According to a survey of 2100 employers, world-wide, 58 percent report that they are still planning layoffs and will be cutting even more jobs in the last half of 2009. During the past few months I’ve been counseling a number of firms faced with having to make drastic cuts and concerned with how to execute any layoffs with dignity. That may seem like it should be the natural way to approach such a critical decision, but as these cuts have been made over the past eight months, there is ample evidence that many premiere firms did not handle their economic retrenchment with much finesse.

In this article I outline six of the more common mistakes that I call “Layoff Malpractice,” five things to think through before initiating a layoff, and a dozen ways to show compassion for the emotional turmoil that layoffs cause.