Role-Based Workforce Analysis for Smarter Reductions: How to Identify which Roles to Lay Off

When cost pressure hits, the fastest path can be an across-the-board headcount cut—“everyone loses 10%.” However, a strategic workforce reduction should be surgical, not blunt. The goal is to reshape and optimize your workforce, keeping the roles and skills you need for the next 3–5 years while exiting redundancies and low-impact positions as cleanly and fairly as possible.

This article walks through a role-based analysis approach Glacier Point Advisory uses with clients to design thoughtful, defensible reductions that protect critical talent and preserve the organization’s ability to grow again.

Why Role-Based Workforce Analysis Matters in Identifying Which Roles to Lay Off

In a rushed reduction, organizations often make three mistakes:

• Cutting “where it’s easiest” instead of where it’s most strategic

• Losing high-value skills and institutional knowledge they can’t easily replace

• Leaving behind a structurally misaligned organization that still can’t meet its goals

  
  

A role-by-role and department-by-department analysis flips that script. Instead of asking, “How do we remove 100 heads?”, you ask:

“What is the minimum, right-sized set of roles and capabilities we need to execute our strategy going forward?”

From there, you design the reduction to protect that future-state org—then decide where and how to take out cost.

Step 1: Assess Roles Against the Future State

Start with a comprehensive inventory of all roles and functions in your organization, not just the teams you suspect will be affected.

Key questions to ask:

• Which roles directly drive core business objectives (revenue, customer retention, regulatory compliance)?

• Which roles are enablers (support, infrastructure, analytics) and at what scale are they required?

• Where do you see overlap or duplication—multiple teams doing similar work, or work that could be centralized?

• Which roles are tied to business lines or products you’re de-prioritizing?

  
  

Practical actions:

• Build a consolidated role catalog (title, function, department, location, FTE count, contractor count).

• Map each role to the future-state operating model: must-keep, reduce, reconfigure, or exit.

• Highlight areas where multiple teams perform similar functions (e.g., separate analytics teams in each business unit, multiple admin layers, duplicative back-office processes).

  
  

This gives you a clear picture of where roles add strategic value—and where the organization can be simplified.

Step 2: Distinguish Role Critical Positions from Redundant Roles

Once you understand the landscape, you can separate truly critical positions from redundant or lower-value roles.

Identify critical roles

These are typically off-limits for cuts, barring major business model changes:

• Revenue-generating or revenue-enabling positions

• Customer-critical functions (account management, claims handling, clinical quality, etc.)

• Roles in legal, compliance, risk, safety, or cybersecurity that protect the license to operate

• Key leaders, architects, and SMEs who hold unique institutional or technical knowledge

  
  

Mark these roles explicitly as critical to maintain in your planning models.

Spot redundant or consolidatable roles

Next, look for roles that can be:

• Consolidated: two teams doing similar work that could be merged

• Centralized: distributed support functions (e.g., multiple HR, IT, or finance teams) that could move to a shared services model

• Absorbed: work that can be covered by remaining staff with process redesign, automation, or better tooling

• Exited: roles tied to products, markets, or initiatives you are intentionally scaling down

  
  

Redundancy is often less about individuals and more about functional structure. A role-based view helps you redesign that structure first, then determine where headcount should follow.

Step 3: Define Objective Performance and Skills Criteria

Within each role or team, you still need a way to decide which specific positions or employees are impacted. This is where clear, objective selection criteria are essential.

Common, business-related criteria include:

• Skills relevance to future needs

  • Prioritize employees whose skills align with the technologies, markets, and processes you are doubling down on.

• Performance and impact

  • Use documented performance history and objective metrics where possible, not anecdote or personality preference.

• Role necessity and scope

  • Some tasks will simply matter less in the new operating model; roles that predominantly perform those tasks may be candidates for elimination or redesign.

• Tenure/seniority

  • Seniority plays a formal role in selection decisions to maintain unbiased selection criteria.

    
    

Best-practice guidelines:

• Apply criteria consistently across teams and geographies to avoid perceptions (or realities) of unfairness.

• Work closely with HR and legal to confirm that your criteria are job-related, non-discriminatory, and compliant.

• Document the rationale for each impacted role: why the role is no longer needed or how it was selected versus others.

  
  

This documentation becomes critical if you ever need to explain decisions to employees, regulators, or in legal proceedings.

Step 4: Use Data and Scenario Planning to Right-Size — Without Over-Cutting

Role-based analysis is significantly stronger when paired with data and scenario planning.

Where possible, bring in:

• Productivity and throughput metrics by team

• Case loads, ticket volumes, or patient panels

• Forecasts for revenue, demand, or utilization

• Historical trends for overtime, backlog, or service levels

  
  

Then, model different reduction scenarios:

• What happens to customer response times if you reduce a contact center by 10% vs. 20%?

• Does cutting a particular operations team create bottlenecks that will slow revenue recognition?

• Are you reducing so deeply in risk or compliance that you invite audit findings, fines, or safety issues?

  
  

Scenario planning helps you:

• Hit cost targets without unintentionally damaging the core business

• See where cuts would create operational bottlenecks or unacceptable risk

• Identify where cross-training or process changes are needed so the remaining team can absorb work

• Decide whether you should sequence reductions in phases instead of a single “big bang”

  
  

The output should be a balanced reduction plan: deep enough to matter financially, but structured to keep the company viable and ready to grow when conditions improve.

From Analysis to Action: Building a Workforce Reduction Blueprint

By the end of this strategic planning work, you should have a clear, defensible blueprint:

• Which roles and teams will be reduced or eliminated

• Why those cuts make strategic sense, in the language of your long-term plan

• How the organization will function afterward—org charts, spans of control, and critical workflows

• A documented selection methodology you can explain to boards, employees, and regulators

• A view of risks and mitigations (where you’ll cross-train, centralize functions, or invest in new tools)

  
  

This blueprint becomes the backbone for:

• Leadership alignment and board approvals

• Legal review, disparate-impact testing, and compliance checks

• Manager training, communications, and day-of execution planning

• Post-reduction stabilization and rebuilding trust with remaining employees

  
  

Done well, role-based workforce optimization not only reduces cost—it improves organizational clarity and sets you up for a healthier next chapter.

How Glacier Point Advisory Supports Role-Based Workforce Optimization

Many organizations only go through a significant workforce reduction at most

once every few years. Glacier Point Advisory specializes in workforce reductions.

We partner with CHROs, CFOs, and executives to:

• Design role-based workforce reduction strategies tied directly to your future operating model

• Build objective, defensible selection criteria and documentation

• Run data-driven scenario planning to avoid over-cutting critical talent

• Coordinate legal, HR, finance, and operations to execute reductions cleanly, safely, and with empathy

• Develop post-reduction stabilization plans so the remaining organization can move forward with confidence

  
  

A reduction should never be a panic response. With the right planning and role-based analysis, it’s a chance to simplify, refocus, and strengthen your organization for what comes next.