How much you value people gets decided before the crisis, not during it.
Canva recently announced a restructuring that affects 1,271 people, about 22% of the entire company. It’s the first mass layoff in Canva’s history, and CEO Melanie Perkins called it the hardest moment in the company’s thirteen years.
Normally, news like that gets picked apart online. Layoffs rarely make anyone look good. But this time, people are applauding. One CEO called it “a masterclass in how to handle layoffs,” and outlets like Fortune, Newsweek, and Fast Company all ran some version of that same story.
So what made this one different? It was what Canva gave the people who were leaving. Every departing employee received at least six months of salary, no matter what country they lived in. Healthcare continues for up to a year where Canva already provides it. Newer employees who hadn’t reached their one-year stock vesting date had that waiting period removed. People got career coaching, interview prep, and a year of LinkedIn Premium. They were allowed to keep their company MacBooks. Canva even set up $10,000 grants for former employees who want to start a business or launch a community project, plus an opt-in alumni directory to help them get hired somewhere new.
When you put all of that together, it stops looking like a severance package and starts looking like a message. And the message is this: you mattered here, and you still matter now.
Now, I know what a lot of small business owners are thinking, because I’d be thinking it too. Must be nice. Canva is worth tens of billions of dollars, and most organizations can’t write a six-month check to over a thousand people. But I don’t think the masterclass is the money. The money is just evidence of something deeper, a belief that people aren’t line items.
Back in 2020, when the pandemic hit and companies everywhere cut their contractors first, Canva publicly committed to keep paying theirs. That tells me this wasn’t a PR move. It was a value they already had, carried into a hard season.
Here’s what I’d want every leader to take from this.
First, how much you value people gets decided before the crisis, not during it. You won’t suddenly become a generous, honest leader on the worst day of your year. You’ll just become more of who you already are.
Second, tell the truth, and say the number. When leaders get vague, people fill in the blanks with something worse, and the people who stay are watching how you treat the people who leave.
Third, help people land, not just leave. You may not have six months of salary to give, but you have a phone. You can make introductions, write a real reference, and look someone in the eye and tell them they mattered.
You can’t always afford six months of severance, but you can always afford dignity. Don’t wait for your hardest season to decide what your people are worth to you. Decide now, and show them now.