What options to cut costs can we consider before deciding to make redundancies?

Redundancy should be a last resort after trying other options to prevent their happening. These options could include:

• Reducing overtime
• Offering early retirement to those who volunteer
• Letting go of temporary employees
• Retraining or redistributing workers (even to roles with less responsibility and pay)
• Pushing back starting dates of new recruits
• Offering sabbaticals
• Arranging secondments (where one or a group of workers are temporarily assigned to different roles within the business or even different companies for a set time period).

You could also attempt to negotiate a reduction of workforce by offering compensation payments. In this case, you should ask employees to be willing to sign a settlement (formerly compromise) agreement, which prevents them from bringing a future Employment Tribunal claim. In any case, legal advice is highly advised.