Redundancy: the options

Non-compulsory redundancy covers voluntary redundancy.

You could ask employees if they would like to volunteer for redundancy and then select those to be made redundant.

Voluntary redundancy advantages

• It is less demoralising and disruptive than compulsory redundancy.
• It helps identify employees who are willing to accept redundancy.

Voluntary redundancy disadvantages

• It could work out to be more expensive as you may need to offer enhanced redundancy payments to attract people to leave.
• Management reserves the right to turn down offers from those volunteering to be made redundant.
• There is also the risk that employees not granted their voluntary redundancy request may react negatively and you could also end up with an imbalance of skills and experience.

See redundancy letters, forms, and templates.

Redundancy webinar

The Labour Relations Agency (LRA) redundancy webinar recording provides useful information on the topic of redundancy and how to ensure the redundancy process is managed fairly and in line with employment legislation.

Employment document toolkit

The LRA also has a free employment document toolkit. Once employers are registered they can unlock free employment guides to them build documents, policies, and procedures for their own organisation. Find out about the LRA's employment document toolkit.