Dealing with redundancies: thinking ahead

With a new year fast approaching, now is the time that many organisations reflect on the past 12 months, as well as starting to put in place their plans for next year in terms of what will need to be achieved from a workforce planning perspective.

The new year brings fresh optimism but ongoing economic uncertainty and pressure on operating costs means that many organisations will need to plan carefully for potential impact on their bottom line. Additionally, the increasing adoption of AI and automation across many industries is changing the nature of work and shifting the demand for certain roles and could leave some businesses needing to act quickly to put in place effective plans for any employees directly impacted as a result. At the same time, the UK is seeing unemployment rate at its lowest levels since the COVID-19 pandemic.

With that in mind, here we provide a reminder of some of the key considerations you will need to bear in mind when planning for and managing a redundancy situation.

Understand the consultation process

A legal requirement when making 20 or more employees redundant, is that you adhere to a consultation period to discuss your plans. For between 20 and 99 employees, the consultation period must start a minimum of 30 days before any dismissals take place and when the impacted number reaches 100 or more, this increases to 45 days. There is no minimum consultation period requirement for smaller groups of employees, but some form of consultation is still essential to ensure the process is managed properly and correctly.

Be conscious of notice periods

The notice period that you’re formally required to provide to those employees impacted by redundancy will vary depending on how long they’ve been in employment with you. For those who’ve been with you for between one month and two years, you are required to provide at least one week’s notice. One week’s additional notice needs to be given for every year of employment for employees of between two and twelve years. Twelve weeks’ notice needs to be given for employees of longer than twelve years. In each of these instances, there may naturally be the need for alternative notice periods depending upon what may be stipulated in any individual’s employment contract.

Have outplacement support ready to go

If all scope for redeployment has been explored by the business, then you’ll need to break the news to employees about the prospect of redundancies. If the process is being managed and communicated clearly and correctly, then they’ll likely to want to understand what support (if any) will be made available. To help support with this, Renovo have created a Guide to Managing the Message of Redundancy, which you can download here.

If you provide outplacement support as standard or have a career transition provider in place and ready to go, then this may help to minimise some of the resistance or unrest that may be felt towards the decision to make changes. If communicated clearly, the decision to provide support will also go some way to reassuring the impacted employees that they will be given plenty of guidance to help them transition to a new role more easily.

Be clear and up front with employees about the support that the outplacement provider will give them, whether it’s help with updating their CV and practicing interview skills, or emotional support to help with confidence and resilience. It’s important to choose an outplacement service or provider that has a pedigree for getting employees back into the workplace to reassure your staff that they won’t be out of work for long.

Be empathetic

Whilst it wouldn’t be surprising to see some sort of short-term impact upon morale as a result of the announcement of redundancies, employees will certainly value being provided with clarity on the situation and regular updates. It will also be positively received if it’s clear that the business has thought about how to best support them through the process, well in advance. Thinking ahead and considering your staff’s future from the very beginning of the process displays how highly you value them, and how much you regret that you have to lose them. In addition, those who remain with the business will also see that you have done everything in your power to look after their colleagues, which can go a long way when it comes to brand reputation management to safeguard productivity and attract future talent.

Mitigate the legal risks

As anyone familiar with HR policies and procedures will no doubt be aware, steadfast adherence to employment law when dealing with redundancies and workforce transformation, is key. This can be a highly complicated process and subject to ongoing change and updates. As such it’s crucial that you’re fully up to speed with the latest advice and guidance. The CIPD for example is a good source for resources to provide clarity on the subject.