From time to time I post guest articles on my blog which I believe will be useful for my clients and contacts.

The Furlough scheme introduced by the government to help businesses keep their employees comes to an end on 31st October and it is feared that this will lead to a new wave of redundancies.

So how do employers best manage this process? Kathryn Rogers of face2faceHR (Nottingham) is someone I have worked with and offers her insights into what will be a difficult time for employers and employees alike.

"Time is a funny thing, isn’t it?

In some ways, it feels like a lifetime ago that the government announced the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and sent us all scrambling to understand what that meant for our businesses and our teams. Yet, with the end of the scheme on 31^st October now looming, time seems to have suddenly sped up again.

There is no getting around it – the end of the scheme will likely mean another wave of redundancies. To be eligible to furlough, there either needed to be no work available for your team, or they were unable to work for other reasons related to Coronavirus e.g. they were shielding or handling caring responsibilities. Those who were shielding have now been advised they no longer need to do so, and nurseries and schools have reopened. If you still have staff on furlough, this likely means that you simply do not have work available for them.

Let’s face it – no-one wants to go through a redundancy process. However, with a bit of planning and the right communications, things will run a LOT smoother. So, before starting a redundancy consultation, you need to be sure that you can demonstrate that the role is no longer needed due to one of the following circumstances:

• the closure of a business;
• the closure of a particular workplace; or
• a ceased or diminished need for employees to carry out work of a particular kind in that workplace.

If it feels like you’re trying to shoehorn a different set of circumstances into the legal definition of redundancy, chances are there’s something about it that doesn’t quite fit – and you’re potentially putting your business at risk of an unfair dismissal claim.

If your circumstances DO fit the above, then remember that there are still a number of steps to follow to demonstrate a fair process:

• Put together a simple business case to demonstrate why a change in structure is necessary, and communicate this as openly as possible
• If you have more than one person in the same role but are only putting one of them at risk – make sure you have used objective selection criteria such as experience, skills, disciplinary record and attendance to determine who is selected
• Set a reasonable and meaningful period of time for consultation – when dealing with individual redundancies (i.e. less than 20 people in a 90-day period) I would typically recommend at least one week, with the option for extension
• Give those at-risk time to understand, question and challenge the proposal you have put forward, and deal with their questions before reaching an outcome

If you are considering redundancies in your small business but are not sure how to go about it, take a look at the following articles:

• Redundancy basics
• What does consultation mean in a small business?
• Choosing redundancy selection criteria
• Looking for alternative employment during redundancy
• After redundancies - things to consider  

If you have read the above and would like further advice tailored to your organisation, please do not hesitate to get in touch."

Kathryn Rodgers
face2faceHR (Nottingham)
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Tel: 07946 330025