Following a fair process, once you’ve confirmed there’s no other option but to make the individual’s role redundant, the next step is to consider suitable alternative roles that you have available.
Here’s what you need to know:
Compare and contrast – the suitability of a role is determined by comparing the individual’s current role with the new role available. Salary, place of work, skills required and aptitude for the role are all factors you can use to determine whether the available role is a suitable alternative.
Be specific – it’s not good enough just to give the employee a list of available roles – you need to search out the roles that could be suitable alternatives.
Bigger picture – if you’re part of a group of companies, your search for suitable alternatives should be group-wide.
First in line – if the individual at risk is on maternity leave, they must be offered the suitable alternative role ahead of any other individual who might also be suitable for the role.
If you need support in determining whether you have suitable alternatives available or how to compare two roles, get in touch for our expert advice. In update #10 we’ll be looking at ending the redundancy consultation process.