Redundancy - Whats the score?

At a time where many businesses need to make redundancies to stay afloat, employers must be aware of what makes the redundancy and the redundancy process fair.

Any redundancy situation can be stressful and deflating for the staff so the more open and consultative you are, the more at ease your employees are likely to be. Where you employ 20 or more employees if you propose making redundancies, you must allow for a 90 day consultation period.

Employers have to make sure that the whole redundancy process and selection criteria are fair and objective. Make sure that your redundancy policy and procedures are up to date and followed by all involved.

The selection criteria should be agreed with employee reps and should include things such as attendance and disciplinary records, skills or experience, standard of work performance and aptitude for work. Use a scoring matrix and apply it to those affected.

Once the employees who will be made redundant have been identified, make sure they are given the appropriate notice and allowed the opportunity to appeal the decision.

If employees ask, tell them their scores. Even other people’s scores within the selection pool can be disclosed provided of course they remain anonymous. Where you don’t tell an employee their score, you run the risk of having the redundancy found to be unfair.