Be open and compassionate when you decide to cut jobs, say our experts.
Anthony Holmes
A corporate turnround specialist
“A lot of people think I am a hatchet man. If it was that easy then everybody would be able to do it and I wouldn’t have a job.
“Reducing headcount isn’t what you are aiming to do. You are choosing to reduce the costs of the business and you are doing that through headcount. How do you do it? Compassionately.
“You have to try to do it once and once only. There is nothing worse in a business than having a running sore of redundancies happening every couple of months.
“The difficult thing is holding on to the good people. There is no prepackaged way of doing it, but one thing is to offer a bonus, either in shares, a promotion or cash, if they stay with the business for a year or two after two quarters of positive GDP.
“If you have a temporary issue, you could ask whether people want to job share. People might prefer this, especially if it is only for a few months.
“You could also see if a supplier will sponsor some of the jobs. They have got a vested interest because if your company goes bust then they are in the mire.
“What you must not do is hide it away as a deep and dirty secret and then come in on Monday and cut your staff’s legs off.”
Martin Baldock
General manager of DGI, a computer forensics investigation business
“I would recommend taking an image of the person’s computer screen. It is a relatively quick process and it can be put on file with your HR department. Quite often, once the person has left the organisation, you get questions about matters that that person dealt with. If you haven’t got the information there is no way to check.”
Helen Duffy
Solicitor in the employment department of SA Law
“When you see even a sign of there being redundancies, let people know. The thing that we come across in our litigation work is employers who have looked to get rid of people as quickly and as cheaply as possible.
“It is when employers have been secretive about what they are doing, and staff haven’t felt that their bosses have been open, that people start making claims.”
