Employee Furloughs - Publications - Faculty & Research

16 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restaurant Revolution: How the Industry Is Fighting to Stay Alive

whom were long-term employees who felt like family, were furloughed or laid off. Some owners kept their kitchens running solely to provide meals for their staff, fearful they might find themselves unable to... View Details

Keywords: by Michael S. Kaufman, Lena G. Goldberg, and Jill Avery; Food & Beverage

09 Jun 2022
HBS Case

From Truck Driver to Manager: US Foods’ Novel Approach to Staff Shortages

back and shifted its staff, furloughing some employees and placing others in temporary jobs in other industries until the company needed them back. For example, the company had created a role that it calls... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

16 Jun 2021
HBS Case

Cruising in Crisis: How Carnival Is Riding Out the COVID-19 Storm

reported infections. By mid-March, Carnival, the largest cruise line in the world, suspended operations across the globe. Yet it took weeks to get its 260,000 guests and 80,000 employees who were floating at sea back to their homes in... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Travel

Web

Faculty & Researchers - Managing the Future of Work

Paycheck? White Paper, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, June 2020. With Frederick M. Hess. Future Positive: How Companies Can Tap Into Employee Optimism to Navigate Tomorrow’s Workplace , Report, Harvard Business... View Details

07 May 2020
Research & Ideas

The One Good Thing Caused by COVID-19: Innovation

accommodating an appropriate level of economic activity. Businesses have historically overcome this type of challenge through the introduction of risk-mitigating technologies, which in this pandemic include technologies, business practices, and strategies that improve... View Details

Keywords: by Hong Luo and Alberto Galasso

01 May 2020
What Do You Think?

Does Remote Work Mix with Organizational Culture?

stimulates them.” She finds it “challenging to implement our ‘flexible’ mindset to our clients’ employees because upper management has not embraced it themselves.” Remote work can help some avoid a toxic culture. Alison Leuders comments,... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

11 Mar 2021
News

Leading with Heart

Yeah. And that's such an important question because it's easy to say that, but how do you do it? Because those who can afford it the least get impacted the most. Unfortunately that's how life works. So some examples of how we did that with compassion. We told all of... View Details

17 Dec 2015
News

Examining Global Workforce Management

As executives of an international company are considering workforce reductions in Europe and South America, they are providing layoff support to employees and working with communities to create incentives for new businesses to replace... View Details

04 Dec 2020
News

Hour by Hour

pitch what we’re doing, it makes sense to them,” observes Morris. Not only with companies, he says, but also with former employees who may have lost jobs or been placed on furlough and, through Syrg, are... View Details

25 Feb 2020
News

Why Layoffs are a Losing Strategy

written numerous cases on other companies that have forged a new path for workforce management, such as Honeywell, which chose to institute furloughs during the 2008 recession instead of layoffs, and Nokia, which built its Bridge program... View Details

Keywords: April White; Telecommunications; Information

01 May 2020
In Practice

COVID-19’s Hard Lessons Might Prepare Business for Climate Change

The coronavirus pandemic caught the business world by surprise, but the catastrophe might force companies to face a crisis that has been unfolding in plain sight: climate change. We asked faculty members affiliated with the Business and Environment Initiative at... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

11 Feb 2021
Blog Post

Good Leadership Is an Act of Kindness

few exceptions, true. In scores of first-person accounts and on social media, people are reporting they are working harder than they did pre-COVID. This makes perfect sense; as layoffs and furloughs skyrocket, View Details

Keywords: All Industries

13 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

Small Businesses Are Worse Off Than We Thought

firms are temporarily closed and 40 percent of the workforce, on average, has been laid off or furloughed since late January. Retail, entertainment, food services, hospitality, and personal services industries have been hit hardest as... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Financial Services

04 Feb 2021
Research & Ideas

Inside CEOs' Pandemic Worries: Uncertainty, Employees, and Kids

Employee well-being. CEOs were concerned about their employees: their safety on the job; overall well-being; and their own task as leaders of “keeping up morale and managing people’s fears.” Having to make decisions under uncertainty... View Details

Keywords: by Gamze D. Yucaoglu, Robin Abrahams, and Boris Groysberg

13 Jun 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, June 13

Harvard Business School Case 314-097 Furloughs: An Alternative to Layoffs for Economic Downturns This note describes the practice of employee furloughs (also known as work sharing or short-time work)... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

29 May 2020
Op-Ed

How Leaders Are Fighting Food Insecurity on Three Continents

fundamentally changed SecondBite’s operating model. Declared an essential service in early March, it immediately appointed a pandemic coordinator and developed a four-phase pandemic response plan that included health screening and personal protective equipment for all... View Details

Keywords: by Howard Stevenson and Shirley Spence; Agriculture & Agribusiness

25 Nov 2014
First Look

First Look: November 25

cuts in all parts of the business. They face choices in whether to employ layoffs or furloughs (unpaid leaves) for any needed workforce reductions, and whether to enact hiring freezes and other cost-saving changes to View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

08 May 2020
In Practice

Nonprofits Hurt by COVID-19 Must Hoard Cash to Hold On

(e.g. rent). Next, reduce fixed costs, starting with salary cuts that commence at the top and the furloughing of all non-essential staff. Finally, reorganize to operate with a permanent lower fixed-cost base. Third, they must protect the... View Details