In 2024 to date, 412 tech companies have laid off more than 134,000 employees. Some of it is due to AI taking over jobs formerly done by humans. Other layoffs are the result of the obsession with “efficiency” (read: cost-cutting to promote shareholder value) that has lately consumed the industry.

Laid-off content marketing writers and editors are reeling. It’s heartbreaking to read the personal stories on Medium and LinkedIn—because very few companies are hiring for those positions today.

Although I carry a full load of survivor’s guilt, I’m one of the lucky ones. As a full-time freelancer for decades, I’ve got a strong network, and am finding that tech companies need me more than ever to supplement their now-skeletal staffs. But as I go in and out of organizations, I see in-house teams struggling with the enormous stress of having to produce the same amount of copy with a third—or even half—the workers. 

Last year, we talked about how freelancers and agencies can help fill the holes left by axed exployees, and offered guidelines on how companies can find, hire, and manage them. Now we’re taking a broader look at all the challenges facing content teams who are being forced to do more with less, and suggesting a sustainable, holistic approach that takes into account deploying tech tools (yes, including AI), protecting employees’ well-being, and revamping approaches to content creation to meet (growing) demands for deliverables with fewer professionals on staff. 

Actions to consider 

When an in-house content team has endured the shock of layoffs, they not only have to work through the emotions of seeing colleagues pack up and leave, but face the challenge of doing more—sometimes a lot more—with less. You must forge a strategic plan to maintain both their productivity and morale. Here are some steps so your team can cope:

Outsource overflow work

• Use freelancers and agencies: Contractors can be hired on an as-needed basis, brought in strategically to fill a department personnel deficit, handle an entire project, or anything in between. Read more about how to do this successfully in this blog.
• Choose projects to outsource carefully: You might want to give lower-priority or more specialized tasks to freelancers or agencies to free up the in-house team to focus on strategic, high-value work. Typically, independent workers are most useful on projects that don’t require institutional memory or high levels of security. 
• Consider building a “back bench” of reliable contractors: Good tech content professionals are hard to find. When you land one, develop an ongoing relationship. That way, you don’t have to continuously train new contractors on your messaging, tone, processes, and quality standards.

Use technology (yes, including AI)

• • Automate routine processes: Utilize content management systems (CMS) and other automation tools to handle repetitive tasks like scheduling, social media posting, or basic SEO optimizations.
  • Support team collaboration: Implement or optimize the use of project management and collaboration tools like Asana, Trello, or Slack to keep your team aligned and efficient.

• Explore generative AI: Last, but certainly not least, you can try applying AI to some aspects of content creation. More on this in the next section, including some caveats about depending too much on it—at least, at this point in its development.

Prioritize project tasks, establish realistic goals, and set boundaries

• Assess the current situation: Start by evaluating your current workload—and backlog—and identifying everything on your team’s plate.
• Establish what’s most urgent: Focus on high-impact content that aligns with your organization’s core objectives. This might mean cutting down on less essential content and concentrating on what drives the most value.
• Push back on demands: Granted, you might not have the luxury to say “no” when unreasonable requests are made. But if you can, establish guidelines for such things as average turnaround time per collateral type; under what circumstances you’ll accept “rush” projects; and the resources you’ll need—like a content brief and previously published collateral—to fulfill requests. 

Streamline processes to focus on quality over quantity

• Analyze the current way your team works: Review content creation workflows to identify bottlenecks or redundant steps. Simplify wherever possible to slash turnaround time for tasks.
• Standardize processes, templates, and guidelines: Create or refine templates, guidelines, and style guides to ensure consistency throughout all content, and to eliminate excessive back-and-forth during revision.
• Continuously improve the real-world impact of your content: Shift the focus from producing a high volume of content to creating fewer, but more impactful, pieces. This means investing time in credible research and compelling storytelling, and ensuring that each piece of content has a clear goal.
• Make decisions based on data, not guesswork: Use analytics to track the performance of content and double down on what works. Eliminate or scale back efforts that don’t deliver measurable results.
• Slice, dice, and repackage: Maximize the value of existing content by repurposing it into different formats—for example, transforming a blog post into a video or infographic—instead of always creating new content from scratch.

Cross-train your team

• Diversify their skills: Encourage team members to learn new skills so they can cover multiple roles. This can involve training them in SEO, analytics, design, or social media.
• Encourage them to share their knowledge: Hold regular knowledge-sharing sessions where the team can share their expertise and tips with others, ensuring that key skills are not confined to just a few individuals.
• Document best practices: Be diligent about writing down tips and tricks high-performing team members use to get their best results. Put these in an easily accessible place—like in a shared folder in the cloud—so everyone can read and add to them.

Take good care of your remaining team members

• Communicate transparently: Keep your team informed about the reasons behind the past layoffs, changes in workloads, and the chances more layoffs could be ahead. Being transparent about the situation can build trust and minimize anxiety.
• Recognize and reward efforts: Acknowledge the hard work and dedication of team members. Simple gestures like public shout-outs, or personal letters that recognize excellence can go a long way to boost morale.
• Provide support for team members’ well-being: As much as possible in the midst of being short-staffed, encourage work-life balance. Notice when team members are exhibiting signs of stress or burnout. If feasible, offer a more flexible working environment, provide access to support resources, or engage in team-building activities.

A word (warning) about overusing AI

AI is a tempting tool to use to boost productivity. But given the current state of the technology, you need to be careful about how you use it. The quality of the writing is not high—don’t even think of putting AI-generated content on your website without significant editing. 

For starters, there’s the tendency of AI engines to “hallucinate”—that is, make things up. You simply cannot trust it.

Secondly, the writing is bland and formularic. Not only will it bore any potential audience to tears (and they’ll abandon reading it), but Google has recently modified its algorithm with the stated goal of sniffing out AI-generated text and reducing its ranking. So your SEO efforts could fail. Some companies are even re-hiring the writers and editors they previously laid off to “massage” AI-generated content so it sounds more human!

On the other hand, generative AI can be a very useful tool for writers who are mindful of the pitfalls. They can use it to brainstorm ideas, suggest prime areas to research for a particular topic, identify current trends, and explain technology in laypersons’ terms. All these things can be extraordinarily helpful when needing to generate high-quality content quickly.

Conclusion

Times are hard. Not only are many content producers either recently laid off, or living under constant fear of being made redundant, but those left standing must pick up the slack. By focusing on the actions outlined here, your team can remain effective and resilient, even with reduced resources.

In times like these, agencies like Wordsmithie can help. We are a remote, distributed team of specialists that can assist in all manner of writing, marketing, and branding needs. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you need our help!