Guest Blog by Career Garage: Supporting employees through redundancy – What happens after the redundancy conversation?

This guest blog has been written by Rebecca Moloney, founder of Career Garage. Rebecca shares her perspective on how employers can support employees during and after redundancy, including the practical steps that can help individuals prepare for what comes next.

If you’re an employer navigating redundancy, you can also join our upcoming free webinar, ‘Navigating Redundancy – What Every Employer Needs to Know’, on 17th September. Find out more and register here.

Redundancy is one of the most difficult situations an employer can face. Alongside the legal process, there are decisions to communicate, practical arrangements to manage and understandably emotional conversations to navigate.

Behind every redundancy is an individual who may suddenly be questioning their financial security, professional confidence and future career. Even when the decision has nothing to do with their performance, losing a role can feel incredibly personal.

Following a fair and legally sound redundancy process is essential, but supporting employees through redundancy can extend beyond the formal consultation and final meeting. By helping affected employees prepare for what comes next, employers can make a genuine difference to how confidently they move forward.

Redundancy affects more than someone’s employment

People can experience redundancy in very different ways. Some may immediately focus on finding another role, while others need time to process what has happened, rebuild their confidence or consider whether they want to take their career in a different direction.

Someone who has worked for the same organisation or within the same industry for many years may feel particularly unprepared. They might not have written a CV for a decade, their LinkedIn profile may be incomplete or they may have little understanding of how recruitment has changed since they last searched for work.

Others may know that they need to secure another job but feel unsure about what they want to do next. This combination of practical uncertainty and lost confidence can make an already difficult experience feel even more daunting.

Communication matters throughout the redundancy process

Clear, sensitive and respectful communication is important at every stage of redundancy. Employees need to understand what is happening, why decisions are being made, what the next steps are and where they can find additional support.

Managers cannot remove all the uncertainty associated with redundancy, but they can avoid adding to it. Allowing people time to process information, answering questions clearly and treating everyone with dignity can help affected employees retain a greater sense of control.

The way redundancy is handled can also have a lasting effect beyond the departing employee. It can influence the organisation’s reputation and affect the trust, morale and engagement of the colleagues who remain.

Practical support can help employees find direction

Many employers provide access to an Employee Assistance Programme or other wellbeing services during redundancy. This support can be extremely valuable, particularly for employees struggling with the emotional impact of losing their role.

However, wellbeing support does not necessarily answer the practical career questions that can quickly arise:

• What should my CV include now?
• How do I explain my redundancy to another employer?
• Is my LinkedIn profile helping recruiters find me?
• How do I approach the current job market?
• What other roles could my experience be relevant to?
• How can I speak confidently about what I have achieved?

This is where career transition or outplacement support can complement the formal redundancy process. Rather than simply advising someone to update their CV and start applying for jobs, effective support helps them understand what they can offer, decide what they want next and communicate their experience clearly.

Having practical actions to follow can provide much-needed direction at a time when the future may otherwise feel uncertain.

Helping employees recognise their transferable skills

One of the biggest challenges I see is that people often underestimate the skills they have developed throughout their careers.

Communicating with customers, managing projects, solving problems, leading people, building relationships, organising workloads and making decisions are all valuable transferable skills. However, when someone uses these abilities every day, they can become second nature and may no longer feel particularly significant.

This can be especially limiting for an employee who is considering moving into a different industry. They may assume their experience only has value within the sector they know, when many of their skills could be applied successfully in a completely different environment.

Helping someone identify their strengths and transferable skills can broaden their options. It also gives them the language they need to present their experience more effectively on their CV, LinkedIn profile, applications and during interviews.

Preparing employees for today’s job market

The recruitment landscape may have changed significantly since an experienced employee last searched for work. A good employment history remains valuable, but candidates also need to understand how employers and recruiters find people, how applicant tracking systems can affect a CV and why professional visibility online has become increasingly important.

Some senior and experienced professionals have previously secured roles through recommendations, established contacts and word of mouth. When they unexpectedly enter the wider job market, they may discover that their CV no longer reflects the level at which they work or that they are difficult for recruiters to find online.

This does not mean their experience has become less valuable. It means they may need help presenting it effectively within a different recruitment environment.

Career transition support can help employees understand how recruitment now works, focus their job search and ensure their professional experience is visible to the right people.

Supporting the employees who remain

Redundancy also affects the people who stay within the organisation. They may be concerned about their own job security, upset about losing colleagues or expected to manage changing responsibilities.

If remaining employees believe their departing colleagues have been treated poorly, it can affect their trust in the organisation. Conversely, seeing colleagues treated fairly and offered meaningful support demonstrates that people continue to matter, even when difficult commercial decisions are necessary.

Supporting employees through redundancy does not remove the difficulty of the situation, but it can help an organisation manage change with greater care and consistency.

What can employee redundancy support include?

There is no single form of support that will be right for every employee. One person may need help creating a CV that reflects years of experience, while another may benefit more from interview preparation, LinkedIn guidance or the opportunity to explore a completely different career direction.

Depending on the circumstances, employee redundancy and outplacement support could include:

• One-to-one career coaching
• CV writing or review
• LinkedIn profile development
• Transferable skills and career direction sessions
• Interview preparation
• Job-search planning
• Group workshops for affected employees

The purpose is not to promise that someone will secure a new role immediately. It is to help them feel better prepared, understand their options and approach their next steps with greater confidence.

Helping employees leave well

Employers cannot always prevent redundancy. Organisations change, commercial pressures arise and difficult decisions sometimes have to be made. What an employer can influence is how people are treated throughout the process and what support is available as they prepare to leave.

Hallidays HR can support employers in managing redundancy fairly, sensitively and in accordance with their legal responsibilities. Career transition support can complement this by helping affected employees recognise their strengths, understand their options and prepare for today’s job market.

A well-managed redundancy process should not only help someone leave an organisation appropriately. Wherever possible, it should also help them feel equipped to move forward.

About Rebecca Moloney

Rebecca Moloney is the founder of Career Garage and has more than 30 years of recruitment experience. She works with employers and HR professionals to provide practical career transition and outplacement support, helping affected employees recognise their strengths, explore their options and navigate the job market with greater confidence.