Abstract:As competition in the insurance market gets intensified constantly, insurance companies should downsize their employees as is required by their strategic development needs. There are three types of job cuts, namely, job cuts for financial reason, structural downsizing, and downsizing for optimization. Improperly handled staff slimming will have the following negative effects: brain drain, dampened morale, peer company poaching, and leakage of commercial intelligence. Staff downsizing can be done in three steps: prior downsizing planning, process management and postdownsizing reorganization. Specific problems at each step should be carefully watched. Key words:staff downsizing; insurance company; human resources management