.

This is the (B) product for W27066.

This is the (C) product for W27066.

At the start of 2023, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission proposed a ban on noncompete clauses that would prohibit companies from including them new employment contracts and rescind existing agreements. In an interview with MIT Sloan Management Review, University of Maryland associate professor of management Evan Starr, who studies noncompete agreements, discusses why the FTC wants to ban noncompetes and what such a ban could mean for companies and employees.

Julia Miller was the lead project coordinator for Construct Water Company on a water line construction project in Bakersfield, California. Miller had been recently been promoted when her new boss came to her hotel room for a meeting, but kissed her without her consent. Over the next few months, Miller faced more conflict and had to make an increasingly complicated decision about what to do next, including whether to report the original misconduct. Miller repeatedly chose not to report the incident because she worried about a negative reaction from the company's human resources office and potential retaliation from her mostly male superiors. She decided instead to follow the advice of a co-worker to avoid conflict. Miller was constantly trying to figure out what she should do, and wondered why the organizational environment had made these decisions so difficult for female employees like her.

Case Supplement for Case W27066

Case Supplement for Case W27066

In November 2019, digital marketing firm Arcane was six months into the conversion of its London, Ontario, headquarters into an organization of “agile” squads (small, self-managed teams)—a radical departure from the discipline-based silos that had served the agency since its beginning in 2011. Chief executive officer Lindsay Schneider and chief operating officer David Bunce, the architects of the change, were preparing an update for Arcane’s Ownership Group the following week on the status of the squad structure rollout. Schneider and Bunce were tasked with reviewing the introduction of the squad structure and assessing the success of its implementation.

Supplement for product W29999.

Supplement for product W29999.

In November 2019, digital marketing firm Arcane was six months into the conversion of its London, Ontario, headquarters into an organization of "agile" squads (small, self-managed teams)-a radical departure from the discipline-based silos that had served the agency since its beginning in 2011. Chief executive officer Lindsay Schneider and chief operating officer David Bunce, the architects of the change, were preparing an update for Arcane's Ownership Group the following week on the status of the squad structure rollout. Schneider and Bunce were tasked with reviewing the introduction of the squad structure and assessing the success of its implementation.

Laser City was a gaming company with a laser tag facility that provided a variety of fun activities for children, groups, and corporate events. Most services were delivered face-to-face in Edmonton and Calgary locations in Alberta, Canada. To mitigate the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the Alberta Government’s restrictions on in-person services on the business, Laser City’s management team launched an online gaming service called Codo in March 2020. Presented with the new challenges of leading Laser City employees remotely, the company's co-founder needed to design selection tools to better identify and hire engaged remote employees, find innovative ways to foster casual virtual interactions among workers, and identify new methods to support employees through the challenges of remote work.

Public service union Local 892 was the union representing faculty at North City College (NCC) in Kingston, a mid-sized city in Canada’s Ontario province. NCC had approached Local 892 to request a local agreement exempting the college from following the collective agreement’s clause forcing it to hire someone permanently if they were on contract for over twelve months. The union had to decide whether to allow NCC to hire librarian Sharrod Alasa for an additional twelve-month contract or force the college to decide to either end Alasa’s contract or hire him to a permanent position.