It's called 'Kurzarbeit' (short work) in German. That's what brought Germany comparatively well through the financial crisis 2008.
The cost of hiring and training new personnel are pretty high, actually. It's usually much cheaper for a company to keep its staff than being forced to hire new people after a (short-term) crisis is over. "Kurzarbeit" does allow a company to keep their employees and only pay a part of the wages. Some of the rest is paid by the government, and wages are a bit lower than usual. That means: The cost is distributed between company, state and staff. Which seems a pretty good way to get through a crisis.
The cost of hiring and training new personnel are pretty high, actually. It's usually much cheaper for a company to keep its staff than being forced to hire new people after a (short-term) crisis is over. "Kurzarbeit" does allow a company to keep their employees and only pay a part of the wages. Some of the rest is paid by the government, and wages are a bit lower than usual. That means: The cost is distributed between company, state and staff. Which seems a pretty good way to get through a crisis.