Redundancy and redeployment are taboo words which the HR industry is trying to avoid at the moment, but there are times when, unfortunately, we have to face these processes.
Obviously this is not something which we take lightly, and alternatives should be considered in the first instance.
But if you do have to take the unenviable decision to downsize or redeploy your workforce, we recommend that you implement a fair and objective process to ensure that you make the right decisions for the future of your business.
At different times in their lifecycle, organisations undergo change which inevitably impacts people within the business. At such times an organisation may need to evaluate its employees to ensure it has the right people in the right roles.
We provide an advice guide with more detail on this subject, but there are a few key points you should always consider during any evaluation process for redundancy or deployment:
- Communicate with everyone what is happening, why and what the impact will be on them. Ensure everyone is aware of key decision points and dates to allow them to contribute and organise themselves
- If employees need to be evaluated for downsizing or new roles, implement highly objective and standardised processes with a high degree of job relevance and which are free from bias and fair to all
- Assess performance against clearly defined role-related / level specific competencies
- Choose appropriate assessment activities which reflect demands in the future role or job level, eg simulations, structured interviews, technical assessments, etc
- Deliver processes with suitably qualified, skilled and experienced external assessors/interviewers, develop in-house assessor capability with training or use a mix of external and internal assessors
- Consider evaluation systematically based on predefined criteria and benchmarks so that agreed selection decisions are made and, where appropriate, strengths and development needs identified
- Think about offering support for leavers, eg detailed feedback from any evaluations, workshops on job searching, CV and applications forms, approaching selection processes, etc.
Obviously there is a lot more to the process than these points and I would always recommend involving experts in this field to make sure this process runs as smoothly as possible. If you are considering redundancy or redeployment in your organisation, my colleague Helen Bradley is hosting a webinar on the subject covering:
- How to set objectives and communicate the process
- How to identify what to assess
- How to choose the best assessment tools
- How to obtain and maintain objectiveness and fairness
- How to provide best practice feedback.
Will Mitchell is director of consulting at talent management consultancy, A&DC.
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