Managers get helping hand to manage stress of public sector redundancy programmes

Calibre HR & Training in Kent, specialists in human resource training and development, has launched a new workshop package to help public sector managers on the frontline of delivering job cuts.

With more than four in ten public sector organisations planning redundancies by the end of the year, according to figures from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), few services will be unaffected by job cuts. Yet the managers who will be responsible for the day-to-day delivery of these programmes often have little experience or technical training in how to manage them.

Calibre HR & Training director Steve Walker explains: “In the first instance senior managers and HR departments decide on the scope of the job cuts. But when it comes to implementing them it is frontline managers who end up delivering the news and managing the aftermath. Yet, few have any experience and little training in how to manage redundancy programmes. And even fewer know what to expect afterwards and how to pick up the pieces.

“With stress and sickness absence already a problem in the public sector, things could get even worse if managers are not given the help and support they need to do the job properly. And then of course there is the legal fallout if managers fail to get every aspect of the programme correct to the letter of the law.”

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Change is one of the most common causes of stress, but public sector workers are already failing to cope. A recent CIPD survey reveals that 79 per cent of non-manual public sector employers rate stress as a top-five cause of absence. This compares to an average across all sectors of 63 per cent.

Calibre HR & Training’s twin workshop package is designed to equip managers to implement job cuts legally and with maximum support for leavers and survivors. It is also tailored to help reduce managers’ stress and anxiety about being at the forefront of change and equip them to pick up the pieces afterwards.