Good ones always help employees regardless of reason for the transition.
If the company has wound down cleanly the team will have been looking for jobs for 1-2 months before there is no more money and so the founders and executive team will have helped as many of them find soft landings as possible. Generally founders will use their networks, and investors networks to help people get through the door at other companies. They generally provide references and try and do everything reasonable and ethical to get people placed. This includes letting people use company computers to send resumes, use printers, internet access etc.
When companies don't wind down gracefully and fail fast and loud of course most of this doesn't happen. But in those cases where the founders are good people but just made mistakes they will still do all of the above with whatever resources they can.
The team usually also looks out for each other and like the saying goes A players want to work with A players so once one is placed they'll work to help others too.
IMO there is never a reason not to help people in the case of the company winding down. Even if a person was someone who wasn't a top performer you have a responsibility to that person as another human to help them as much as possible.
Why I have seen this go sideways sometimes is when employees start thinking the company owes them all this and a lot more. The reality is the company owes treating you like a human being and trying to do the right thing. But they don't owe you more than is possible or reasonable.
You're welcome. I have had to wind a couple of companies down that weren't successful and both times we did everything possible to help the employees and even the couple of contractors we had. I learned this ironically at GE when I worked there early in my career. We had layoffs of staff, both professionals and non-professionals and the level of effort and resources GE had us put into helping those people left a huge impression on me.
One thing I have seen in the startup community over the last 20+ years is generally people do their best to help the employees. Although there are some pretty infamous examples of the opposite, those seem to be the minority.
Also in terms of references, caymanjim is right when it comes to enterprises, but small businesses and startups I find are usually a little more reference friendly to a degree. Personally when hiring people though, I generally skip any reference checks for the exact reason he listed, as they are a waste of time. However, for a critical position I do generally call around to people I know and see if I can learn anything that might affect my decision, but for the average position I wouldn't bother.
I am working on this side project idea where failing or shutting down startups who want their employees to get job somewhere can create a job board with information about there employees and can share that job board with their networks, VC group companies etc.
If the company has wound down cleanly the team will have been looking for jobs for 1-2 months before there is no more money and so the founders and executive team will have helped as many of them find soft landings as possible. Generally founders will use their networks, and investors networks to help people get through the door at other companies. They generally provide references and try and do everything reasonable and ethical to get people placed. This includes letting people use company computers to send resumes, use printers, internet access etc.
When companies don't wind down gracefully and fail fast and loud of course most of this doesn't happen. But in those cases where the founders are good people but just made mistakes they will still do all of the above with whatever resources they can.
The team usually also looks out for each other and like the saying goes A players want to work with A players so once one is placed they'll work to help others too.
IMO there is never a reason not to help people in the case of the company winding down. Even if a person was someone who wasn't a top performer you have a responsibility to that person as another human to help them as much as possible.
Why I have seen this go sideways sometimes is when employees start thinking the company owes them all this and a lot more. The reality is the company owes treating you like a human being and trying to do the right thing. But they don't owe you more than is possible or reasonable.