Making an employee redundant

How to help redundant employees

Employees (especially those who have worked for many years in the same job or workplace) can find redundancy a traumatic experience - even if they have received a redundancy payment above the legal minimum.

Where possible, you should try to find ways of helping employees come to terms with their situation. The practical and financial help you offer will of course depend on the size of your business and the seniority of any employee being made redundant.

It is good practice to do your best to help employees find a new job. To do this, you could:

• Advise them to contact their local Jobs & Benefits office to find out about suitable vacancies or training.
• Set up interviews onsite for redundant employees. You could consider using a specialist outplacement agency - outplacement counselling and retraining is tax deductible in respect of all redundant employees, including part-time workers.
• Contact other local employers who may have vacancies.
• Offer advice on searching for suitable vacancies in the press and on the internet.
• Offer guidance on CVs, job application forms and interview techniques.
• Highlight the importance of being prepared to consider a wide range of jobs.
• Consider re-employment if business picks up, where this is appropriate.

You can also help with financial issues by:

• providing clear information on the financial effects of redundancy - amount of redundancy pay, effect on pension payments and state benefits
• pointing out the need for the employee to discuss the financial implications of redundancy with their family as early as possible

If you have the budget, you could consider offering individual counselling. Alternatively you could train personnel managers, if you have them, to carry out this task.

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• What is redundancy?
• What are lay-offs?
• What is short-time working?
• Avoiding redundancies
• Redundancy selection - non-compulsory
• Redundancy selection - compulsory
• The redundancy consultation process
• Rights of redundant employees
• How to help redundant employees
• Potential problems following redundancy
• Here's how we planned ahead to avoid making redundancies

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