This new article on CNNMoney.com profiles six companies on Fortune magazine's 2010 "100 Best Companies to Work For" list that have never had a layoff.
I'm guessing six is the total number on Fortune's 2010 list, or this article would have touted and profiled more firms. A 6% no-layoff (ever!) rate is indeed pretty impressive, especially considering this list encompasses midsize and large companies – which due to factors such as more complex bureaucracies and, in public companies, the need to appease shareholders can be more prone to layoffs.
We have our own no-layoff stats to share among our 2010 Top Small Company Workplace award applicants, which I think are equally impressive. One disclaimer before I get into the actual numbers below: our application only assesses involuntary turnover for the last three years (2007-2009), not over all time as Fortune's seems to assess.
Still, here's what we know:
- From 2007-2009, 44 (8.9%) of our 497 applicants for 2010 had no layoffs.
- In 2009, 87 (17.5%) had no layoffs.
The following chart shows the percentage of applicant firms with 0-10 layoffs in 2009:
If you add up all the percentages here you'll get 74% – meaning that 3 out of 4 organizations had 10 or fewer layoffs in 2009. This data point, I think, shows that employee engagement in terms of recruiting and ongoing employee leadership development can have a huge impact on keeping "A" players at the top of their game, and making more highly engaged employees from "B" and lower-level players.
All of this, of course, increases positive outcomes such as greater productivity and profitability, and also decreases negative outcomes such as having to let someone go, which is no fun for anyone involved, in any economic environment.
Benchmark your company against our 2010 small business award applicants: How many layoffs did you have in 2009? Over the last 3 years?
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