Redundancy

Unfortunately, not all businesses grow all the time and with the current pressures, things are harder than ever for some.

Be it market conditions or whether you’ve just changed the focus of what you’re doing, letting people go can be one of the most painful things a business has to do.

Bring Mint HR on board and we will help you plan and deliver redundancy in full consultation with the people affected, and in keeping with the fairness demanded by law – and the ACAS code of practice. We can be there every step of the way and will handle all the difficult conversations if you need us to. Remember: if redundancy is mishandled, it can lead to costly tribunal proceedings, so it’s important you dot every ‘i’ and cross every ‘t’.

To give you some idea of the process you need to follow, the steps look a little like this.

Identify the roles which may be at threat of redundancy and those individuals in the roles.
Inform employees ahead of time if redundancies are a possibility.
Develop a list of selection criteria to help you decide which roles/individuals may be at risk of redundancy.
Arrange consultations with the people who might be affected and make sure you do listen and respond.
Inform the selected parties of the outcome.

Contact Mint HR

or Call 01138 630 011

How Mint can help with redundancies

Ensuring your redundancy rationale is water tight.
Assisting with identifying which people will be affected.
Advising on alternatives to redundancy – is there another way?

Providing redundancy calculations.
Creating all redundancy documents; invite letters, scripts to follow, outcome letters.
Attendance at meetings as support or can chair.

Case Study

A client contacted us because they needed to make cost savings within the business. They had two functions where they felt they could reduce headcount from 2 to 1.

We worked with the client to produce a clear and strong business case. We then looked at the evidence they had to support which of the individuals may be retained and which may be at risk of being made redundant.

In one department it was extremely clear that one person had a greater skill set and was already carrying out all elements of the role. The other individual was carrying out a smaller number of tasks. We decided that selection would be relatively straight forward.

It was a different case in the other department so we recommended that they interview both individuals for the role. Having clear rationale for any decision made is crucial.

We supported fully with both processes, creating documentation and being on site for consultation meetings and interviews.

No one appealed the decision as they could see why that decision had to be made.

Frequently Asked Questions

There are many reasons a company has to consider making redundancies including: a company is in financial difficulty and needs to close or reduce it’s overheads, restructuring, technology replacing the work done by employees, duplication of work across teams, branch/office closure or relocation.

The reason given for redundancy must be genuine and must be linked to roles, not the individuals within them. Always take HR advice before proceeding with a redundancy process.

This list is not exhaustive, however most common examples of unfair redundancy which SHOULD NOT happen are:

when the job role disappears but another team member takes on the workload in its entirety;
redundancy because of pregnancy or maternity leave;
redundancy based on discrimination based on race, sex, disability or any other protected characteristics defined in the Equality Act 2010.
the person was not good at their job. This is capability, not redundancy.

There are strict processes to follow when carrying out redundancies and failure to follow the proper consultation process could cost you a lot of time and money in subsequent grievances and tribunals. The process should be fair and transparent and include consultation, fair time scales, communication and selection process and the right to appeal.

Statutory redundancy pay is a legal minimum a UK employer has to pay. Enhanced (or contractual) redundancy pay is more generous. Your employment contract or company handbook should specify which is relevant to those affected.

No. Currently, employees with less than two years’ continuous service are not eligible for redundancy. However, this is likely to change in 2026 with the new Employment Rights Bill’s ‘Day One rights’. Mint HR are keeping a close eye on this and all other proposed changes mentioned in the Bill.