Excellent Internal Announcement Addresses Dignity, Dollars and Destiny
11/5/26 – – How an organization communicates and executes a layoff reveals a lot about its management’s character, culture and competence. Canva, the popular online graphic and video design software company, gave us a case study this week in how to handle these challenging, emotional events effectively.
Announcing a significant restructuring and staff reduction impacting 22% of Canva’s workforce (1,271 people), CEO Melanie Perkins began her message to employees with these words: “Today, I have some profoundly difficult news to share.” In addition to explaining what’s happening and why, she addressed in detail the “financial, career and wellbeing support” being provided to departing coworkers.
From a crisis-prevention point of view, I’d like to focus on the excellence of that support.
Layoffs Create Pain and Crisis Risk
Employment terminations under any circumstances are highly emotional events for the individuals losing their jobs, as well as the company, families and communities involved. In addition to the inevitable human suffering, serious reputational damage can be done to organizations failing to execute these actions with empathy, clarity and care.
In Chapter 18 of The Crisis Preparedness Quotient, I recommend three principles employers should follow to achieve the best outcome when dealing with terminations: Dignity, Dollars and Destiny. Reviewing Perkins’ internal message, I believe Canva does very well on all three:
DIGNITY
Striping departing employees of their dignity, beyond being cruel, heightens the chances of litigation and sends a very negative message to customers and investors, as well as surviving and prospective employees. Every effort should be made to treat people with as much respect as possible when sending them into unemployment.
- Perkins does not suggest, as many CEOs announcing layoffs do, employees lost their jobs because of poor performance: “I want to emphasize that they are not a reflection of the talent, care and dedication people have brought to Canva, their skills or the enormous contributions they’ve made along the way.”
- Canva did not immediately cut off computer access and perp walk fired employees out of their offices carrying boxes of family photos. The company allowed dignified, personalized transitions: “Those impacted will receive a calendar invite for an individual meeting with a senior leader in their area to discuss the next steps and support available should they wish to attend . . . Everyone leaving Canva will continue to have access to Slack and Gmail until the end of the week, so they can choose when and how to share the news with their teams.”
DOLLARS
Providing a terminated employee with an inadequate financial safety net creates a very angry, desperate person. Of course, no company has an unending responsibility to pay former associates. But my experience is that a reasonable amount of money paid at separation goes a long way toward making things go smoothly; keeping things out of court and avoiding a crisis-triggering event.
- The financial components of Canva’s separation package are generous: “At least six months of salary, inclusive of statutory entitlements, regardless of location . . Removing the one-year vesting cliff for those who joined in the past year . . . Twelve months of continued healthcare coverage in countries where we currently provide this . . . Twelve months of Canva Care (our EAP), with this coverage also extending to family members.
- As a nice, additional benefit: “Everyone leaving will be able to keep their Canva MacBook as we know not everyone has a personal laptop.”
DESTINY
It’s important to get everybody moving forward, looking ahead. You want a parting employee’s focus to be on her or his future, finding a new job.
- Canva, not just waving goodbye, is offering departing employees: “Dedicated career support, including one-on-one coaching, interview preparation, and one year of LinkedIn Premium. We’re also dedicating a significant portion of our Talent Acquisition team to helping people review their resumes and practice for interviews to find their next opportunity.”
- Demonstrating confidence in the capabilities of former employees, the company is setting up: “An opt-in alumni talent directory that we’ll proactively share with our investors, partners, and wider industry network to help connect departing Canvanauts with new roles.”
- And here’s an innovative offering to jump start destinies: “We’re also launching the Canva Collective Fund, providing US$10,000 grants to departing Canvanauts who want to start something of their own. Whether it’s starting a business or doing something meaningful for their local community, the fund is designed to help get those ideas off the ground. Everyone leaving as part of these changes will have until the 14 of December to register their interest, and we won’t take any ownership or equity in what they create.”
A Template to Follow
Kudos to Canva for setting this positive standard. The Australian-based software as a service (SaaS) company was founded in 2013 by Melanie Perkins and her husband Cliff Obrecht, who had developed a simple-to-use digital design platform for high school yearbooks.
Today the company, still private, has 150 million monthly active users globally and is valued at an estimated $30-$35 billion.
An initial public offering is rumored to be under consideration. If that happens, potential investors will certainly include the execution of this restructuring in their analysis. My guess is they’ll be impressed.
Layoffs are among the most sensitive communications challenges. It’s well worth the time to read Perkins’ message to employees. The content and sincere tone, expressing empathy, clarity and care, are in bold contrast to many of the layoff announcements being made, it seems, just about every day.
