Teach Employees How To Respond To Selection For Redundancy

An announcement or even a rumour that redundancy is looming is a very distressing and unsettling time for many people but according to Mike Healy of WiseUpAtWork, teaching employees how to respond makes good sense.

During this difficult time HR professionals will be called upon to ensure correct processes and procedures are in place and that communication and consultation to the larger workforce is ongoing. Their focus will be on ensuring the organization does things correctly to comply with the law and to keep employees engaged. Line managers and supervisors will be probed and prodded by employees for information about the impact on their team or department but often won't know until the final decisions are made.

However, employees also begin to wonder if they have all the information that they need and become interested in the grapevine and what it says. The grapevine often takes over where there is a gap in information or where there a degree of secrecy or ignorance about what the company is doing. It is a challenge to all HR professionals to keep all of the people informed all of the time ñ and even where the information goes out it is not always received or understood.

Mike Healy, a Fellow of the CIPD, believes that all employees want to be listened to, want a voice and to have some influence within their small part of the company. He argues that training employees in how to engage with their employer at times like this, opens the door to real engagement that helps employees understand what to expect, how to prepare and also how to promote themselves properly to their best advantage. He says From an employee point of view it is important to be kept informed about the standard rules around redundancy to minimize suspicion that the employer is delaying things deliberately or making up rules to suit themselves, but this needs to be explained in layman's terms that are easy to understand.

Many best practice employers would agree with the philosophy of keeping their employees informed and engaged. This mature, non-adversarial approach helps foster good employment relations, which are so important in attracting and retaining the best talent. Investing some time and energy in helping employees in this way will send out positive messages about the employer's values and culture. Those who need to leave the organization will feel they were handled properly while those who remain behind will feel that the employer will be as supportive for them in the future.

However, explaining processes and procedures is where employers often stop providing information and fail to acknowledge that many people facing will be left wondering what their options are. While many companies use outplacement companies this can be an expensive option and is often not available for all. Helping employees to help themselves, and in turn helping their employer, would appear to make good business sense. In the past it would be expensive to teach each employee in how to engage with his or her employer but with modern technology and broadband connection to the Internet, access to very affordable on-line learning is easy ñ and is not restricted to company premises and is a useful way of supporting everyone through difficult times.

Mike Healy says There is a lot of focus on training managers to engage properly with employees during selection for redundancy, but there is much less support for the employees themselves who often enter into this particular workplace discussion in a very passive way. I would like to see a situation where every employee enters every workplace discussion, whether it is an internal interview, an appraisal or even a disciplinary meeting or redundancy meeting, well prepared and able to come out with the best result possible for them given the circumstances. I believe that every employee should have the opportunity to influence his or her future career and be trained to make the most of that opportunity when it arises.

Imagine all employees felt empowered and confident enough to proactively and positively engage with their employers to make life better for themselves? Now there's something to think about!

WiseUpAtWork has just launched four on-line learning programmes at http://www.wiseupatwork.com which offer all employees access to very affordable, high quality training programmes to help them engage better with their employers.