Michelle Rodger: Redundancy is a golden chance to secure the future

Published on Saturday 17 January 2009 13:09

HOW times have changed. Eleven months – and several hundred thousand job losses – ago I was writing about the number of UK employees pulling a sickie, and the serious cost implications their actions have on our economy (175 million working days lost at a cost of £13bn a year).

It now appears that almost half of all UK workers are worried about taking sick leave because they are afraid it will jeopardise their jobs, and the majority would be prepared to forgo their basic employment rights to avoid risking their job security. Some would even work for free in an effort to keep their jobs secure.

The findings, from a survey carried out by a UK law firm, reveal that 64% of people have serious concerns about the unstable job climate and would be prepared to go to extreme lengths to keep their job.

One in five would rather put up with bullying or sexual discrimination in the workplace than seek legal advice because they think it could affect their job security. Almost a quarter of those surveyed feel under pressure to work later than necessary because they think it looks bad to leave work promptly at the end of the day. More than one in seven workers would not ask to be paid for overtime, and 9% said they would avoid taking paternity leave to keep their jobs safe.

Minster Law Solicitors chief executive Matthew Briggs said: "It is worrying that they are prepared to forgo basic employment rights in order to do this," he said.

But concern for the UK's workforce is, I believe, entirely unnecessary because the harsh reality is that going the extra mile probably won't make the slightest difference to the outcome. A sudden improvement in your previously poor job performance and an unprecedented willingness to work longer and harder for no extra dosh is unlikely to convince your line manager that when the redundancy axe looms it should fall on someone else's neck.

Am I the only one to be secretly grateful for the silver lining in the whole redundancy thing? Or am I just the only one to say it out loud? Recession-driven redundancy is an opportunity to get rid of the dead wood.

Redundancy is an opportunity to reshape your business, to keep the very best people and get rid of the ones that do little more than turn up, spend the working day looking busy, keep everyone else off their work and then go home. Redundancy is about ensuring your company is lean enough but strong enough to grow through the difficult times – and you can't afford to carry poor performers on your books.

The latest official unemployment figures showed that the number of people out of work through redundancy in the UK rose by 137,000 to 1.86 million in the three months to October – the highest level since 1997. Predictions are that it will reach three million by the end of the year.

Over and above the increase directly attributable to the recession, the new regime laid out in the welfare reform bill published last week means that hundreds of thousands more people will start to move into the employment support system. New plans for parents, for example, mean that those with a child of 12 or older (dropping to seven or older next year) will now be forced to look for work; estimates show up to 288,000 lone parents will be expected to look for work who otherwise might not have done so.

Add to that the plans to issue fit notes instead of sick notes to move some of those now unable to work through illness or disability back into the workplace, and you're looking at thousands more actively seeking employment.

So, set against that backdrop of both redundant and reluctant workers it's not surprising then that the powers-that-be are resorting to bribery in an attempt to get people off the dole. The latest initiative is a 2,500 'golden hello' for employers who recruit people unemployed for more than six months. Hiring someone else's deadwood; is that worth 2,500?

As an employer I worry that further down the line when the economy ceases to contract, business confidence begins to grow and companies start to hire again, that the vast pool of unemployed has become a pool of unemployable, uninterested and unskilled people.

I'd much prefer the 500m pot set aside for the golden hellos was targeted at training and motivational initiatives, designed to prepare the potential workforce for a better chance at securing and keeping a new job. Surely then, as skilled, productive and enthusiastic employees, they wouldn't need to worry about their job safety.