An online questionnaire designed to help an organisation to monitor and improve its redundancy process – by gathering anonymous feedback from those who have lost their jobs – has been launched today by TalentDrain, the employee engagement and retention specialist.
Called Expressions, the five-minute questionnaire reveals whether the reasons behind the decision, the timescales and the financial entitlements were made clear; whether people feel the organisation did everything it could to find an alternative to redundancy and whether they’re satisfied with the written communications they received and level of support offered to help them find a new job. It also asks what could be done to improve the redundancy process, what they now think about the organisation and whether they want to keep in touch with the organisation and other employees via an Alumni group.
“As the economic downturn continues, redundancies are now an unfortunate reality,” said Ron Eldridge, Director of TalentDrain. “Often managers just want to get this over with as quickly as possible but there are moral reasons as well as brand and reputation considerations why organisations need to be particularly sensitive and supportive when job losses have to be made. This questionnaire gives the employees’ view of the redundancy process and it can help organisations to ensure that people are treated – and feel they have been treated – justly.”
TalentDrain hosts the online questionnaire, maintaining the confidentiality of the respondents. It provides a detailed analysis report which interprets the data and offers additional insights that can be actioned to improve wider people processes across the organisation.
“An organisation might have great recruitment and development processes and it may have treated its employees very well but if they leave with a bad taste in their mouths, that’s what they’ll remember,” said Ron Eldridge. “It’s important to communicate how and why those affected were selected, as this process has to be seen as fair. If it’s not explained, rumours will arise, trust will be eroded and the good work done by the organisation will have been in vain. Most importantly for organisations, such perceptions are likely to have a negative impact on the confidence, engagement and performance focus of the remaining employees.”
