There are a lot of expectations on the shoulders of today’s HR teams – balancing hybrid and remote work, the Great Resignation, quiet quitting, the rise of AI in recruitment, a stronger focus on DEI as well as the need to attract, sift, train and retain the best candidates for a competitive talent pool – combined with the continuous need to improve the employee experience while meeting organisational goals, all on a budget with diminishing resources.
Of these, the most impactive for HR practitioners on the frontline is the redundancy process. With redundancies on the rise (4.6 per thousand people in the three months to January 2024, according to ONS), there’s even more focus on this part of the HR remit.
But at what cost?
Redundancy is complex. The focus is often on the individuals being made redundant, who need advice, support and guidance during a very difficult time. But those who carry it out also need support – they’re at the sharp end of carrying out conversations that also impact them emotionally, and that takes its toll.
– Victoria McLean, Founder & CEO Hanover | City CV
The inside view
HR is simply too much work, according to 95% of more than 1,000 HR leaders and C-suite executives in a global survey conducted for Sage on the Changing Face of HR in 2024.
- 91% said the last few years had been challenging
- 84% said they regularly felt stressed
- 81% said they were personally burned out
- 62% said they were considering leaving HR
And these respondents came from high-skill sectors including e-commerce, retail, financial services, insurance, professional services, technology and telecommunication.
Given these stats, it’s hardly surprising that HR professionals might not only consider moving jobs but could also succumb to long-term stress issues like insomnia, high blood pressure, and mental health struggles such as anxiety and depression.
Split personality – enforcer or caregiver
An HR department is both the hello and the goodbye for an organisation. Recruitment, redundancy and everything in between.
As an enforcer, the team is responsible for implementing, monitoring and maintaining company policies and procedures, overseeing compliance, managing performance as well as keeping a close eye on stakeholder and organisational goals.
As a caregiver, they’ll be supporting and guiding employees, facilitating personal and professional development, managing performance, advocating for employees as well as promoting wellbeing and signposting to extra resources such as counselling and mental health support when needed.
But the beating heart of HR is people. And the clue is in the title. Human Resources, covering all the complexities and nuances of being human, in the workplace. There’s a duty of care to the individual and to the business. Yet, there’s no immunity from the challenges of difficult situations that require a very human touch – and nowhere is that more visible and relevant than when it involves making people redundant.
“The hardest challenge being an HR is that sometimes you have to be the LAWYER, the JUDGE, and the HANGMAN.” – Hassan Choughari
Emotional labour
Redundancies should be handled with dignity, compassion, respect and empathy –watchwords for HR. But at what cost to the person delivering this kind of life-altering news? Especially when they come face to face on a regular basis with people in this unfortunate position.
“I get worried I haven’t covered every angle or that I have missed some information that will be vitally important during consultation. There can also be the upsetting, uncomfortable sessions when you have a tearful individual in front of you.” – HR consultant, Catherine
There’s a very human impact involved in having difficult conversations, and it’s one that’s shared with the medical profession. Messengers have to remain kind and compassionate while being the clear, firm voice of the business.
Yet they frequently describe the experience as a rollercoaster of emotions: fear, anger, frustration, disappointment, regret, sadness, loneliness, shock with guilt being the most prolific emotion. They’re at risk of suffering compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress and can be inclined to sacrifice their own mental health to support others, with the symptoms often going under radar as it’s often seen as part of their job.
“Telling someone they have been made redundant almost feels like telling someone that a loved one has died. It’s a painful situation and there are so few things in life that prepare you for it.” – Justin Spray, Mendas
Ramp up support from the top
One of the most important factors in easing the burden for HR is for leaders to help from within – to proactively show support for their HR colleagues by reminding them of their value and their worth and to better integrate them within the business. There are three ways to do this effectively:
- Prioritise self-care for HR teams
- Instigate regular checks in, especially after delivering bad news
- Invest in the right support and training to help them cultivate resilience in navigating the challenges of their role.
And on a wider level, advocate for a culture of empathy and support across the organisation.
In a recent interview with People Management, Vicky Walker, Group Director of People at Westfield Health agreed that redundancy meetings can be incredibly hard to navigate.
“It can give the HR profession a really bad name, then we have to work twice as hard on our reputation.”
“People are not a number. People are people. So whether you employ 10 people or you employ 10,000 people, when you have an opportunity where you can really impact somebody’s life or emotions, treat them as a human being and please think about how they would want to be treated.”
The cost of challenging conversations
In a Guardian article, Juliet Price, a former HR director who runs her own consultancy recalls: “Even when you’re clear that what you are doing has a higher purpose – that you’re sacking 10 to save 90 – knowing some people are not going to get another job makes it all so much worse.
People focus their anger on you as a person, even though often you’re just the messenger. The worst was coming out into a pitch-black car park to find that my tyres had been slashed.”
Size doesn’t matter
It’s an issue that isn’t purely set in large corporations. For SMEs, relationships between HR and the rest of the organisation can be more intimate so the impact can be even greater emotionally, particular if the messenger is close to the individual and knows details of their personal lives and family commitments. They may even have recruited them.
“The hardest is when you know, but they don’t,” admits Jacqui Williams who has worked at Group HR and director level. “That’s when you are gathering information and you find out that they are booking a holiday, or buying a house.
Once the redundancy process has started, you don’t want to know about their lives. In one case I was friends with the chap I was making redundant. I knew his wife and his five kids, and that was a tough thing to do. You want to give them a warning of what you are about to do, but how can you without giving them the news?”
“I worked for a small telecoms company and was employee number four. We built it up to 85 people before the dotcom bubble burst and then I had to make more than 30 of them redundant.
My nickname became the Angel of Death because it was my job to tap on the shoulder the people who were going to be made redundant.”
Ali Moran, Workplace Law (Source: The Guardian)
Stepping up the support
Without compromising on the support that’s offered to employees going through redundancy, it’s time to reinvest in HR teams so that they too feel supported, heard and validated, and to mitigate against future health and wellbeing issues within such a key department.
Give them a louder voice in decision-making. How many company boards include HR professionals? It’s easier to tackle challenging cultural issues when you have a say in the policies and decisions that impact them. As well as gaining valuable insights, organisations will benefit from designing and implementing policies that genuinely support HR – which in turn will help them feel valued and committed.
Equally HR managers should be encouraged to prioritise wellbeing and a healthy work/life balance; this might be using out-of-office more, communicating clearly when they’re available and carving out time to reset and refocus as well as taking advantage of peer support and accessing wellbeing resources that can often be promoted to others first.
For the redundancy process, communication underpins everything.
Find out more about ways to confidently tackle those difficult conversations in our free Leading Through Tough Talks workshop. With deeper insights and tangible takeaways, it will help you fortify your managers with tried and tested techniques to tackle difficult conversations with confidence.
For help and support with outplacement or redundancy, book a call with our experienced team on 020 7100 6656.