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Redundancy

Redundancy is a word that spreads fear, trepidation and anxiety amongst employees and can lead to a negative impact on productivity, public relations and the bottom line for many organisations.

The negative effects of low morale and motivation across an entire organisation can be devastating, in both the short and longer terms. As we know it isn’t just those employees affected by the threat of redundancy that are impacted, it is all of the employees and especially the survivors. Survivors can become paralysed with guilt and this has a direct correlation with the subsequent poor business performance. So how can you retain your survivors and attract future talent whilst minimising the impact on performance and the bottom line when looking to the future? To stay competitive through any change requires planning and managing processes, procedures and communications effectively.

Is your organisation capable of managing such a change?

The definition and legal position regarding redundancy is complex. There are six pieces of legislation that impact redundancy and each one brings its own challenges.

Do you know what they are? Do you need to? The answer is categorically no!

What should you know?

As a minimum a company considering undertaking any business reorganisation process involving possible redundancies should have or be contemplating answers to the following questions:

  1. Do you understand why you may be required to make redundancies?
  2. What are the implications for the risk management register?
  3. Have you considered the alternatives?
  4. Would better manpower planning have prevented the situation?
  5. What are the short and long term costs to the organisation, is it a viable option?
  6. Do you have a business model that shows where your business is going, the number of employees affected and it what areas of your business?
  7. Is there a redundancy procedure in place?
  8. Should you ask for volunteers?
  9. Do you have a communication strategy?
  10. Do you understand the legal requirements surrounding sharing information and consulting with employees?
  11. Do you know how to create objective selection criteria?
  12. Can you ensure that you are compliant with all three stages of the statutory dismissal procedures?
  13. Do you have the right skills amongst managers to carry out an audit of the final selection of employees in order to ensure fairness and legal compliance?
  14. Are you aware of the legal rights of your employees throughout this process which include – the right to be accompanied, right to appeal, right to reasonable time off to seek alternative employment?
  15. What is reasonable time off?
  16. Do you understand your payment obligations?
  17. Helping employees find alternative employment, your obligation versus best practice
  18. How do we deal with survivors?
  19. Where do we go from here?

What can we do to help?

It is our job to facilitate the answers to all of the above questions and to establish what is required in order to make any business transition of this nature as smooth as possible. We would manage the process from start to finish and would endeavour to:

  1. Promote openness and encourage trust, through ensuring understanding. This can be achieved in many ways including making use of the information and consultation directive and driving a best practice approach through an agreed communication strategy
  2. Promote a sense of fairness and equality through an unbiased approach to the selection process
  3. Provide training to ensure both line and senior managers have an understanding of the process and tools to use when dealing with their subordinates in this time of change
  4. Provide coaching and or training for managers on dealing with any hostility and conflict that may arise
  5. Provide an opportunity and environment to allow affected employees to discuss concerns and vent their frustrations through coaching/counselling
  6. Provide a strategy and tools to aid the organisation retain key employees in this time of uncertainty
  7. Provide an outplacement support service to all affected employees to ensure that the business is considered both internally and externally as compassionate and adapting a best practice approach
  8. To ensure sustainability for the business as a result of the redundancies and changes to processes, procedures and strategies put in place as a result. We can help you implement a change management programme

Outplacement Support

What is it?

Outplacement support is a service that enables businesses to leave the stresses and strains of dealing with the exit transitions of its employees, either through redundancy or severance agreements to a third party.

Why would you consider it?

Successful outplacement should help those people that are leaving the organisation to move forward positively, constructively and with little or no bad feeling. In return this means that there is a significantly reduced chance that employees will feel disgruntled and therefore attempt to seek redress from the organisation. It will also result in the external image of the organisation being maintained or even in some cases improved.

From an internal perspective survivors will feel that they will be supported and looked after in the future should they find themselves in a similar situation, this should impact on the motivation and morale levels being restored more promptly, it should aid retention and lessen the fear associated with change and its impacts and in turn this should result in a minimum disruption in productivity and ultimately the bottom line of the business.

Outplacement Support is something that needs to be incorporated and planned from the outset of any redundancy programme. It is our job as an outplacement support team to take away strain from line managers and the business and ultimately to take each affected employee on a journey of self discovery and give them a series of choices and positive possibilities for them for their future.

What can we do to help?

Our outplacement support service aims to assist individuals by providing the following:

  1. Evaluate where I am now? Where I am going? Where do I want to be?
  2. Career coaching
  3. CV Writing skills
  4. Letter writing skills
  5. Job search skills
  6. Networking skills
  7. Interview skills and coaching
  8. Mock interviews
  9. Where possible facilitating introductions to companies
  10. Meeting at locations and times that suit individuals
  11. Understanding finances
  12. Dealing with Questions & concerns

The services we provide are available in three main packages:

  1. One 2 One support
  2. Group support
  3. Executive Support

It is well known that people do not like change and were possible resist it. The impact of resistance and change on organisations appears in the news on a daily basis in all businesses large, small, and public and private sector and in all industries. In business it is survival of the fittest and every bit of competitive advantage that can be seized must be held onto. With that in mind more and more businesses are adapting to the concept that as people are the biggest cost and asset, and yet the most unpredictable factor of all looking after them makes good business sense and outplacement support services are becoming a key tool in harnessing the competitive advantage of treating people well.