Redundancies are always a difficult conversation, you are making decisions to cut costs in order to ensure the survival and profitability of an organisation. For the majority of businesses, people are the biggest cost and inevitably when money needs to be saved, people is one of the first areas to be looked at. Whilst it is jobs that are redundant we all know the reality is here are people attached to those jobs, who for no fault of their own find themselves facing the prospect of losing that job.
Of course there is a process behind any redundancy situation, a review of the organisation, a grouping of jobs, working out redundancy payments, starting consultations, organising employee representatives and figuring out the selection process. Employees go on a list to be put at risk and may come off again as resource is reviewed and departmental needs decided. You can plan the process to within an inch of its life, and have all the paperwork and announcements lined up. However, the reality of making that announcement and then dealing with the subsequent fall out is still never easy.
Difficult decisions
There are of course difficult decisions to be made, the process needs to fair and transparent. Equally, there are conversations about how to keep the staff you do want to stay. This is naturally difficult, through the process itself, employees that you don’t want to lose may find other roles. The level of uncertainty and disruption caused unsettles people. The process is kept confidential up until the time it is announced with only senior managers and HR involved. At the appropriate time when the announcements are made this will often come out of the blue for employees. We have heard the expression death by a thousand cuts and sometimes in large organisations cuts are made to a department and then the next department or by location. This leads to prolonged uncertainty and creates a culture of fear and often competition as people try to protect themselves as they wait to see who is next. Often the uncertainty is worse than actually being told you are at risk of redundancy. We all need to feel in control and when we are put at risk of redundancy, we feel like the decisions are out of our control.
Many employees will have a perception that the process isn’t fair and has already been decided. You must ensure that you have a meaningful consultation process and really take the time to listen to and consider suggestions put forward by employees.
From an HR and management perspective the time leading up to an announcement is incredibly stressful, you are in a position where you know that colleagues lives are going to be affected, these are people you work with and like. Knowing what is about to happen and not being able to say anything is hard. In addition, often HR is restructured last, meaning you support the rest of business knowing that your own department will also go through it.
Understanding employees reactions
The redundancy process follows a grief cycle, denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. This cycle is not linear and often when employees are told they at risk they are angry that this is happening. This is understandable and is as a result of fear. Losing our jobs is a frightening prospect for many reasons, lack of status, fear of finding another job and of course money, we all have bills to pay and the fear of not having money to keep a roof over our heads will give us sleepless nights. As the face of HR, I have been shouted at, employees have cried, stormed out of meetings and criticised the process. You have to understand that it is not about you and just listen.
So, what we can do?
Understand the human reaction to redundancy, cut employees slack if they do get angry or defensive. Make sure you explain the process, next steps and consult with employees at all stages. Make sure you bring employees into the decision stage as soon as possible, listen to concerns, take questions away and come back with a response quickly. Give employees as much notice as you can and accept that you might lose employees that you want to keep if they find other jobs.
Think about what help you can put in place to support staff whose jobs are redundant. What practical steps can you take, time off for interviews, CV support, interview support, outplacement support and helping with LinkedIn profiles or recommendations.
Final thoughts.
How you treat the employees who are exiting the business will be seen and remembered by the employees who remain in the organisation. It might be necessary to restructure the organisation however, remember that there are humans attached to the jobs you are cutting and you have a responsibility to support them through an emotionally difficult time. Supporting employees as they exit and helping them find new roles should be central to the process.
