Redundancies have little effect on UK employee engagement

Redundancies have almost no effect on employee engagement at UK organisations, analysis by Culture Amp has found.

Data gathered from over 350 organisations between 2020 and 2023 found that employee engagement levels at UK employers dropped from just 66% to 65% after a round of redundancies, while in the US engagement levels fell from 73% to 66%.

Globally, it is taking much longer for organisations’ engagement levels to recover after a round of layoffs. Between 2020 and 2022 it would take 12-18 months for engagement to return to pre-redundancy levels, but Culture Amp projects it is now taking 18-24 months.

In 2023 significant numbers of redundancies were announced by major employers, particularly in technology and financial services. In Great Britain, the number of proposed redundancies jumped 58% as company insolvencies in England and Wales hit a 30-year high.

Melissa Paris, regional director of people science at Culture Amp, suggested the laws around redundancy in the UK could be softening the blow of redundancy for those who have avoided losing their jobs.

“Employment regulations in the UK place a level of accountability on organisations compared to the US, where layoffs can often happen without nearly as much notice or support for those affected. This could mean that the UK’s regulations are acting as a buffer, safeguarding the engagement and motivation of those left behind,” she said.

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“This softening of the blow may be leaving space for a better mutual understanding of the complexities of the business, and why the leaders made the decisions they did. However, managers still need to provide teams with the time and space to process what has happened and understand how they now fit into the streamlined organisation.”

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