How do employers decide who will be made redundant?

[Bluemooninmyeyes1]

Our HR department sent us a letter a few days ago stating that due to the effects of covid on the business they have to make a certain amount of staff redundant. I’ve never been in this position before and obviously extremely worried, along with all my other colleagues. Those who have been through this or have a bit more knowledge, how do employers usually decide which staff to retain or who to get rid of? Does it go on length of service or productivity? Also, there are some staff still on furlough leave- are they more at risk? TIA

It varies between companies. Some have a "last in, first out" policy. Others will go on productivity.

One thing that does happen unofficially, even if nobody would admit it, is that it's sometimes a good excuse to get rid of unpopular people who are technically good at their jobs but actually annoy everyone. That's not necessarily the professional answer, but it's sometimes a realistic one.

Hi, your best bet is calling ACAS and asking for some advice. They will give you the relevant legal information based on the size of your business, employees, length of service etc. For example, businesses with a certain number of employees have to put them under "consultation" for a set period of time. Give ACAS a call and they'll explain.

I don’t think they can do a straight last in first out as it can be deemed as being ageist.
Assuming a number of similar roles are being cut, they might use a matrix which might have a number of different metrics like performance, disciplinary issues etc.
But that is assuming all roles are the same. It’s the role that is being made redundant, not the person, so they would first look at the needs of the business and which roles they want to keep.

It depends on each company. In some situations a whole division closes and those staff will be made redundant.

Other times staff are put into a pool. Criteria are then applied to see who scores most highly, they then stay. So I am an accountant, we might be judged on chargeable hours, specialist knowledge, (I was the best in my company on GDPR), technical ability and so on.

The people in the pools are judged against the criteria. It might be that there are 5 people in a pool, and 2 jobs are to remain, so the 5 will be rated against the criteria and that will guide decisions.

We are going through this at the moment. In our case, voluntary redundancies have been offered, those staff left today. Further losses to come,

I was made redundant because I was an events manager - no events, no work.

The company revenues had halved, they needed to cut the wage bill, I was an easy choice. Hard to argue with too.

I think they should tell you what their criteria are - my employers are also 'restructuring' (including my team, although AFAICT we're pretty safe) and they are releasing details of how they will make decisions. This includes things like looking at people's last few years of performance reviews, whether there's any complaints about their competence or behaviour etc. People will also be 'pooled' with roles requiring similar experience, as described above.

When I went through the process a couple years ago, we had to fill in a form answer questions about the job we do, it also included things like sick days and training courses. These were sent to HR anonymously who compared them to a skills matrix.
The company needed to reduce wages by a certain amount of hours so the person with the lowest score was made redundant, then next lowest etc
Employers can get round things if they know it’s coming, for example I was sent on 6 training courses in the space of 3 months which bumped my score right up ensuring that I definitely stayed.

Least productive / most overpaid / troublesome colleagues.

Also disproportionately affects women, particularly those with children who require flexibility and are absent more regularly due to childcare.