One of the worst parts of being in HR is laying people off. People always ask me what the worst part of HR is if it isn’t laying people off. Informing someone of a death is much worse in my opinion. You haven’t lived HR until you have to do that. Believe me.

Being that I have a lot of friends who are in HR, we also know of places that are going out of business or are laying people off. Of course, in talking with people who have to deal with their business going under (but still need to hire people for going out of business activities), that’s the tougher situation. Not only do you know that your job is coming to the close but you have to help hire employees that know it is going to be a short end game.

For most businesses, there might be adjustments in certain departments (adjustments, in HR speak, are always negative) while other departments might be looking to hire more people. This presents a small conundrum for the hiring person: explaining why these layoffs or work schedule adjustments are happening while you are hiring without sounding over or underconfident in the company. Here are a couple tips for some success in this:

1. It is a fine line - I think you always walk a fine line when somebody asks for your honest opinion of the company and its chances for success. A lot of people in our field default back to the history portion (”We’ve been in business for 100 years”) or an appeal to logic (”We have the only gizmo in the world!”). You don’t want to oversell or undersell the candidate.
2. Be honest - Don’t spin. Don’t even think about it. If they heard about layoffs, don’t downplay them. Explain the situation logically. You have one department that needs more people and another one that needs less and you moved over as many as you can but they still need more qualified people. That’s why you are talking to this person.
3. Close positively - Close the situation with a positive about the company (that IS true). You want them to feel like they have the entire picture but feel good about the interaction.

Do you have any other suggestions for this situation?