Managing Redundancies Safely

There are many reasons you may be considering redundancies – improved business processes or new technology giving you a competitive edge, a merger or acquisition resulting in the duplication of roles, or simply today’s difficult trading climate. Whatever the reason, foremost on your mind will be the need to safeguard the business going forward for employees, customers and suppliers, ensuring that:

employees affected by redundancy leave the business feeling they have been fairly treated

employees retained in the business are positive about the company and its future

suppliers and customers are informed and experience a smooth handover.

Managing redundancies well can be challenging for many businesses, due to a lack of knowledge about the legal requirements involved and the best process to follow or perhaps, reluctance in delivering “bad news” to loyal, hard-working employees.

Getting it wrong can have serious consequences, not just in terms of damage to business reputation, but also in terms of the potential penalties involved - a maximum of £63,000 for unfair dismissal and/or 90 days wages as a protective award for each employee not consulted properly as part of the redundancy process.

Although different legal requirements apply, depending on the number of redundancies envisaged, the general principles of “consultation” and “reasonableness” should always be followed. This highlights several questions:

	What does “consultation” entail and how long does it take?
	When is individual / collective consultation legally necessary?
	If selecting employees for redundancy, who does this and what criteria are used?
	What are the steps and timescales involved, to meet legal requirements?
	What compensation and support should be provided to employees affected?

We can help by:

	Providing you with a tailored plan on how to manage all aspects of the process for employees, customers and suppliers
	Training your line managers on how to handle 1-1 redundancy discussions
	Recommending ways to ensure the process is as painless as possible for all concerned, safeguarding your business reputation.

Our HR consulting team have considerable experience in managing redundancy processes. If you would like more information about managing redundancy, Mary Leishman would be very glad to talk with you.

You can contact her by emailing her at Mary.Leishman@4-consulting.com and you can click here to view her profile.

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