Recent findings from Kahoot!’s 2025 Layoff Survivor Survey highlight a critical blind spot in workforce strategy after downsizing activities: surviving employees are often left without training or support, and it’s hurting both employees and business outcomes.
Conducted from April 24 to May 1, 2025, and based on input from more than 1000 U.S. workers who experienced layoffs in the past three years, the data offers compelling reasons for employers to rethink post-layoff practices.
Layoff Survivor Insights
Layoff survivors can be an overlooked segment when companies are dealing with merger, acquisition, or downsizing issues. The impacts they feel are profound and can affect productivity, engagement, and turnover.
As Kahoot!’s research indicates:
- Overall, 65 percent of layoff survivors admit they’ve made costly mistakes or hesitated due to insufficient training. But the situation is worse with Gen Z employees—77 percent indicate they’ve made similar mistakes.
- A significant percentage point to the role that better re-onboarding could play with 70 percent saying that structured re-onboarding would have smoothed their re-entry. Unfortunately, only 27 receive this kind of re-onboarding support.
- It should come as no surprise that surviving employees feel the impact of increased workloads—61 percent felt the impact immediately, 63 percent within a week, and 60 percent after a month.
- In this environment, morale is also taking a hit. Almost half (49 percent) of the respondents said they had experienced drops in morale, describing the anxious aftermath as “quiet chaos.”
- Employers are at risk for the negative impacts of turnover if they fail to address the needs of survivors—45 percent say they’ll likely leave within a year without needed training; 72 percent of Gen Z respondents have already considered quitting.
Clearly the impacts are striking. What can organizations do to minimize them?
Mandates for Organizational Leaders
Eilert Hanoa, CEO of Kahoot!, underscores the stakes: “Surviving a layoff doesn’t mean surviving the impact,” he says. “When companies cut headcount without supporting those who remain, they are not just risking morale and employee engagement. They are risking mistakes, missed opportunities, and lost talent.”
Without proper re-onboarding, what is lost can ripple across the entire organization.”
Organizations that recognize the importance of re-onboarding and take a proactive approach to addressing the needs of survivors can reap rewards.
By centering re-onboarding, employers can transform a chaotic post-layoff period into an opportunity for renewed engagement, resilience, and growth.
That’s not just a smart move—it’s a strategic one.
Lin Grensing-Pophal is a Contributing Editor at HR Daily Advisor.