Many businesses will have started 2009 with a clear focus on reducing costs. The European Commission predicts that Britain’s economy will contract throughout this year, only returning to growth in 2010. For businesses, large and small, the next twelve months will be a considerable challenge.
This recession is already showing that businesses are keener than ever to avoid compulsory redundancies, and for good reason. The last fifteen years have shown that those businesses that have been able to adapt to a rapidly changing
economy are those that invest in their workforce. After so much investment, many are finding creative alternatives to redundancy in order to preserve effective workforces. KPMG for example, have received a positive response from employees to the option of taking sabbaticals or reducing their working week, as a way of avoiding or reducing the need to make job cuts. Car manufacturers have already reduced working hours, or introduced temporary shut-downs.
Increasingly, organisations need to find innovative ways to retain and motivate the staff they will rely on when the upturn comes. But sometimes difficult decisions regarding job reductions cannot be avoided. In these circumstances handling redundancy well or handling it badly can mean the difference between having to make further cuts and being in a position to capitalise on the upturn.
How is the recession affecting you?
The IPA is keen to find out how the recession is affecting your organisation, so that we can provide the support you need to get through the downturn. We will be publishing the findings of our recession survey shortly. The IPA will also be launching a series of training and consultancy services to help businesses handle this difficult situation sensitively and positively to maintain an engaged and productive workforce and ensure experience, knowledge and talent are retained within the organisation as far as possible.
How can the IPA help?
Our new products are designed to support organisations at whatever stage they are at, and include helping organisations devise innovative work organisation to avoid job reductions. But where cuts cannot be avoided, we can help businesses to handle redundancies well, including developing open and honest employee communication and consultation strategies, training in the key skills and behaviours for all involved in the process – employee representatives, line managers and senior management – as well as providing a balloting service for organisations needing to elect employee representatives for a collective redundancy consultation.
For a full range of our consultancy and training packages, see the
Consultancy and Training Services section of the website, or contact our Training and Development Director,
Derek Luckhurst.
