Employer Guidelines for Severance Packages: Ensuring Fairness for Black Employees During Redundancies
Equity isn’t just about who gets hired or promoted—it’s about how people are treated when they leave.
The Onyx Truth Team
Editor
Are you ready for the truth?
Let’s be honest—layoffs are one of the hardest decisions any organization has to make. But how you handle them says a lot about who you are as an employer. And here’s the truth: even well-intentioned companies can unintentionally cause harm if they don’t take an equity-informed approach to workforce reductions.
Black employees already face systemic barriers in hiring, promotion, and performance evaluation. So when layoffs come, they’re often the first to go—and the last to receive equitable support on the way out. That’s not just unfortunate. It’s unacceptable.
If you're truly committed to inclusion, equity doesn’t stop when the job ends. It has to extend to severance policies too.
Your Guidelines
1. Audit Your Layoff Criteria for Bias
Before finalizing any list of impacted employees, ask yourself: is this process truly race-neutral?
✅ Review data by race, role, tenure, and performance
If Black employees are overrepresented in the layoff list, dig deeper. Are you relying on subjective performance reviews? Are roles being cut from departments with higher Black representation?
✅ Consult your legal teams
They should have eyes on every stage of the process—not just to check boxes, but to prevent harm.
2. Standardize Severance Offerings Across the Board
Inconsistency breeds inequity. Don’t leave severance terms up to individual managers or negotiations.
Develop a transparent severance policy:
Base it on clear, consistent metrics like tenure or level—not on what someone asks for or how loud they are.
Ensure parity in benefits offered:
That includes healthcare continuation, outplacement services, and payout of unused PTO. Black employees shouldn’t have to ask for what others are offered automatically.
3. Design for Dignity and Long-Term Support
Layoffs are more than a financial event. They’re emotional—and for many Black professionals, they can be retraumatizing.
Provide culturally competent outplacement support
Partner with career coaches or services that understand the unique challenges Black professionals face in the job market.Offer emotional and mental health resources
Make sure those resources are inclusive and reflect the cultural needs of those impacted.Give employees time to process and plan
Don’t expect folks to sign agreements on the spot. Encourage them to seek legal advice or support—without pressure.
4. Be Transparent—and Accountable
Trust is fragile, especially for employees who may already feel marginalized.
Share aggregate data post-layoffs
Let your workforce know how layoffs impacted different groups, and what steps you’re taking to ensure fairness.Acknowledge historical inequities
If you find racial disparities in your layoff outcomes, own it. Then outline how you’ll course-correct moving forward.
Creating Equity in Hard Moments Matters
Equity isn’t just about who gets hired or promoted—it’s about how people are treated when they leave. By prioritizing fairness, transparency, and cultural competence in your severance practices, you don’t just protect your reputation. You honor the humanity and contributions of every employee, especially those who too often carry the heaviest burden.
Partner With The Onyx Truth
At The Onyx Truth, we help companies move from performative to proactive when it comes to supporting Black professionals. That includes making sure your exit processes are as inclusive as your onboarding.
We can help you:
✅ Build partnerships with culturally aligned career support services
✅ Train HR teams on equitable layoff practices
✅ Elevate your employer brand by doing what’s right—even in tough times
Layoffs are hard. Doing them equitably is harder—but absolutely necessary.
If you want to build a workplace that Black employees trust, it starts with how you treat them at every stage of the employee lifecycle. Especially the end.
📩 Ready to lead with integrity? Let The Onyx Truth help you build equity into every decision—even the difficult ones.
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