How The Gund Company's 'No Layoffs' Policy Has Driven 75 Years of Business Success

In an era where layoff announcements have become as routine as quarterly earnings calls, one manufacturing company is proving that profitability and job security are not mutually exclusive. The Gund Company, a specialty manufacturer of engineered materials and custom fabricated parts, has never laid off a single employee in its more than 75 years of operation. Not during recessions. Not during industry downturns. Not during a global pandemic. As companies across every sector sharpen their cost-cutting strategies heading into 2026, Gund's track record stands as a powerful reminder that there is another way to run a business. For job seekers and workers navigating today's uncertain labor market, this story offers both hope and a blueprint for identifying employers who genuinely invest in their people. Here at Metaintro, we track the companies, policies, and trends that shape how people find and keep meaningful work, and The Gund Company's story is one that every job seeker should know.

How Has The Gund Company Avoided Layoffs for 75 Years?

The Gund Company was founded more than 75 years ago, and across three generations of family leadership, it has maintained an unblemished record: zero layoffs. Third-generation CEO Steve Gund does not frame this as a lucky streak or an aspirational goal. He has stated publicly that the company never will conduct layoffs, treating workforce stability as a non-negotiable business principle rather than a perk that can be revoked when times get tough.

According to a detailed profile in Inc., the secret is not some magical financial buffer or a niche market insulated from competition. The Gund Company operates in the highly competitive specialty manufacturing sector, producing engineered materials and custom fabricated parts for industries ranging from electrical insulation to thermal management. They face the same economic cycles, supply chain disruptions, and margin pressures as their competitors. The difference lies in how they manage their business from the inside out.

Steve Gund explains that avoiding layoffs is not a passive decision. It requires the same discipline and intentionality that goes into earning profits. The company builds habits, systems, and a culture of shared accountability that make layoffs unnecessary. When revenue dips, the response is not to slash headcount but to engage every employee in finding solutions, reducing waste, and identifying new revenue opportunities. This philosophy has been embedded in the company's DNA since its founding and has been reinforced by each generation of leadership.

For job seekers, this raises an important question: what does a company that truly values its workforce look like from the inside? According to Glassdoor reviews, Gund employees consistently highlight the company's family-oriented culture, strong benefits, and genuine commitment to employee development. These are not the vague platitudes you see on corporate career pages. They reflect a workplace where the promise of job security is backed by decades of action.

What Makes Their No-Layoffs Approach Work?

The Gund Company's no-layoffs policy is not sustained by wishful thinking. It is built on a specific management framework that combines two powerful elements: employee ownership and participative management. Research has consistently shown that companies combining these two approaches see stronger retention, higher employee engagement, and greater financial resilience than companies relying on traditional top-down management structures.

At the core of Gund's model is what is often called open-book management. Employees at every level of the organization understand the company's financial position. They know the revenue targets, the cost drivers, and the profit margins. This transparency is not just informational; it is operational. When every worker understands how their daily decisions impact the bottom line, they become active participants in the company's financial health rather than passive recipients of management directives.

The economic engagement assessment is a key metric that illustrates how well this approach works. The Gund Company scored 9.0 out of 10, which is remarkably high. For context, the top quartile average across all companies assessed is 7.7 out of 10. Scoring more than a full point above the best-performing companies in the country is not a marginal improvement. It reflects a workforce that is deeply aligned with the company's goals and actively invested in its success.

Employee ownership is the other critical pillar. When workers have a direct financial stake in the company's performance, their motivation shifts from simply collecting a paycheck to actively building long-term value. This ownership structure creates alignment between the interests of workers and the interests of the business. Instead of viewing labor as a cost to be minimized, Gund treats its workforce as an asset to be developed and protected. The result is a virtuous cycle: employees who feel secure and valued work harder, innovate more, and stay longer, which in turn drives better business outcomes that make job security even more sustainable.

As Steve Gund has explained, layoffs are avoided the same way profits are earned: by building habits. This is not a reactive strategy that kicks in during a downturn. It is a proactive system of financial literacy, shared decision-making, and collective accountability that operates every single day. When the economy softens, the company does not panic and reach for the layoff lever. It relies on the same habits, systems, and culture that drive performance during good times to navigate the challenges of difficult ones.

How Does Job Security Impact Business Performance?

The conventional wisdom in corporate America is that layoffs are a necessary tool for maintaining profitability. When revenue drops, cut headcount. When a new CEO arrives, restructure the workforce. When investors demand higher margins, reduce labor costs. This logic has become so deeply embedded in business culture that most executives view layoffs as an inevitable and even responsible management decision. The Gund Company's 75-year track record challenges that assumption head-on.

Research consistently shows that layoffs carry enormous hidden costs that rarely appear on a spreadsheet. When companies lay off workers, they lose institutional knowledge that took years to develop. They damage morale among the employees who remain, creating what psychologists call "survivor syndrome," a state of anxiety, guilt, and disengagement that can persist for months or even years after the layoffs occur. They incur significant rehiring and retraining costs when the economy recovers and they need to rebuild the workforce they just dismantled. And they suffer reputational damage that makes it harder to attract top talent in the future.

The Gund Company avoids all of these costs. By guaranteeing job security, they retain experienced workers who understand the business inside and out. Employee turnover is dramatically lower than industry averages, which means less money spent on recruiting, onboarding, and training. Workers who know they will not be let go during a downturn are more willing to share ideas, take calculated risks, and invest their energy in the company's long-term success rather than hedging their bets with an updated resume and a backup plan.

The 9.0 out of 10 economic engagement score is not just a vanity metric. It translates directly into business performance. Engaged employees are more productive, more innovative, and more committed to quality. They catch problems earlier, serve customers better, and generate ideas that improve processes and reduce waste. In a manufacturing environment like Gund's, where precision and consistency are critical, the value of a deeply engaged workforce is difficult to overstate. The company's sustained profitability over 75 years, without a single layoff, is perhaps the strongest possible evidence that investing in people pays dividends that far exceed the short-term savings of cutting headcount.

Why Are Most Companies Choosing Layoffs Instead?

If the no-layoffs approach delivers such strong results, why are most companies moving in the opposite direction? The numbers paint a stark picture. According to Resume.org, 6 in 10 companies are planning layoffs in 2026, citing economic uncertainty, rising costs, and the need to restructure around artificial intelligence and automation. The technology sector has been particularly aggressive, with major companies like Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft all conducting significant workforce reductions over the past two years.

The answer lies partly in the structure of modern corporate governance. Publicly traded companies operate under intense pressure from shareholders and analysts to deliver quarterly results. Layoffs provide an immediate, visible reduction in operating expenses that can boost short-term earnings and satisfy Wall Street's appetite for efficiency. The hidden costs of layoffs, including lost knowledge, damaged morale, rehiring expenses, and reputational harm, are longer-term consequences that may not show up in the next earnings report. This creates a perverse incentive structure where the decision that looks best on paper in the short term is often the most destructive in the long run.

There is also a cultural dimension. In many organizations, layoffs have become a normalized management tool, something that every leader is expected to be willing to do when the situation demands it. Executives who resist layoffs can be perceived as soft, sentimental, or unwilling to make the "tough decisions." This cultural pressure makes it harder for leaders to pursue alternatives even when those alternatives might produce better outcomes. The Gund Company's success challenges this mindset by demonstrating that protecting your workforce is not a sign of weakness but a source of competitive advantage.

Additionally, many companies lack the management systems that make a no-layoffs policy viable. Open-book management, employee ownership, and participative decision-making require significant investment in training, communication, and trust-building. They require leaders who are willing to share financial information that most companies guard closely. And they require a long-term perspective that prioritizes sustainable growth over quarter-to-quarter performance. For companies that have spent decades operating under a top-down, information-hoarding management style, the transition to the Gund model represents a fundamental cultural transformation that many are simply unwilling or unable to undertake.

What Can Other Employers Learn from Gund's Model?

The Gund Company's story is not just an inspiring anecdote. It is a data-backed case study in how treating employees as long-term partners rather than disposable costs can drive superior business outcomes. For employers who are tired of the layoff-rehire cycle and its associated costs, Gund's model offers several concrete lessons worth examining.

First, financial transparency builds resilience. When employees understand the company's financial picture, they can contribute to solutions during difficult times rather than simply waiting to be told whether they still have a job. Open-book management transforms a workforce from a collection of individuals focused on their own tasks into a team of business partners who share responsibility for the company's performance. This collective intelligence is a resource that most companies leave completely untapped.

Second, employee ownership aligns incentives. When workers share in the financial success of the business, they are naturally motivated to protect and grow that value. They think like owners because they are owners. This alignment eliminates the adversarial dynamic that characterizes many traditional employer-employee relationships, where management tries to extract maximum productivity at minimum cost and workers try to earn maximum pay for minimum effort. Ownership replaces that dynamic with genuine partnership.

Third, consistency builds trust, and trust drives performance. A no-layoffs policy only works if employees believe it. At Gund, 75 years of unbroken commitment have created a level of institutional trust that no amount of corporate messaging or employer branding could manufacture. Employees who trust their employer to protect their livelihood repay that trust with loyalty, effort, and innovation. For companies just beginning to explore this approach, the key takeaway is that trust is built through consistent action over time, not through announcements or policy changes alone.

Finally, the Gund model shows that job security is not charity. It is strategy. The company does not avoid layoffs because Steve Gund is a soft-hearted idealist. It avoids layoffs because the systems it has built make layoffs unnecessary and because the workforce stability those systems create delivers measurably better financial results. This distinction matters for any executive trying to make the case for workforce investment to a skeptical board or shareholder group. The argument is not moral. It is mathematical.

What Does This Mean for Job Seekers in 2026?

For anyone actively searching for a new job or evaluating potential employers, The Gund Company's approach offers a valuable framework for assessing workplace stability. In a job market where Resume.org data shows 6 in 10 companies planning layoffs, understanding which employers are built for long-term workforce investment and which are likely to cut jobs at the first sign of trouble is critical information.

When evaluating prospective employers, look for signals that mirror the Gund model. Does the company have an employee stock ownership plan or profit-sharing arrangement? Does management practice financial transparency with its workforce? Is there a culture of participative decision-making, or is information tightly controlled at the top? What does the company's layoff history look like? A quick search on Glassdoor or news archives can reveal whether an employer's commitment to its workforce is genuine or just marketing language on a careers page.

It is also worth noting that companies with no-layoffs policies tend to be more selective in their hiring. Because they are committing to employees for the long term, they invest more in the hiring process to ensure a strong fit. For job seekers, this means that landing a role at a company like Gund may require more effort upfront, but the payoff in terms of job security, career development, and long-term earning potential is significantly greater than joining a company that treats its workforce as expendable.

The broader lesson for the 2026 job market is that not all employers are created equal, and the difference between a stable employer and an unstable one is not always visible on the surface. Companies that invest in the systems Gund has built, including financial transparency, employee ownership, and participative management, tend to weather economic storms without sacrificing their people. Those that rely on traditional cost-cutting, including layoffs as a first resort, create a cycle of instability that harms both their workers and their long-term competitiveness.

People Also Asked

Q: What is The Gund Company known for?

A: The Gund Company is a specialty manufacturer of engineered materials and custom fabricated parts that has been in operation for more than 75 years. It is widely recognized for its no-layoffs policy, having never conducted a single layoff in its entire history. The company is led by third-generation CEO Steve Gund and has earned a 9.0 out of 10 economic engagement score, well above industry benchmarks.

Q: How many companies are planning layoffs in 2026?

A: According to data from Resume.org, approximately 6 in 10 companies are planning layoffs in 2026. Economic uncertainty, rising operational costs, and the push to restructure around artificial intelligence and automation are the primary drivers behind this trend. This makes companies with no-layoffs policies, like The Gund Company, increasingly rare and valuable to job seekers prioritizing stability.

Q: Does a no-layoffs policy actually help a company's bottom line?

A: Yes. Research shows that companies combining employee ownership with participative management, as The Gund Company does, see stronger retention, higher engagement, and greater financial resilience. Layoffs carry hidden costs including lost institutional knowledge, damaged morale among remaining employees, rehiring and retraining expenses, and reputational harm that makes future recruiting more difficult. Gund's 75 years of sustained profitability without layoffs provides compelling evidence that workforce stability and strong business performance go hand in hand.

Get the inside scoop on the employers who are actually investing in their people. Stories like The Gund Company's prove that job security and business success are not opposing forces, and knowing which companies operate this way can make all the difference in your career decisions. Stay informed about the companies, policies, and trends shaping the job market with Metaintro and take control of your career path with the intelligence that matters most.