As you may have seen in the news recently, high street retailer Wilko has gone into administration, putting 12,000 jobs at risk. Redundancy is a difficult process for all involved, and it is easy for a member of HR to focus solely on the process from a policy and paperwork standpoint. What you also need to take into consideration, however, are the feelings and emotions that the staff will be going through, and deal with these accordingly. Emotional intelligence in your HR staff is vital in such a turbulent time for many, providing them with the skills to make a difficult experience a little less painful.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand, use and manage your own emotions in positive ways to communicate effectively, empathise with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict.

Negative emotions such as shock, denial, anger, and shame will be the most prevalent among employees at threat of redundancy. You need to make sure you are supporting these employees through the journey:

• Make sure the employees have been correctly informed – that they know their role in the process and what they need to do in the meantime.
• Acknowledge the feelings of your employees – you may need to have multiple conversations to ensure they know exactly what’s happening in addition to your mandatory redundancy consultations
• Keep lines of communication open to prevent speculation and allow staff to ask questions.
• Don’t forget that those not affected directly by redundancies, often your key staff will also have emotions that need to be taken into consideration so they don’t lose confidence in the business.

There is every chance that there will be some positive reactions to news surrounding redundancy too, potentially providing staff with the opportunity to move onto something new in their career. Whilst it may be easy to think that these people can be left alone, it’s important to think of the effect they may have on others who are struggling with the news – potentially aggravating those who are angry about the choice, or further upsetting those who are worried about the future.

Another group of people you need to think about are the survivors, those that remain in the organisation after the redundancy programme is complete. They could be experiencing feelings of guilt, job insecurity, fear, and anger towards the organisation for being put in this position, or a feeling of relief that they have kept their jobs. It is found that holding a fair and open process with those suffering from redundancy will positively impact the survivors, by limiting the guilt they are experiencing.

Overall, communication is key no matter what emotions you are dealing with. Whilst you cannot predict how people are going to react to redundancy news, you can control the way you react to information and support your employees.

For more advice on the legal and HR steps to be taken in a redundancy process, click here.

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