May 4, 2017
Beyond, Inc. Response
9yWhen we choose to part ways with a colleague we are not in the habit of telling other people, including subordinates, what drove our decision. In addition, I can assure you that the layoffs are neither random nor especially secretive (whatever "secretive" might mean in this context). We had a lot of feedback from colleagues regarding various leadership positions, and I rolled out a careful yet robust method of identifying the requisite changes (in which, incidentally, I had little input: we crowd-sourced the identification phase, and then reviewed each case carefully when making decisions). Using several iterations of these methods we turned over 20% of our leadership team (and about 5% of our corporate workforce) to create room to reshape the company along data-driven lines. Within the firm response has been overwhelmingly positive: for example, our voluntary attrition (which actually topped 30% briefly not too long ago) has now fallen to 2%/quarter (a level that is extremely rare for a corporation to achieve). In addition, an Employee Satisfaction survey has recently been completed and shows outstanding gains from recent years. To us, the data conclusively demonstrates that (the complaints of a handful aside) the changes we have made have been greatly appreciated by our 1,850 colleagues.
