How do I rebuild an ops team with automation after layoffs?

Document first

Before you build a single automation, sit with the remaining team and write down what work is actually flowing through them every week. Include the work that nobody assigned but somebody is doing anyway (the "quiet ops" work that keeps things from breaking). Most teams underestimate this by half.

This is the step most rebuilds skip, and it is why most rebuilds fail. Automating an undocumented process is automating a guess. Documentation is not a deliverable, it is the map of what you are about to change.

Automate second

Take the documented list and split it into rules-based and judgment-based. The rules-based work goes into Monday for the human interface and Make.com for the plumbing. Build incrementally, one workflow at a time, and validate each one with the person doing the work before moving to the next.

Skipping the validation step is how you end up with automations that are technically correct and operationally useless. The person doing the work knows the edge cases nobody wrote down. Build with them, not for them.

Hire third, and hire senior

Once the rules-based work is off the humans, the roles you actually need look different from the ones you cut. Instead of two mid-level coordinators, you probably need one senior operator who can own exceptions, design new processes, and hold vendor relationships. Fewer people, higher skill, more output per person.

This sequence is why the rebuild-after-layoff engagements that work are the ones that resist rehiring for the first 90 days and use that window to redesign. The teams that rehire in week 2 rebuild the same problem they just paid to shrink.