17110: Ogilvy Cuts Staff—And DEIBA+ Commitment.

 

Advertising Age reported Ogilvy plans to terminate 5% of its global workforce, including disbanding its global DEIBA+ team. According to the performative PR, the White advertising agency will shift the DEIBA+ responsibilities to regional and local markets—and probably dump duties on ERGs too.

 

The Global Chief DEIBA+Whatever+Pimp Officer for Ogilvy has been a revolving door position since at least 2017, so the latest move is hardly surprising.

 

Regarding diversity, back in 2009, Former Ogilvy Honcho John Seifert admitted the industry was “not exactly leading the way.” The White advertising agency has steadfastly maintained the sad tradition—to the point of arguably having lost its way.

 

Ogilvy didn’t just cut staff; rather, it cut commitment—which has always actually been bullshit.

 

Ogilvy cuts 5% of global staff and disbands global DEI team

 

By Lindsay Rittenhouse and Ewan Larkin

 

WPP’s Ogilvy is laying off roughly 5% of its workforce as part of a restructuring effort. Ogilvy employed about 14,000 people in 2024, according to WPP’s annual report, implying the cuts will affect approximately 700 employees.

 

“Ogilvy is sharpening its edge by streamlining our global operations and further integrating WPP Open, our powerful AI platform, across every facet of our business,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement. “This strategic evolution, while requiring some tough but vital changes, is designed to empower our teams, boost our creative effectiveness and ensure we continue to deliver unparalleled excellence for our clients in today’s rapidly evolving market.”

 

The cuts, which are being carried out periodically, do not affect Ogilvy-affiliated David, according to a person familiar with the matter. The restructuring comes as agencies across the industry reduce staff and reorganize operations, in part due to the growing influence of AI. Agency jobs are already being displaced by the rapidly advancing technology.

 

How DEI is being impacted

 

As part of the restructuring, Ogilvy has disbanded its global diversity, equity and inclusion team, shifting those responsibilities to regional and local markets. The move resulted in the elimination of Ogilvy’s global head of DEI role. Tope Ajala, who has held the position since 2021, will remain with the agency in an advisory capacity, according to a person familiar with the matter. Ajala declined to comment.

 

Some global DEI employees are transitioning into new roles, with at least one executive now focusing exclusively on such efforts in North America, the person said.

 

The agency’s “commitment to inclusion, culture and bringing diverse thinking to clients hasn’t changed,” the Ogilvy spokesperson said in a statement. The move away from a centralized global structure is designed to empower “our regional and local Inclusion leads, who will continue getting support from WPP’s Global Inclusion team.”

 

“This way we can ensure our Inclusion & Impact programs are tailored to each market’s culture and needs,” the spokesperson said. “This local focus also means everyone in our network takes more ownership and responsibility.”

 

Before Ajala took up her role at Ogilvy, she was a global DEI lead for the larger WPP holding company. While in the WPP role, Ajala helped create many programs that were then implemented at Ogilvy, including the holding company’s first belonging training, safe room conversations and leadership program for underrepresented groups, according to an announcement from Ogilvy at the time of her appointment. Ajala also served in various project management and operations marketing roles while at WPP for clients such as T-Mobile and Google, while helping on new business, too.

 

Following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, DEI efforts and roles were widely embraced as critical to transforming the advertising industry. Recently, however, agency holding companies have been eliminating or consolidating the chief DEI officer position amid overall cutbacks in budgets and resources devoted to the area.

 

Publicis Groupe made cuts to its DEI teams at the end of last year—both at a holding company and individual agency level. Interpublic Group’s IPG Mediabrands consolidated individual agency DEI efforts within its network in April 2024. Ad giants including WPP and Omnicom Group have cut references to DEI in their annual reports.

 

One DEI executive cut from a holding company agency previously told Ad Age that there are no related jobs in advertising anymore and expressed a desire to switch industries. “DEI is being deprioritized. It’s like what the hell happened?” this person had said.

 

Contributing: Bradley Johnson

17109: Publishers Perceive Performative Pride Pffft!

 

Digiday sorta celebrated Pride Month by reporting LGBTQIA+ publishers have experienced diminishing advertising support.

 

When performative Pride meets politics, advertisers head straight for the exit.

 

LGBTQ+ publishers grapple with a Pride Month ad spend slowdown

 

By Sara Guaglione

 

LGBTQ+-focused publishers faced a tougher-than-usual Pride month this June, as ad dollars failed to materialize. 

 

Some saw fewer new advertisers and lower ad spend this Pride month compared to last year. 

 

Execs at four LGBTQ+-focused publishers Digiday spoke to attributed the slowdowns and pullbacks to the current social and political climate. 

 

Some blamed the Trump administration’s pushback on diversity, equity and inclusion programs (ad budgets spent with LGBTQ+-focused publishers typically come out of multicultural marketing commitments). Others said advertisers have been more cautious with LGBTQ+ media spending since the 2023 backlash to Bud Light’s Pride campaign featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. And the current economic climate is the cherry on top, they said. Corporate Pride sponsorships overall are shrinking this year, for these same reasons. 

 

Ad agency Burrell Communications Group is among those struggling to get brands to commit spending with LGBTQ+ publications, and has seen multicultural budgets get shaved, according to chief strategy officer God-Is-Rivera. “I am seeing this mad scramble of, ‘what can we do to keep doing this?’ Or at least, if it was 100% funded, ‘can we keep it at 50% funded?’” she said. 

 

If a brand’s values align with LGBTQ+ publishers and their audience, it shouldn’t pull ad spend at contentious times like these, stressed God-Is Rivera. “Are you going to be someone else every four years in the U.S.?… Brand values need to be unshakable,” she said. “They need to parse through what that looks like among sentiment shifts… I’m seeing this behavior that’s unsustainable.”

 

While the outcome is less dire than the dwindling Pride Month brand deals for LGBTQ+ influencers, the slowdown means these publishers are grappling with less revenue than they expected so far this year. 

 

One LGBTQ+ publishing company’s Pride Month ad revenue is about a third less than it was last year, with about 30% fewer deals year-over-year, according to its CEO, who asked not to be identified to speak candidly. Ad revenue for Revry, an LGBTQ+-focused connected TV streaming network, is flat this June year over year.

 

“Several brands that we had been in deep discussions with in early 2025 implied their reticence to be in an LGBTQ+ environment given the political climate — and ultimately passed. One brand in particular actually had a Pride campaign, which got pulled at the last minute,” Mark Tevis, Revry’s evp of sales & partnerships, told Digiday in an email. He declined to name names.

 

The anonymous CEO told Digiday their company’s advertisers sit in two buckets: one that spends with their publications throughout the year, and another that “pops up like whack-a-mole” around events like Pride. Ad spend from brands in the first bucket has remained consistent this year, they said. 

 

But the ones in the second bucket have “declined significantly,” the CEO said. Pride Month is typically their company’s single-highest revenue month. This year, their company won’t hit its Q2 revenue goal. The publisher’s ad revenue is 95% direct sold, and the rest programmatic, according to the CEO. 

 

But their company planned for this, once Trump was elected, they added. They’ve had to be more cautious with spending this year, cutting back on large events around Pride.

“We would’ve happily scrambled and made them bigger… with the right advertisers,” the CEO said. “But we made a guess and we were right.”

 

Those “pop up” advertisers standing on the sidelines this month are also a lost opportunity, the CEO said. “We might’ve been able to expand [a Pride-related campaign] into something bigger,” they said.

 

Because of the current economic, political and social volatility, there’s a lot of “trepidation” from advertisers, according to Rivera, who said brands need to commit to the audiences they are trying to reach, instead of being “wishy-washy.”

 

Rivera, who joined Burrell three months ago, is working on a framework for response strategies when sentiments change. “To watch [advertisers] cower and be still [around Pride]… that is disappointing. As a strategist, it’s my job and the job of others in my position to solve for what is best… We need to work on the solution. This idea of just pulling back and then, what happens in 2026?” Rivera said. 

 

Tag Warner, the CEO of the U.K.-based Gay Times, said in a TikTok video that the company lost eight of its 10 advertisers in the last 12 months.

 

Most of Revry’s advertisers are not pulling back this month, “but we are also not seeing many new brands sign on,” Tevis said. In 2024, Revry had 23 total advertisers around Pride, with 19 new brands. This year, the company has 28 advertisers, with 18 new brands. “We have more advertisers in 2025 than in 2024, so budgets have been decreased,” Tevis said.

 

Going into 2025, Revry was forecasting year-over-year growth in June. With that no longer the case, Revry is figuring out how to make this up elsewhere, Tevis said. Fortunately, most of Revry’s advertisers have bought sponsorships that go beyond Pride, he added. “It is not atypical for Revry to see higher ad revenue in months outside of June,” Tevis said.

 

A publishing exec at another LGBTQ+ publisher – who requested to speak anonymously – said they were sold through for the month of Pride. However, last year their publication had big, splashy sponsorships from brands around Pride. This year, their publication has sold its June inventory, but not as much is centered around Pride-related content or events, they said.

 

“Brands are still advertising with us because they see that LGBTQ+ is part of growth marketing,” they said. “But it’s less loud and less proud.”

 

Even if Pride is not what it has been historically this year, execs remained optimistic.

“We lost 15 deals [in March 2020]. Everybody pulled back [because of the COVID-19 pandemic]. But that Q4 lit up,” the anonymous CEO said. “After six-to-nine months of Trump, and the tariff threats [die down], that’s a possibility for that in the back half of the year.”

17108: Miller Genuine Draft Genuinely Moldy.

 

BBDO Zagreb in Croatia is responsible for this Miller Genuine Draft Break The Mold campaign. Um, spotlighting urban/street/Black culture in stereotypical style is hardly breaking any mold.

17107: At Cannes, In-House Shops Not In The House.

 

MediaPost published a peculiar perspective pondering why Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is enthusiastically attended by White advertising agencies, yet there’s no sign of White in-house advertising agencies at the soiree—despite increased attendance by brands and clients.

 

Hey, White in-house advertising agencies might feel like second-class citizens in Adland, but they are still many, many rungs above non-White advertising agencies.

 

Expect new Lions trophy categories for White in-house advertising agencies long before even considering recognition for non-White shops.

 

The Elephant Not In The Room At Cannes

 

By Fred Schuster

 

Something big was missing from last week’s Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.  

 

Of course, there were the usual sparkle and high production events that we have come to expect – from the established HoldCos still staking claim to their patch of the Croisette, to the growing presence of platforms erecting full-scale villages, to the ever-expanding scattering of AI-infused startups.  

 

But amid the spectacle and the awards, there was one glaring absence – the in-house agency leaders who turn the marketing engines of our industry.  

 

Brands and the marketers who lead them were very much present – participating in panels, giving keynote talks, and of course, accepting awards. Yet their internal teams were neither showcased nor honored.  

 

Cannes Lions can be quite overwhelming at times. The 100+ simultaneous events, thousands of people scurrying to their next engagement, and the occasional rosé or two, leads to inevitable feelings of FOMO. But in this case, it’s just simply MO – Missed Opportunity.

 

Marketers’ biggest upside lies inside, but the insiders are being kept outside the pinnacle idea event in advertising.

 

Once outliers, in-house agencies have become mainstream. Nearly every brand has an internal agency – 82% according to the 2023 ANA Survey on In-Housing. Over the last five years of economic uncertainty, in-house agencies have grown over 20%, according to IHAF.  

 

In-house teams are tightly embedded in the organizations they serve, as strategic partners privy to the confidential data, plans, and struggles that affect every lever of marketing operations. These teams help shape brand voice, drive product launches, and often manage everything from media buying to campaign analytics. They move faster, know their brands intimately, and increasingly deliver work that competes head-to-head with external agencies.

 

So, why aren’t they being celebrated at Cannes?

 

Are they perceived to be a threat? That makes no real sense. Agencies collaborate routinely and share the creative glory with each other and production partners. They also commonly cite effectiveness achievements with their media partners. Why wouldn’t you want to share the beach, stage, and street with client agencies that put everything in motion?

 

Is it because external agencies have been quicker to claim credit for AI adoption? That’s hype, not reality. When we interviewed 120 in-house agencies across 12 verticals for our InnerIndex Study, we found that 67% of internal agencies are enthusiastically adapting AI for everyday work, despite only 18% feeling supported by their organizations to do so.

 

Is it because internal agencies take so many forms they can’t be uniformly categorized (e.g., creative, media, digital)? That’s like the famous Indian parable about a group of blind people encountering an elephant for the first time and each one perceiving it differently, unable to grasp the full picture and potential.

 

David Connell, Worldwide Head of Creative Production at Amazon (one of the few in-house leaders present), put it this way on a Cannes panel: “There is no label on the inside of the tin.” Point being, in-house agencies wear as many hats as needed to get things done for the brand.

 

The Cannes community and conversation need the operational focus, diversity, and creativity of in-house agencies. CMOs under fire will admit most of their pressure points are systemic, the areas external agencies only support, but in-house teams live in day to day. Bringing them into the mix would emphasize and enrich how brands are handling change within.

 

While external agencies get celebrated for inspiring commercial work, they don’t have a monopoly on consistency, scalability, efficacy, efficiencies, and above all creativity. The presumption that they do, which pervades the Croissette, is simply outdated. It limits recognition and stifles growth. It sends the message that internal efforts aren’t worthy of industry accolades, and in-house creatives don’t deserve to attend the adult parties. It disincentivizes in-house teams from pushing boundaries and kneecaps the boldest ideation, which often comes from inside.

 

Marketers must defend and promote internal agencies. Brands are still in driver seat and they have the ability to spark the change. They have seen the Elephant very clearly for a long time and understand its power.

17106: Cannes Safe Zones & Twilight Zones.

Adweek reported on a petition requesting Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity increase anti-harassment measures beyond the Safe Zones erections, er, erected this year.

 

The scenario presents another example of Adweek’s contention that “Cannes Lions is a microcosm of the ad industry.”

 

When DEIBA+ abandonment adversely affects event participants of color, the response involves performative handwringing.

 

When White women feel uncomfortable, it’s time to rally the troops, draft a petition, and stage a public protest. And the effort will probably shortlist for a Glass Lion.

 

Yep, Cannes mirrors Adland in regards to cultural cluelessness and systemic racism.

 

Petition Urges Cannes Lions to Boost Anti-Harassment Efforts, Despite New Safety Measures 

 

Three Safety Zones introduced at this year’s festival didn't do enough to protect attendees, industry professionals say.

 

By Trishla Ostwal

 

A petition circulating the ad industry is calling on the Cannes Lions Festival to bolster protections against harassment and assault, urging organizers to strengthen protocols and better publicize support systems for attendees.

 

While Cannes Lions introduced three designated Safe Zones at this year’s festival, two people familiar with the matter told ADWEEK that unclear protocols and limited access blunted their effectiveness—fueling the push for a more comprehensive approach to safety at future Cannes Lions events. 

 

The petition, started by Emily Roberts, head of digital at Responsible Marketing Advisory and co-founder of The Women in Programmatic Network, had 380 signatures at the time of publication. It calls on Cannes Lions to implement clearer codes of conduct, visible and accessible support spaces, mandatory training for staff and partners, and confidential and trauma-informed reporting mechanisms. 

 

While the petition acknowledges the festival’s existing efforts to curb harassment, it argues that “more can and should be done to protect all participants.”

 

Cannes Lions introduced three Safe Zones at the 2025 festival, which took place last week. The Safe Zones were staffed by trained professionals and operated 22 hours per day—from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 a.m.—to support attendees who felt unsafe or needed help.

 

The Safe Zones were located inside the main venue at the Palais des Festivals, on the Pantiero Terrace near registration, as well as across the Croisette at La Roseraie park. The measures followed growing pressure for action after several women spoke out about their experiences of sexual harassment and assault during last year’s event, ADWEEK previously reported. 

 

Read the full petition below:

 

The Issue

 

Cannes Lions: International Festival of Creativity is a celebration of creativity, innovation, and global collaboration. But for many attendees, concerns about personal safety, particularly regarding sexual harassment and assault, cast a shadow over the experience.

 

We believe that everyone attending Cannes Lions deserves to feel safe, respected, and supported. While we recognize the efforts made so far, it’s clear that more can and should be done to protect all participants.

 

We urge Cannes Lions to lead by example and take stronger, proactive steps to ensure a safe and inclusive environment for all.

 

We respectfully call on Cannes Lions to:

 

• Strengthen and publicize the Code of Conduct to clearly define unacceptable behavior and consequences.

 

• Provide visible, accessible support resources on-site, including safe spaces and trained personnel.

 

• Implement mandatory training for staff, volunteers, and partners on harassment prevention and response.

 

• Establish confidential, trauma-informed reporting mechanisms that protect those who come forward.

 

By taking these steps, Cannes Lions can set a global standard for safety and accountability in the creative industry. Let’s work together to make Cannes Lions a place where creativity thrives—and everyone feels safe.

 

ADWEEK has reached out to Cannes Lions for comment. 

17105: White Lions, White Lies.

 

Adweek published a lengthy report on Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity abandoning DEIBA+ performative PR, heat shields, and accountability.

 

The Adweek content opened by stating, “…Cannes Lions is a microcosm of the ad industry…” However, the trade journal didn’t push the perspective far enough.

 

Cannes Lions is a microcosm of the ad industry in that White men and White women dominate, while people of color are underrepresented, underfunded, undermined, and ghettoized.

 

In short, Cannes cultural commitment is the equivalent of scam campaigns—highly polished executions gushing with glittering generalities, financed by fake funding, and founded in falsehoods.

 

DEI Fades From the Spotlight in Cannes as Marketers Grow Cautious 

 

Attendees say DEI had less visibility at Cannes Lions 2025, reflecting a broader industry pullback.

 

By Brittaney Kiefer

 

If Cannes Lions is a microcosm of the ad industry, then this year’s festival mirrored a trend playing out across the corporate world: the public discourse about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has gotten quieter. 

 

As recently as three years ago DEI was the topic du jour at Cannes Lions. But attendees this year told ADWEEK they observed fewer Palais sessions focused on DEI and less conversation about it offstage. 

 

“There were disappointingly few discussions devoted to addressing diversity,” Rania Robinson, CEO of London agency Quiet Storm, told ADWEEK. 

 

Cannes Lions hosted a few main stage talks at the Palais focused on DEI. Havas and The New York Times spoke about neurodiversity, and talent agency ZBD Talent spoke on a session called “The Inclusion Revolution.” However, conversation at the festival centered instead on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI), as well as trends such as creators and sports marketing. 

 

“Conversations that once centered on equity, representation, and systemic progress were largely replaced with AI, ROI, and humor as the new creative currency,” said Ted Kohnen, CEO of agency Park & Battery.

 

Cannes Lions spokespeople did not respond to ADWEEK’s request for specifics about the diversity of attendees or DEI programming this year. 

 

The lack of open discussion about DEI in Cannes reflects a wider corporate shift amid businesses walking back their DEI commitments due to right-wing political pressure. Target, Ford, and Walmart are among major brands that have ceased or rolled back DEI initiatives in the past year. 

 

During Pride Month in June, companies including Anheuser-Busch, PepsiCo, and Nissan dropped or scaled back their sponsorship of Pride events, the Associated Press reported. And during Black History Month in February, mentions declined in brands’ social media and corporate announcements, ADWEEK analysis revealed. 

 

Marketers are more cautious about articulating values and taking public stances amid an “increasingly unpredictable” and tense geopolitical environment, according to research from the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) published this month. In WFA’s survey of global marketers, 81% said that today’s environment is riskier compared to 12 months ago. 

 

Cannes Lions has been criticized in recent years for too heavily awarding purpose-driven work rather than commercially-driven campaigns. Last year, the festival added a humor subcategory to encourage more business-minded entries. 

 

Amid these pressures, attendees like Lola Bakare, inclusive marketing strategist and author, observed a prevailing “attitude of restraint around discussions related to DEI.” 

 

While Bakare participated in panels hosted by partners such as ADWEEK, Tubi, Purpose Hive, and e.l.f. Beauty that “addressed the subject head on,” she “saw a lack of willingness to ‘go there’ from others whom I’ve partnered with in the past, like LinkedIn,” Bakare said. 

 

Instead, she observed an increase in “coded language” at many events, replacing the terms “diversity, equity, and inclusion” with words like “culture” and “purpose.” 

 

She said brands and platforms with the power to advocate for DEI boldly are shying away from the opportunity. Instead, they’re “toeing an arbitrary line drawn in the sand by a loud minority of voices that prefer we regress back to a status quo.”

 

Filling in the gaps

 

Though DEI discussion was noticeably quieter, the topic wasn’t totally absent from Cannes. 

 

Fringe events, such as WACL’s Empower Café and Cannes Can: Diversity Collective (CC:DC)’s Inkwell Beach, “filled in the gap for more inclusive conversations,” said Adrianne C. Smith, founder of CC:DC and chief inclusion and impact officer at FleishmanHillard.

 

Inkwell Beach debuted at Cannes in 2019 in an effort to make the festival more inclusive. In its first year, Inkwell drew an average of 40 to 50 attendees per session. This year, that increased to an average of 100 to 150 attendees at each of its seven or eight panels per day, Smith said. Over 10,000 people registered for the beach this year.

 

However, Inkwell also had to slightly scale back its activation this year after some sponsors reduced or ceased their investment, Smith said. 

 

“There were even some who pulled out 10 days before we hit the ground, which was devastating,” she said. “Uncertainty is the thing making people risk averse—they want to just do what they know.”

 

Visibility in the work

 

At odds with the lack of candid conversation along the Croisette, the work awarded at Cannes this year came from a more diverse set of global agencies. 

 

For example, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Chicago Hearing Society, and FCB Chicago won three Grands Prix for “Caption with Intention,” which redesigned closed captioning for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing communities. British broadcaster Channel 4 won a Film Grand Prix for its Paralympics ad challenging disability stereotypes. And Brazilian company Idomed and agency Artplan won the Industry Craft Grand Prix for a book addressing racial inequities faced by Black patients in the healthcare system. 

 

Cannes Lions also expanded the scope of the Glass award—established in 2015 to recognize work progressing gender equality—to campaigns promoting representation across disability, race, sexuality, and social inequity. The 2025 Glass Grand Prix went to Dove’s latest “Real Beauty” initiative. 

 

“While diversity wasn’t trending in the talks or headlines, it was still present in the work, in casting, in storytelling, and in the topics brands are willing to tackle,” said Alex Bennett-Grant, co-founder of Amsterdam agency We Are Pi. “The creative industry hasn’t turned away from it—not yet.” 

 

He and Smith said that while open discussion about DEI waned along the Croisette, they both observed a more diverse crowd of attendees compared to previous years. 

 

“Most of the people who looked like me in the first year [I attended Cannes] were either the help or the entertainment,” Smith said. “Now I see more thought leaders in C-suite or leadership positions who are on the stages, and that’s important.”

 

Still, she noted the lack of “mainstream presence of [DEI] conversations” at the festival, adding she hopes for more next year.

 

For his part, Bennett-Grant warned that as government policies and corporate priorities shift, the ad industry “needs to stay vigilant” about DEI.

 

“There’s a real risk that progress starts to roll back,” he said. “We must protect the space that’s been created for underrepresented voices.”

17104: On Impersonal Terminations In Adland.

 

Digiday Media’s WorkLife reported on a survey spotlighting the rise of “impersonal terminations”—that is, more employees are experiencing digitized dismissal via phone, email, and videoconference.

 

Not sure how the data specifically applies to Adland, but it’s a safe bet White advertising agencies are executing such cold and corporate cuts ad nauseum.

 

The industry has always been ruthless in downsizing, where account losses, reduced billings, and new leadership routinely lead to wholesale housecleaning.

 

Pre-pandemic impersonal terminations were signaled with moving boxes stacked beside cubicles, closed-door conference rooms, and cryptic meeting invites from HR managers.

 

Major client reassignments, pruning, and mergers surely ignited mass impersonal terminations across White holding companies in recent years. Fishbowl, Glassdoor, and Reddit serve as sanitized soapboxes for the disgruntled dismissed. Meanwhile, the trade journals have not probed for layoff tactical details.

 

The current industry fascination with AI is likely inspiring release procedures with greater mechanized inhumanity.

 

In Adland, AI will stand for Axing Impersonal.

 

Fired by email: Breaking down the human cost of impersonal terminations

 

By Tony Case

 

Picture it: You’re checking your morning email over coffee when you spot a message from HR with the subject line “Important Update Regarding Your Position.” Your heart sinks as you realize your career just ended in an inbox.

 

Unfortunately, that scenario is playing out across America, and at an alarming scale.

 

According to a survey of more than 1,000 recently laid-off workers by career website Zety, the workplace is handling worker separations with all the warmth of a parking ticket. More than half were delivered through email (29%) or a phone call (28%), while only 30% involved face-to-face conversations — meaning that HR has largely digitized one of the most consequential moments in a person’s life.

 

Even worse, 6% of workers discovered their fate through office gossip, 5% learned by way of a video call, and 2% only realized they’d been terminated when their access to Slack and email was cut off.

 

The research reveals that 21% of workers were completely blindsided by their layoffs, even though 89% felt the process was handled fairly overall. That disconnect suggests that while employees tend to understand the reasoning behind layoffs, they think they should be handled with more care.

 

When asked what would have improved their experiences, 65% wanted better severance packages, while 64% sought career support and outplacement services, 49% desired improved communication from leadership and 35% wanted more advance notice.

 

What are best practices? Zety recommends:

 

Prioritizing in-person conversations. Yes, it’s more time-consuming and emotionally challenging, but it demonstrates respect for the individual and the relationship.

 

Providing career support. Outplacement services, LinkedIn recommendations and networking introductions can transform a painful ending into a bridge to new opportunities.

 

Communicating the business rationale. Employees can handle the truth; they can’t handle feeling deceived or dismissed.

 

Teaching managers compassionate communication. The person delivering the news may be as uncomfortable as the person receiving it. Equip your leaders with the skills and scripts they need to handle these conversations with grace.

 

The bottom line is that HR professionals have the power to influence not just the what and why of layoffs, but the how. In an era where talent is increasingly mobile and employer brands are scrutinized on social media, the way departures are handled may be just as important as how welcoming new employees is.

 

As Wendy Sellers, an HR consultant and trainer who also writes the blog The HR Lady, points out, “Upholding your own behavioral expectations — even in tough moments — demonstrates that values guide every decision and safeguards your brand image.”

 

Meanwhile, workplace strategist Mita Mallick, author of the forthcoming book The Devil Emails at Midnight: What Good Leaders Can Learn From Bad Bosses, has a simple message for employers that rely on technology to deliver bad news: Don’t do it.

 

As she puts it, “A large layoff is no excuse to not offer in-person conversations and treat your employees with the kindness and respect they deserve.”