Collective Redundancy for a Tech Scale-Up

Services:

The Brief

As part of a wider cost-saving and business efficiency initiative, a high-growth fintech organisation needed to implement a collective redundancy programme for the first time. The company had grown quickly from a founder-led start-up and had never navigated a process of this scale before.

Key concerns included:

The number of proposed redundancies represented around 20% of the workforce in the UK.
As such there were concerns about the impact of this on the Company’s brand both internally and externally.
The culture of the organisation was such that employees felt entitled to access information that was at a higher level than their roles required. Additionally, there were concerns regarding how employees would react to the announcement of the proposed redundancies, as well as presenting challenges in respect of communication throughout the project.
There was no existing employee staff forum or trade union and so elections needed to be undertaken and new representatives appointed. However, this posed a challenge in terms of consultation and communication with an inexperienced employee body.
Once elected, some of the personalities of the representatives posed challenges in terms of messaging and communications.
There was a lack of internal experience managing redundancy or consultation processes.
The workplace culture fostered open access to sensitive information, increasing risk of leaks and speculation.

The Head of HR reached out to ibex gale to lead the process with expertise and care.

Our Approach

Working in close collaboration with the internal HR and leadership teams, we designed a tailored, legally compliant, and people-centric redundancy consultation strategy. The project required speed and sensitivity, and careful execution in order to protect the company’s employer brand both internally and externally.

Key actions included:

Representative Elections: Planning and executing fair elections to establish employee representation where none existed.
Training and Upskilling: Delivering training for HR teams, managers, and employee representatives on UK employment law and redundancy protocols.
Legal Documentation: Drafting all necessary communication materials, including agendas, consultation letters, and meeting notes to ensure compliance with collective consultation obligations.
Consultation Management: Leading collective and individual consultation meetings, over 50 individual employee consultations, and ensuring clarity and empathy throughout. Developing selection criteria for selection pools and supporting managers in applying these to indentify individuals who would be placed at risk.
Risk Mitigation: Acting as a sounding board and guide for internal teams to identify and navigate potential flashpoints or legal risks.
Transparent Communication: Creating FAQ documents and talking points to support consistent messaging across all levels, and continuously liaising with internal project teams
Selection Criteria Support: Developed selection pool criteria and supported managers in identifying at-risk roles.
Project Tracking: Producing data and metrics for the client throughout the project to be able to track and monitor progress of the project.

The Results

The project concluded on time, on message, and with minimal disruption.

Timely Delivery: We ensured the completion of the entire program within the client’s target timescales.
Compliance Confidence: Legal risks were minimised through expert documentation, advice and project management.
People-First Process: Employees were treated fairly, with compassion and respectfully throughout the process.
Long-Term Impact: Internal HR teams and line managers were upskilled on UK employment law and UK HR best practice relating to redundancy and collective consultation.
Sustained Engagement: We continued to advise post-project on ongoing employee engagement, communication and trust.

Thank you for all your help these past few months. It’s been a very smooth process from our side and one we couldn’t have done without your guidance and support..

— Head of HR, Fintech Client

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Company Name

Industry

Primary Concern

Message

investigations | employee relations

culture | change

governance | assurance

Collective Redundancy for a Tech Scale-Up

Client:

Sector:

Location:

The Brief

Our Approach

The Results

Thank you for all your help these past few months. It’s been a very smooth process from our side and one we couldn’t have done without your guidance and support..

recent projects

Explore how we support our clients

Culture Review for a Large NHS Trust

Sexual Harassment for a Media Company

Culture Review for a Large NHS Trust

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contact us

Speak to a member of our team

contact us

Speak to a member of our team