Furloughs enable companies to reduce staffing costs while sidestepping layoffs, and are especially helpful during times like these, when many industries are at a near stand-still. Furloughed employees either work a schedule of reduced hours, or, as is more common now, are put on leaves that can last as long as the company needs.
While furloughs can be an excellent strategy — just ask Honeywell, whose stock returns were 279% higher than the competition’s after the Great Recession ended — like all strategies, it requires thoughtful implementation for both employees and employers to reap the maximum benefits while undergoing minimal damage. Furloughs have become a sudden — and welcome — feature of this pandemic world, allowing companies to maintain connections with their employees, cut costs while still providing employees benefits, and create a path to a seamless recovery.
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