Making people redundant is a chance for HR professionals to prove their true worth. Treat the unlucky worker with the same dignity you showed when offering them the job

With so many industries facing extreme change in an era of economic turmoil, what is the role of the human resources department? By chance, I was asked this question on the same day that I received a note from an acquaintance who had just been let go from his job in publishing.

He described his lay-off as a practically Orwellian experience. He was ushered into a room to meet an outplacement consultant. "I assured her I had friends and loved ones and a dog," he wrote, "and my relationship with her could be measured in terms of seconds."

Note to HR professionals: instead of putting your dismissed employees in a room with solicitous outplacement reps, put them in a room with some crockery for a few therapeutic minutes of smashing things against a wall. I'd suggest another, more serious memo: "Layoffs are your moment of truth," it would say. "Your company must treat departing employees with the same attentiveness that it did when they were hired." HR proves its mettle during layoffs, demonstrating whether a company really cares about its people or just spouts lip service to that effect.

Look, I've written before about HR and the game-changing role I believe that it can—and should—play as the engine of an organisation's hiring, appraisal and development processes. Too many companies relegate HR to the mundane work of newsletters, picnics and benefits, and I've made the case that every CEO should elevate the head of HR to the same level as the chief financial officer. But if there was ever a time that underscored the importance of HR, it is now, in this era of economic distress. 

So, what is HR's correct role now, especially in terms of layoffs. I'd suggest there are three elements. First, make sure that people are laid off by their managers, not by strangers. Being fired is dehumanising, but getting the news from a hired gun only makes matters worse. HR needs to ensure managers accept their duty, which is not to delegate the one conversation at work that must be personal. The bad news should be delivered face-to-face.

Second, HR has to be the arbiter of equity. Nothing raises hackles more during a layoff than the sense that some people are getting better deals than others. HR must make sure that severance arrangements are even-handed across divisions. You don't want people to leave your organisation feeling as though they were dealt with unjustly.

Finally, HR must absorb pain. In the days after being let go, people need to vent, and it is the department's job to be available to console them. HR can never let "the departed" feel as though they've been sent to a leper colony. Someone linked to each redundant employee should check in with him or her regularly. Not just to ask: "Is everything OK?" but to listen to the answer with an open heart and, when appropriate, offer to serve as a reference to prospective employers. HR matters enormously in good times. It defines you during bad.

Jack Welch was chairman and CEO at GE for 21 years