Redundancy brings with it a complex set of emotions for those who are leaving – and the HR focus is rightly on the openness and fairness of the process for those people. But such a focus carries the risk that the changing needs and opinions of the staff who remain are ignored. Disregarding the likely changing attitudes of this second group can have far-reaching implications on staff morale, team-working and productivity.

When their colleagues have been made redundant, those who remain are likely to encounter one – or several – emotions. Some will feel relief that they are remaining in work; others will feel guilt that they had ‘survived’ in the workplace at the expense of others. Still others may feel envy at a missed opportunity that a substantial redundancy payment offers; or they may feel resentment when faced with a likely extra workload.

Without acknowledging and responding to these emotions, the manager is likely to see in their staff lower motivation and morale, reduced loyalty to the organisation, lower trust and a higher degree of scepticism. From there, lower productivity levels and increased absence could follow.

The response from managers to those emotions can take a number of forms. But the underlying task is for managers to empathise and focus on the needs and concerns of those who remain in work by:

• encouraging a culture in which questions about the future of the individual and the organisation can be asked
• being realistic and honest in responding to questions from staff
• being consistent and timely in communications, and ensuring that those affected most directly by any changes are told of them before others
• ensuring the organisation’s integrity by avoiding promises that it is impossible to guarantee.

The importance of the post-redundancy working environment that managers are looking to foster should not be under-estimated. Staff should be allowed to empathise with their colleagues who have been made redundant, and allowed to share stories and workplace memories of them. Like those who have left, they are looking for closure to the redundancy process.

Within that working environment, managers should look out for changes in behaviour that may indicate that their colleagues are unable to cope with the burden of redundancy in colleagues. Those signs include:

• increased absences, both formal and informal (including more days working from home and fewer spent in the office)
• less engagement with day-to-day tasks, and disassociation from both colleagues and the workplace.

A failing by managers to address adequately these issues can sometimes be coupled with other work changes caused by redundancy that staff see as detrimental, including changed work patterns, increased workloads and a greater pressure on delivery. Effective responses to the changed feeling and behaviours of those left in the workplace will help to diminish the impact of the structural changes.

For managers who find themselves having to develop redundancy programmes, significant attention must be paid to managing the perceptions of those remaining with the organisation – and to responding to their own feelings about the redundancy process.

• http://www.henley.reading.ac.uk/executiveeducation/excellence/cl-hrcentreofexcellence.asp