More than 80 per cent of the UK workforce have clear ideas
about what their employer could do to temporarily cut costs without making
redundancies, according to research by Reed Executive and the CIPD.
The top five suggestions included accepting a grant from employers
to take time off and study, cutting hours and receiving a proportionate cut in
salary, take unpaid leave to travel, take a pay cut but work the same hours,
and accept reduced pay from employer to work for a charity.
Only 8 per cent of the 870 staff surveyed said they were
ready to accept redundancy, despite latest employment figures showing a rise in
redundancies. The report claims that employers are blind to the alternatives to
redundancy and are responding in traditional fashion to the economic cool down
by making swingeing job cuts.
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James Reed, chief Executive of Reed, said, “We’ve all heard
about that small number of individuals who’ve seen the economy cooling and hope
they get made redundant, but the fact is that the vast majority of people want
to keep their jobs. Our research shows that they’re ready to make sacrifices to
do so, but they expect that good will to be reciprocated by their employer.”
“Whilst twice as many men as women are ready to take a pay
cut, the overall percentage of working people that find this acceptable is
still fairly low. “There were much greater approval ratings for options such as
a reduced working week, where employees could identify some tangible personal
benefit. It’s commonsense, but sadly something many employers overlook.”
