Description

Webinar FAQs

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What constitutes ‘affected employees’?

This refers to anyone whose hours or job are affected – for example having to reduce hours to avoid a redundancy situation, or anyone who stands to lose their job.

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Is there an obligation to receive feedback from non-affected employees?

You must allow a consultation period and opportunity for affected employees, but there is no obligation to receive feedback from staff whose roles are not being affected. However, it is good practice to consider whatever any of your team have to say. Often our staff can have really good ideas that can take us down a path we perhaps have not considered with the potential of a more positive outcome.

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Do I have to meet with all affected staff individually? What If I have a large team?

• There is no set way to do this.
• You must always act in good faith, be fair and reasonable, but you can decide on the best course of action for your specific situation.
• With large teams where all employees are affected equally – you could have a group meeting (with support people also invited or your EAP provider).
• Let employees know how they can approach you if they wish to discuss anything privately or raise questions.
• If you have team leaders or managers – you could engage them to hold individual meetings with affected staff – this may spread the workload to enable individual meetings.

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Can my criteria for choosing who stays and who goes be based on length of service?

• It can be a factor but remember that you should be looking at what is best for your business going forward.
• I would propose wording this to be about the person best suited to the role in terms of experience/skills etc. rather than length of service.
• Another point may be that the redundancy payment may be more costly for a person who has longer service so you may have financial justification to retain a long serving team member.
• But it should be based on skill and experience – so a skills matrix becomes an invaluable tool in fairness which should allow you to illustrate how you have made your decisions fairly should someone raise a concern.

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When the changes have been confirmed, how long should I allow before the changes are implemented or take effect?

• Any implementation dates should be proposed in the initial proposal so that employees can provide feedback on this.
• Also refer to your employment agreement around notice periods for redundancy and business change.
• Stick to the notice periods in your employment agreements and what is fair and reasonable.

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