Making redundancies can be a tough decision for employers and a difficult and upsetting situation for employees. Making redundancies, however, can be essential for the survival and success of your business.
Many companies are forced to make redundancies or take the time to assess and restructure their businesses when times are tough. If redundancies are looking imminent for your business, you’ll want to manage them in a clear, fair and sensitive manner.
These are our redundancy tips for employers.
When facing redundancy, employees can go through a range of emotions. They may be confused about why they are being redundant, upset, worried for their future, or even angry that they are in this situation. Because of this, they don’t always take in all of the information you are giving them.
This is why open communication is so crucial. You should make it clear that employees can ask the questions they have at any time, and ensure they know who the best person is to talk to. Give them information in person and in writing so they can better process it.
Employees are likely to be unhappy about their redundancy, but they will be better able to process and accept it if they understand the reason. If your firm is in some trouble and needs to downsize, your team will already be aware of this.
It’s important to ensure that all your employees know how the business will benefit from restructuring. You want those who are staying to feel confident and hopeful for the future and those who are leaving to understand why it’s necessary.
Every company should have a redundancy procedure in place to follow. This will ensure you are covered against complaints of unfair dismissal. We recommend visiting the government website to ensure you are following all the rules and doing everything correctly.
To select who will go requires you to be clear about which competencies are needed to support your business going forward. You should have a good picture of which roles are important and which may be redundant. Everyone will need to be measured against your competency criteria and those who tick the least number of boxes are the ones at risk for redundancy.
Those who are made redundant are likely to need some help and support in finding a new role if they aren’t retiring. They may have been out of the job market for years with a completely outdated CV. They may also need help in identifying their strengths and preparing for future interviews.
The support you give to employees you are making redundant reflects on you as an employer and is important for the morale of those staying. Remember, those that are being let go are still ambassadors of your company so you’ll want to make the whole process as positive as it can be.
We’ve got plenty of resources for those being made redundant:
We’re always happy for our clients to refer their employees who are being made redundant to us. We can offer help with creating a professional CV and applying for roles.
Most firms, unfortunately, have to make redundancies at some stage. The key is ensuring that you do it in a fair and sensitive way. Employees will ask themselves “why me?” and “Am I being treated fairly?” If you have a clear process that you stick to and do everything you can to make it run smoothly, both employer and employee will benefit. We hope these redundancy tips for employers will help you along the way.
