Our first Guest Blog is from our Employment Law partner Just Employment and features some valuable tips from Geoff Bignell on how to handle your redundancy.
Top Ten Tips from an Employment Solicitor
Are you redundant? Or likely to be redundant? If so, what should you do?
1. Stay positive
Whilst you have no control over whether you stay or go, you do control your attitude and your presentation to the world, including your family (who are even less in control than you!). It is not easy. Most of us are not good with uncertainty.But do your best to be optimistic. Channel your energy, so far as you can, away from anger and anxiety and into your future. ‘The past is a foreign country’ (L P Hartley) and your employer will soon be history.
2. Create a plan
Know yourself. What do you want to do? You may be focused or you may want to explore a variety of options. Either way, you need an action plan. Getting a job is a full-time job, as they say. If you need help on this, and most of us do, there are lots of books*, as well as specialist outplacement guidance. I know from personal experience what a great help outplacement can be. Contact my colleagues at Gateway Career Management on 0845 459 0035 or at info@gatewaycareers.co.uk.
3. Be selfish
Your employer doesn’t want you. Use (some of) the time you have left with your employer to start implementing your plan, by networking and applying for jobs. You are legally entitle to reasonable paid time off. Let the world know you are available. You need to sell yourself. The more people who know you are available, the better your prospects.
4. Get networking
Most jobs are not advertised, although this is less so in the public and not-for-profit sector. Talk to everyone. Don’t ask for a job (which is threatening); ask for advice. People love being asked for advice.
5. Keep notes
Dismissal procedures are fairly adversarial in nature. Keep all relevant letters/e-mails and make notes of what your employer is saying in and outside meetings. You may have a legal claim. If it ever gets to litigation, you need documentary evidence (and even tapes and videos) to support your story. I represented a photographer who inadvertently had a video of her dismissal meeting. The Judge commended her and she won. You have a right to be accompanied at dismissal and appeal meetings. I am not suggesting that you are adversarial or discourteous unless, upon advice, this is a sensible tactic. Your employer is likely to make more mistakes if you keep smiling; and you may well get a better deal than if relationships break down.
6. Don’t expect your employer to keep you
Any employer worth his salt decides at the outset who will go and who will stay. But the law requires employers to pretend that they have not decided, during ‘consultation’. Most ‘consultation’ is a sham. Unless you are prepared to go part time or take a pay cut, your employer is unlikely to change his mind. If you’ve got to go, ‘redundancy’ is the best label.
7. Check whether your employer is jumping through the legal hoops
For a redundancy dismissal to be fair, your employer must jump five legal hoops:
(a) There has to be a proper redundancy. Your dismissal must be because your employer genuinely has a reduced need for people. An Italian restaurant which dismissed a pregnant waitress did not satisfy this test.
(b) If there is a pool of potential redundant jobs, selection within the pool must be fair and objective. You should have an opportunity to comment on the selection criteria and, particularly, your scores.
(c) There must be consultation with you about the possibility of avoiding redundancy. This requires a warning to you, a dismissal meeting and a right of appeal.
(d) Your employer must consider with you whether there is scope for alternative employment. Most often, there is not.
(e) If there are 20 or more redundancies proposed within 90 days at one establishment, there must be collective consultation with a recognised trade union or employee representatives.
These legal hoops are not too difficult, but they give rise to 11,000 redundancyTribunal claims a year.
8. Negotiate your package
Your employer must fulfil your contractual and statutory rights: accrued holiday pay; notice or pay in lieu of notice; and statutory redundancy pay. Many employers are more generous than this. They may have a redundancy policy as to how much to pay. You may be able to use your knowledge of how much other leavers have been paid. If the employer asks you to sign a compromise agreement, there must be an extra payment to persuade you to waive your rights to go to Court or Tribunal. You may want to negotiate, not just more money, but extended health or life insurance, a reference, outplacement or a longer period to exercise your share options. In the end, you want the peace of mind of knowing that you have got all you can, short of litigation. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
9. Take legal advice
You may decide to litigate, for a variety of reasons. You need to know whether you have a good legal claim and what this is worth. Specialist employment solicitors advise on this, as well as negotiating, compromise agreements, tax and whether any restrictive covenants in your contract are valid. Call Just Employment Solicitors on 01483 303636 or at geoffrey.bignell@justemployment.com for a free discussion or visit Just Employment.
10. Tenacity is rewarded.
Job hunting is not usually easy.To be successful, you need to have a professional approach. You may have plenty to learn about selling yourself. There is lots of information to help you. I have mentioned outplacement, as well as books*. If you are not confident in interviews, we can give you interview coaching, with a realistic practice interview for the job you want. It can make a big difference. Call me on 01483 303636 or at geoffrey.bignell@justemployment.com.
Whatever you path to a new job, my experience with lots of leavers suggests that you are likely to look back and be glad that you were made redundant. I hope your new job ismore satisfying and your new employer more appreciative. Try to treat your job search as an adventure. Stay positive and good luck!
*Book suggestions
‘What Colour is Your Parachute’ Richard Bolles
‘How to Interview and Be Interviewed’ Michele Brown
‘The Perfect CV’ Max Eggert
‘Great Answers to Tough Interview Questions’ Martin Yates
‘High Income Consulting’ Tom Lambert
‘How to be Headhunted’ John Purkiss
‘You’re Hired’ Corinne Mills