How to make redundancies and keep them fair
A simple guide to handling redundancies
After a period of change, you’ve decided that you need to restructure your business. Unfortunately this means making some redundancies. Where do you start? How do you keep it fair and legal? If you haven’t followed a redundancy process before, here are some tips on how to start the planning process.
Here are the first questions we ask our clients when we are helping them plan a redundancy process, ask yourself:
1. What is the business case?
If you haven’t got one, read our post on how to restructure your small business here: https://www.peoplemanagementpartners.co.uk/a-change-for-the-betterIt’s important you’re prepared.
2. How many roles are going to be impacted by this change?
This isn’t just the roles you’re planning to make redundant (e.g. you may need people may change roles) and how many of those do you need to make redundant? There are different rules that apply to different of numbers of redundancies. For example, when making more than 20 roles redundant you need to allow between 30–45 days to implement any changes.
3. Of the roles you need to make redundant, are you looking to reduce the number ofsimilar roles?
If you are looking to reduce a team of people all doing the same job, how are you going to fairly decide which of the roles in that “pool” will be made redundant? That might mean applying some scoring criteria or asking people to reapply for the jobs in the new structure.
4. How will you engage and communicate your staff in this process?
The communication process is known as “consultation”. It’s a very important part of any redundancy or change process. No decisions on the redundancies can me made until you have completed a meaningful consultation process. The typical things you would discuss during a consultation process includes any ideas employees might have on the proposed redundancies, and whether they might want to apply for any other roles that are currently vacant in your business.
Feeling a bit out of your depth? Don’t worry, this is understandable if you’ve not been in this situation before. If you would like some help with managing a redundancy process, take a look at our Restructures, Redundancy and Change Management support packages.
Keep HR human