How to avoid common redundancy mistakes

Many businesses are struggling right now as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. And they might be considering redundancies to help reduce their outgoings and keep their businesses afloat.

But redundancy is not an easy process. In fact, it’s one of the most technical areas of employment law and if you don’t get it right, you could find yourself facing employment tribunals and compensation claims.

To help you stay on the right side of the law, we’re going to look at the common mistakes employers make and how to avoid them…

1. Not following the right redundancy steps

Although redundancy is a fair reason to end employment, it is still possible for an employee to claim that they were unfairly dismissed. That’s why you must follow the correct redundancy steps.

First, you need to establish that a genuine redundancy case exists. Redundancies are a reasonable response to there being less work in a business, so you need to prove this by providing financial evidence.

Second, you need to show that you’ve followed a fair procedure before terminating the employee. If you don’t, you run the risk of suffering an unfair dismissal claim. 

2. Discriminating against employees

When selecting who’s going to be made redundant, it’s important that you do this fairly.

To avoid allegations of unequal treatment, it’s important to use objective ‘selection criteria’. This will help make sure you don’t discriminate against employees on grounds such as their age, race or gender.

You should also involve your employees as much as you can throughout the consultation process and give them the chance to suggest possible alternatives to redundancy, such as reduced work hours.

Without an objective selection process, you could leave yourself open to discrimination claims.

3. Neglecting the staff that are staying

Dealing with employees who are being made redundant takes up a lot of your time. But it’s important to not forget about your remaining staff.

This will be a tough time for them as well, so you must keep them up to date with what’s going on and maintain a positive work environment to ease any worries.

Get expert redundancy support from BrightHR

Our new redundancy navigator tool gives you everything you need to carry out a fair and watertight redundancy process—all in one place.

Use it to guide you through each step of the redundancy process, access redundancy letter templates, and store all your redundancy documents safely.

Plus, with BrightAdvice, you can call our employment law experts 24/7 to get fast answers to all your redundancy queries.

To see how BrightHR helps to make redundancy as stress-free as possible, book your free demo today.