Oct 20 2008
Redundancy - not the easy way out!
In times of economic crisis it is always best to avoid the media frenzy. Employers do yourselves a favour and resist the urge to shed as much excess expenditure as is possible in an attempt to save a buck. Redundancy and retrenchment efforts are not always the best ways to protect the profit margins of a company.
With many people reinforcing buzz words like ‘redundancy, credit crunch, recession and lowered profit margins’ in the media - it’s essential to stay positive thus shying away from negative or toxic situations caused by ‘redundancy’ talk.
It is very easy to shed workers in an attempt to cut costs - but essentially understanding the laws around redundancy and its execution is key to a successful turn around post staff shedding. Many countries see redundancy as a situation where employees for whatever reason are in surplus and there isn’t enough work to go around. OR where the same amount of tasks and work is available but for whatever reason fewer employees are needed to successfully complete this work.
If you end up laying off people based on a situation not deemed as valid redundancy - you could be putting your company up for hundreds of thousands of monetary loss over tribunals and law suits.
In fact in some situations where genuine redundancy is apparent - employers have been heavily penalised for not following the processes and systems in the correct manner. Therefore base investment needs to happen in order to even begin the process, thus bringing in expert advise and adhering to all possible laws and systems in place.
In essence it’s not the easy way out and does require expenditure of its own. Rather try and make it with the staff already on board if possible - as they are a valuable resource in troubled economic climates and you may find all hands on deck will steer you through the storm.