Restructuring your business
You may be worried about retaining key staff during any period of change, by nature most of us don’t like change, we’re creatures of habit.
Everyday we’re advising businesses who are in the process of upsizing, downsizing and everything in between.
Upsizing is an exciting time; it means your business is doing well and you’re hopefully seeing a good return. For some, it means sleepless nights worrying about retaining your best employees; getting the right staff in the key roles, staff who are aligned to your values and for others it may also mean it’s time to consider moving premises.
Downsizing is something most businesses dread, generally an indication that business is not going well, although often a downsize in workforce isn’t as a direct result of a downturn in business. It may be that you need to downsize to maximise efficiencies and cut costs. Regardless of how well your business is performing, no one wants to be incurring unnecessary overheads for the sake of it.
Both situations will involve a plan, consultation with employees and expert advice and importantly both need to happen with minimum disruption to your business.
Moving premises
If you are considering moving premises, even if it’s just to save money on rent you could be facing a redundancy situation. You may just want to transfer all your staff to your new location but are facing some resistance. Under these circumstances, but not in all cases, some staff may still be entitled to a redundancy package, even if their job still exists.
A downturn in work
If you are experiencing a downturn in work, there’s every chance that cashflow will also be affected. Before considering making staff redundant and putting a bigger dent into your bank balance with the associated costs, there are other options open to employers. One option, but you will need to check your contracts of employment first, is your right to lay staff off or reduce their hours of work. This will buy you some time for a period of up to three months, hopefully during which time, work will pick up.
Redundancies
If work doesn’t pick up as a last resort, you may need to make roles redundant. Be sure to adhere to the 4 golden rules:
- Make sure your business case is robust before making staff redundant.
- Always follow a fair consultation process (where applicable follow the statutory regulations.)
- Consider alternative options to redundancy (we’ve already mentioned lay off and short time working above.)
- Make sure you follow a fair selection process, to avoid claims of unfair dismissal and discrimination.
Retaining staff
You may be worried about retaining key staff during any period of change, by nature most of us don’t like change, we’re creatures of habit. There are many ways to retain staff; by improving your culture and enhancing employee engagement to name just two. Companies with engaged employees outperform the competition by as much s 200%!
If you would like further information or support with staff retention, managing a restructure, redundancies or relocation please contact Spectra HR, or why not join us at our November Seminar