Redundancy: top 10 alternatives

Job losses continue to dominate the headlines as businesses scrabble to save money, but new research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and professional services firm KPMG suggests companies are not being quite as ruthless as they could be.

Half the companies polled said they had introduced recruitment freezes as an alternative to redundancy, 44% had terminated agency or temporary worker contracts instead of cutting in-house staff, while 15% had introduced short-term working. Further measures included making greater use of flexible working (19%), cutting bonuses (17%) and wage reductions (7%).

Here are the Top 10 alternatives to redundancy:

1. Recruitment freezes
   The survey found 44% of companies polled had frozen recruitment to avoid endangering existing jobs.

    

2. Pay freezes or cuts
   While pay rises are always desirable, it is likely that employees will be happy to settle for job security rather than a pay rise.

    

3. Pay deferral schemes
   These allow a temporary deferral in pay, to be given back to employees at a later date.

    

4. Remove overtime
   With many manufacturers seeing reduced demand, reducing overtime is a straightforward way of cutting costs.

    

5. Short-term or flexible working
   Nearly a fifth of firms surveyed by the CIPD and KPMG are making greater use of flexible working.

    

6. Reduce use of agency workers
   Relying on core staff and cutting freelance cover is an option, especially in times of reduced demand.

    

7. Cut bonuses or pension payments
   Nearly a fifth (17%) of companies surveyed are cutting bonuses this year.

    

8. Sabbaticals (paid or unpaid)
   Car-makers Jaguar Land Rover and Vauxhall have offered staff sabbaticals in return for reduced pay.

    

9. Secondments to other companies
   This is an ideal way of increasing staff skills and retaining them, while reducing costs.

    

10. Redeployment in other parts of the business
    Moving staff from quieter areas of the businesses to cover needs elsewhere can help keep staff motivated and save on recruitment costs.

Get the full low-down on the downturn and how to implement
some of the above in Redundancy alternatives: Stay of execution