Restructuring and redundancies

From time to time you may want to change the way your business works or is structured.  As well as managing the legal processes, it is critical that your communications with your workforce about any change proposals are carefully thought through and managed from the outset.

A well managed reorganisation or restructure can achieve greater efficiencies for a business, enabling you to save costs and become more effective for the future.

However, unless your workforce remains engaged and motivated through that reorganisation or restructure, you might find that your careful planning doesn’t reap the benefits you had expected.  Remember that if you change an employee’s role without his or her consent, you may also breach their contract and face a claim for constructive unfair dismissal.

We can help you every step of the way from initial planning, consultation and review, through to implementation and conclusion. Depending on the numbers involved, you might trigger collective consultation duties, which mean you have to start the process and planning much earlier than with a smaller restructure.

Unfortunately it’s also sometimes necessary to make redundancies.  A fair redundancy process entails a number of stages including selection, consultation and the consideration of alternative employment.  It’s important to get the process right and to consider the wider impacts on those remaining in the business and the stress for those involved in managing the process. We work closely with employers to get the result required while giving the support that is needed. This can involve for example attending meetings with you, preparing documents and hearing appeals.

Recent examples of work:

• Wholesale restructure of a teaching staff within a secondary and junior school
• Hands on support with a restructure of the manufacturing operation within a food and drink business
• Advising a client on a complex restructure, including detailed consideration of selection pools
• Supporting a local business with a wide-ranging review of its employees’ hours, pay and working practices to bring greater efficiency and flexibility to the workforce