SHL warns against reckless redundancy strategy

To ensure that companies do not fall foul of the Employment Equality Act, SHL is warning HR professionals that redundancy strategies such as ëlast in, first outí can be highly irresponsible. Instead, the global leader in talent assessment solutions in the workplace, is advising companies to focus on how to decide who should be retained in as clear, objective and efficient a way as possible.

With redundancies now moving outside of the City and affecting companies across all sectors, SHL fears that some organisations could be getting it very wrong when tackling redundancies and redeployment.

John Bateson, chief executive of SHL Group, says: ìCompanies have become well versed at using assessment tools and techniques for recruitment, but it is essential that similar rigour is applied when looking at redundancies and redeployment. Too often it is easy to look to historic data about an individualís performance, or even to adopt the highly inappropriate ëlast in, first outí approach. As the first option is not based on future potential, it could mean that the company fails to have the right people in the right roles for future growth - whilst the latter could easily land a company in court as they risk flouting equality laws.

ìAn objective and more scientific approach involves the use of psychometric assessment and other techniques, especially given that as well as downsizing, many companies are facing restructuring and therefore past performance alone would not be a fair measure of ability to undertake tasks in a new role, in a new structure,î he added.

SHL advocates that companies avoid criteria that could be deemed discriminatory and suggests they should be clear about the future organisational agenda, identifying the competencies required by creating a forward thinking job profile for each key role.

Assessing these requirements against existing staff competencies, utilising a fair, transparent and consistent assessment process to do so, is vital to minimizing the risk of damage to the companyís employer brand, as well as to ensuring retention of key people who will be integral to the companyís performance and perhaps survival.

ìIt is an extremely unsettling time for staff when their company faces downsizing, so to be able to demonstrate objective reasons for letting some people go and redeploying others is vital. Itís not just a matter of ticking the legal boxes, itís about being a responsible employer and ensuring that staff who exit the company go with dignity, a clear understanding of why they do not suit the new structure and the knowledge of where their strengths lie which will be invaluable when meeting with potential employersî concluded Bateson.