According to new research by Randstad Risesmart UK - an outplacement firm - who polled eighty-five HR professionals working in firms employing approximately 50,000 people, the study found that every redundancy costs HR professionals seven and a quarter hours of work.
A quarter of HR professionals stated that the percentage of redundancies that are not simple processes - such as cases that are going to tribunal - is rising and at present, stands at 28 per cent of the total number of redundancies. These more complicated processes represent 140 hours work for an HR professional.
Simon Lyle - UK Managing Director of Randstad Risesmart - said:
“Every situation is unique and it's a different process for individuals compared to larger redundancy programmes. Typically, it’s a day’s worth of work per exit - a series of consultations plus the requisite prep over a two-week period. Problems arise if cases go to tribunal. Then the process is longer and more resource heavy for HR departments - four weeks’ work.”
Between 450,000 and 700,000 redundancies are forecast by the Institute for Employment Studies for the autumn of this year. This will mean a huge rise in HR’s workload.
Simon Lyle - speaking to HR magazine - said that the months ahead will be a balancing act for people leaders and added:
"What HR teams lack, at the moment, is time. First, they've been run hot for a little while now. Second, the job now requires more work as HRDs seek to demonstrate their department's impact to the C-suite. A chunk of their time is now spent on showing that they are hitting business metrics and that talent is affecting the bottom line. There's just less flex to deal with pandemic-level events like COVOID-19."
The research highlights that of the approximately 152,000 people that work full time in employment activities across the UK, 65 per cent are likely to be involved in the redundancy process - resulting in 168 hours’ worth of overtime per full time HR employee over the course of the second half of 2020.
Simon Lyle commented that due to the scale of potential job cuts, the need for a ‘human touch’ in HR is highlighted. He went on to say that although the spending on HR technology has risen over the last decade and HR headcount spending has decreased - technology “can only do so much.”
He added:
“Technology cannot help HR teams with the very human and personal job of making large numbers of employees redundant. For that you need people - especially when cases go to tribunal.”
