To become or continue to be successful, organisations need to:
- constantly review their products and methods of work;
- successfully apply new technology; and
- review their current staff levels.
The ability to continue to be competitive in world markets depends on this. However, it is inevitable that staff will sometimes have to be redeployed within the organisation or made redundant. A poorly thought-out approach to managing change can result in uncertainty, which affects the organisation’s performance and, if redundancies cannot be avoided, may lead to financial and emotional costs to the people affected.
The aim of this guide is to provide guidance for employers, trade unions and employee representatives on the best way to handle redundancies. The guide emphasises the importance of:
- planning work and staffing levels to avoid or to reduce the need for redundancies;
- having an agreed procedure for handling redundancies; and
- being fair and consistent when deciding which employees should be made redundant.
This guide covers the feasibility of offering redundant employees other work, counselling or other help. We hope that the guide will help improve employment relations by making sure that as few people as possible are made redundant, and that where redundancies are unavoidable, decisions are made fairly and consistently.
Further information and help
If you require further information or help with this publication please contact us.