Letter to wider workforce about redundancy situation

It’s good practice to inform the wider workforce about a redundancy situation as it can stop rumours and ease unrest. They don’t need to know all the details about your redundancy programme but do let them know what parts of the business are affected and that you’re to begin consultation with “at risk” employees. You can use our letter to do this.

Not at risk

Unless the redundancy programme is company-wide, e.g. you’re closing down the whole business or all staff are to go into the redundancy selection pool because they call carry out the same job, you’re likely to have employees who aren’t at risk of redundancy and therefore aren’t affected by the redundancy programme. This could be because they work in a different department or at a different location or because of the particular role they’re employed to carry out. Whilst legally you don’t have to involve these employees in your redundancy programme, it’s nevertheless good employment practice to inform them that a redundancy situation has arisen and to briefly outline what this will entail. This can stop rumours from spreading and ease workforce unrest, as it ensures all your employees have the correct information about what’s going on.

Information letter

Our letter to Wider Workforce about Redundancy Situation can be sued to inform employees that redundancies may be necessary within the business, or within a specific department or location, even though their own role is not at risk. You don’t have to give them detailed information about the redundancy procedure as it doesn’t directly affect them, so our letter briefly sets out how many redundancies you envisage having to make and in what parts of the business and that a period of consultation will now begin with those who are at risk. Our letter also recognises that redundancy is a difficult time for everyone, and so it requests the employee’s co-operation and understanding.