DEBOLINA ROY
Abrupt termination of hiring new employees indicates that an organisation's cash conservation strategy is taking precedence over growth potential from hiring new employees.
An extremely worrying sign to consider is when outside consulting firms arrive to conduct workflow optimization. Consulting firms typically come in to look for duplicates and assess which positions will not be needed prior to a larger layoff of employees.
When leadership avoids answering direct questions about the future or uses legalese when discussing problems, it’s one of the first signs of a layoff.
A sudden halt to discretionary expense items, such as cancelled conference trips or frozen training budgets, suggests that there is a liquidity issue. The absence of the ‘little’ things typically means that the company is making cost reductions.
If a large-scale push for employees to start documenting every daily task or standard operating procedures over the last several months has been taking place, then it is likely due to management's requests for these knowledge transfers so they can assure business continuity.