How to Make Yourself Harder to Lay Off

Layoffs are an unfortunate reality of the fashion industry. Whether driven by declining sales, rising costs, corporate restructuring or new technologies, even successful companies sometimes eliminate positions.

While no employee is completely immune, there are steps you can take to make yourself more valuable to your employer and potentially reduce your risk of being laid off.

Here are seven strategies worth considering.

1. Understand How Your Company Makes Money

Employees who directly contribute to revenue, profitability or cost savings can be especially valuable when budgets tighten.

You don’t have to work in sales to make a financial impact. Designers can reduce development costs, planners can improve inventory productivity, and production professionals can negotiate better vendor terms.

Understand how your work affects the bottom line and look for ways to improve those results.

2. Make Your Accomplishments Visible

Doing great work isn’t enough if the people making staffing decisions don’t know about it.

Keep track of your accomplishments and communicate them appropriately. Quantify improvements in sales, margins, efficiency, quality or customer satisfaction.

Don’t assume your contributions will speak for themselves.

3. Become Indispensable to Important Projects

Volunteer for challenging assignments, particularly those connected to company priorities.

Product launches, technology implementations, cost-reduction initiatives and business development projects offer opportunities to demonstrate your value beyond your regular responsibilities.

The more problems you can solve, the harder you may be to replace.

4. Build Relationships Beyond Your Department

Your immediate supervisor shouldn’t be the only person who understands your contributions.

Develop productive relationships with colleagues, senior management and other departments. Be cooperative, approachable and willing to help.

When restructuring decisions are made, having advocates throughout the organization can make a difference.

5. Embrace New Technologies, Especially AI

Fashion employers are exploring how AI can improve productivity and potentially reduce staffing needs.

Rather than resisting these changes, learn how emerging technologies can improve your work. Volunteer for training, participate in pilot programs and identify practical applications.

Employees who can combine industry expertise with new technology may be particularly valuable.

6. Share Your Knowledge

Some employees mistakenly believe that keeping specialized knowledge to themselves provides job security.

In reality, teaching colleagues, mentoring junior employees and improving team performance demonstrate leadership and organizational value.

Become known as someone who makes everyone around them better.

7. Prepare for the Possibility Anyway

Even outstanding employees lose their jobs. Layoffs aren’t always based on individual performance.

Keep your resume updated, maintain your professional network and monitor opportunities through industry-specific job boards like StyleCareers.com.

Knowing what’s happening in the employment market provides options if your circumstances change.

The Bottom Line

You can’t control every business decision your employer makes. But you can control your performance, professional relationships, adaptability and the value you bring to the organization.

The objective isn’t simply to work harder. It’s to become someone whose contributions the company would genuinely miss.

And if a layoff happens anyway, those same qualities will make you a stronger candidate for your next opportunity.