Consideration of alternatives to redundancy

As part of any fair redundancy process, employers should consider steps that can be taken to avoid compulsory redundancies. These may include:

· seeking applicants for voluntary redundancy;

· encouraging existing staff to work flexibly on reduced hours by agreement;

· freezing or restricting recruitment;

· redeploying existing employees to other parts of the business;

· reduction in the use of freelancers and casual workers; and/or

· introducing a pay freeze or agreed salary reductions.