MER Policy and Procedure
Sheffield City Council
Managing Employee Reductions Policy
Author: HR Service
Publication Date:March 2015
- Introduction
The purpose of this policy is to ensurethat a fair and consistent approach is adopted in the management of employee reduction across the Council and ensure that employees who are at risk of redundancy as part of a Management of Employee Reductions (MER) policy are supported appropriately. This policy supplements the redundancy consultation procedures required by law.Note: This policy does not apply to school based employeesas different arrangements apply.
The need to reduce the workforce employee numbers and enter into redundancy processes may be the result of the following circumstances
- The redesign of a service typically driven by service change or budget restrictions.
- The need to reduce the workforce without redesigning the service
- The closure of a service
2. Consultation
Formal consultation will begin at the earliest opportunity at corporate and/or at a service level, to ensure that statutory timescales and requirements are met. Trade Unions will be made aware of the change and will be invited to consultation meetings with employees prior to any redundancy notices being served.
Consultation will include:
- The reasons for potential redundancies
- Potential numbers,likely numbers and roles affected
- Processes including verification of establishment by confirming hours and personal data with employees, the selection criteria, recruitment to posts
- Measures in place to avoid or reduce the number of potential redundancies such as Voluntary Early Retirement or Voluntary Severance (VER/VS) schemes in targeted areas and redeployment opportunities in scope of the MER proposal and within the portfolio with appropriate timescales
3.Pools
The managerin consultation with HR will determine the pools which will identify numbers and grades of employees vulnerable to redundancy. These pools will consist of employees identified at the same grade and doing similar duties The pooling will be subject to consultation with trade unions and employees in scope of the process.
Vulnerability letters will be issued where appropriate to advise employees that they are included in a pool(s) to make them aware of the potential redundancy situation. Where a service is subject to closure or part closure, vulnerability letters will be issued to all employees in the service. The vulnerability letter and appendices will detail:
- Information about the change
- The timeline
- Voluntary Early Retirement/ Voluntary Severance (VER/VS) opportunities available.
4. Initial Mitigation within pools
Employees in receipt of a vulnerability letter will have the opportunity of expressing an interest in VER/VS and this invitation will be open for one month.
Upon receipt of expressions of interest, quotes will also be prepared and will form part of the decision making process. Where more than one employee expresses an interest in VER/VS, approval to release will be given on the basis of the best demonstrable financial benefit to Sheffield City Council. Where VER/VS is accepted, employees will be offered the scheme available at the time with an identified termination date, this is either amutually agreed date of termination or takes into account an employee’s contractual notice period.
Where bumping (see section 8) is being explored, managers will need to consider whether there arereasonable job matches between those expressing an interest in VER/VS and those who are vulnerable to redundancy. This will also be discussed with Trade Union representatives.
Managers will also ensure that employees in receipt of vulnerability letters havean understanding of the MER process, e.g. information about redeployment and the Talent Pool process. Managers will also offer support to employees in order to apply for jobs and prepare for interviews.
5.Selection Process
Following the VER/VS scheme and assessing the impact of employees wishing to leave under voluntary redundancy measures, if there is still a surplus of number of employees within the structure, Managers will agree with the Trade Unions the recruitment process that will need to take place.
Employees identified as surplus following recruitment where employees have been unsuccessful will then be liable to potential redundancy dismissal. They will be issued with a formal notice of redundancy. The Council does this by issuing a Selection notice. If because of service closure there are no available jobs, all remaining employees will be issued with a Selection notice. This will also confirm that employees will be eligible to enter the Talent Pool in order to seek redeployment opportunities. The Selection notice applies for a period of one month from the date of issue. This letter will be followed by a notice of dismissal.
6. Notice of dismissal by reason of redundancy
One month after issuing the selection notice, employees will be issued with a formal Notice of Dismissal by reason of redundancy in accordance with contractual or statutory notice entitlements. Notice of dismissal by reason of redundancy will be a minimum of 2 months’ noticefor all employees in order to continue attempts to find alternatives to dismissal.
Wherever possible, notices will be issued to redundant employees in person by their Head of Service or advice should be sought from HR.Attempts to find redeployment opportunities will continue until the expiry of notice of dismissal and employment with Sheffield City Council ends. The redeployment procedure will start from the date of the selection notice being served and will continueforthe duration of their notice of dismissal. If the employee finds suitable alternative employment the notice of dismissal will be withdrawn. Should no suitable alternative post be identified the employment will be terminated by reason of redundancy.
7. Appeal arrangements
Employees in receipt of a Notice of Dismissal by reason of redundancy will be entitled to an appeal. Appeals need to be in writing to the HR Director who will arrange for the City Council’s Redundancy Appeal Panel to hear an employee’s appeal against dismissal. This panel will comprise of3 Directors and will be advised by HR.
Sheffield City Council will endeavor to deal with all appeals against Dismissal by reason of redundancy during employees’ notice periods where circumstances allow.Arrangements for appeals including an identified date for the hearing during an employee’s notice period will be confirmed in writing. The employee will be given 10 working days’ notice of the appeal hearing. Employees who, for any reason, do not accept the appeal date offered, but who still wish to appeal, will be offered an alternative date. It cannot be guaranteed however, that this will happen during the notice period.
8.Bumping
As a further attempt to mitigate compulsory redundancy, expressions of interest for VER/VS may be invited from other employees inorder toopen redeployment opportunities for those under Notice of Dismissal by reason of redundancy. On a targeted basis, applications will be invited, from other service areas likely to lead to a skills match with those employees under formal notification of dismissal by reason of redundancy.
Where agreed and approval sought from Chief Officer Panel for the release of the current post holder on the basis of a Bumped Redundancy, the opportunity will be advertised to those seeking redeployment for a period of 6 months or until an employee selected for redundancy is matched to the opportunity. Opportunities will be removed from advertising should a match not be found following the 6 months advertising period.
The criteria for release of employees under bumping arrangements will be the confirmation in post of a matched employee who is in receipt of a Notice of Dismissal by reason of redundancy. The cost of release will need to be the same or comparable to the cost of release of the vulnerable employee in the Talent Pool. The business case will need to be reviewed at Chief Officer Panel prior to the agreement to release an employee on the basis of a bump redundancy.
Sheffield City Council
Managing Employee Reductions
Procedure
Author: HR Service
Publication Date: March 2015
Introduction
This procedureis designed to help identify the key milestones and management actions required when managing change and reductions in the workforce. This procedure has been written in steps to support managers through the procedure.
Some steps or actions within steps may need to run in parallel with others to ensure good practice and to minimise the length and impact of this procedure.
Step 1 -Planning the change and associated documents
Managers are required to write a Business Case to their Portfolio Leadership Teams (PLT) to highlight the need to change the service and this should be accompanied with supporting information. This should be aclear account of what needs to change and the reason/s for this change. Reasons for the change may be but not inclusively, driven by;
- Budget
- Regulations/Legislation changes
- Service Merge/Closure or part closure
- Political/Priority/Administration.
It is important to include how success of the change can be measured and how this will be monitored, as this forms the final step in the procedure in ensuring that a service is fit for purpose moving forward.
Once the Business case is developed identifying the need for change, Managers are required to develop plans to redesign the service. Managers are required to shape their service focusing on the Council’s overarchingDesign Principles and specifically design their services in line with the Council’s Organisation Design Principles. This toolkit is for managers and HR practitioners, who are designing or restructuring their services, Alongside the corporate principles and policy guidance, managers can use assessment audit sheets to start their redesign process and at a later stage can use the accountabilities checklist to help with work on spans and layers.
An Equality Impact Assessment is also required in the event of any change to service deliver for customers. A further EIA is required to address negative impact to employees.Further information relating to EIA’s is detailed further in Step 1.
Managers should follow the governance structure within their service in order to seek formal agreement to redesign the service. This is usually followed by a presentation at Portfolio Operations group which is the first point at which the proposals are tabled with Trade unions for information.
Workforce Resourcing
When the manager has established why a change is necessary by writing a Business Case and considering how the service needs to be shaped, they will need to consider the workforceresources needed to deliver the new service.
There are a number of tools managers can access to aid developing a new structure and to help shape the service redesign and they should contact the HR service for guidance as necessary.One aid to this is Orgplus.
Managers should alsoadopt the following organisational design principles when designing their structure. The structure should be flatter with fewer management tiers, fit for purpose with core staff for business as usual and peripheral staffing (where appropriate) for peak demand. The structure should be flexible and responsive to changing customer needs and changing circumstances, using common role profiles and job families for common roles where possible. Common functions should also be aggregated into one structure wherever possible.
Managers can also make changes to the new structure as they work through a service redesign, should further changes be identified as part of the consultation process involving employees and trade unions.
Job allocation/Job grading
Once the draft new structure has been produced, the manager is required to develop the service redesign further by looking at roles and responsibilities within jobs. This could include making changes to responsibilities in jobs and therefore may have an impact on grade, the introduction ofnew jobs and new grades. These will need to go through a local allocation process with HR and Trade unions and then approved at Corporate Grading Panel. The manager may also plan for current jobs to be deleted as part of creating the new structure. Where the need for work of a particular kind has ceased or diminished,vulnerability to redundancy can occur and this will lead to Managing Employee Reductions.
By doing this, the outcome or likely outcome of a grading allocation can be known and can help with budget planning. Managers should be aware of timescales within this procedure and consider these as part of the service redesign plans. Recruitment cannot commence prior to grading panel approval. This process may need to be repeated where there is a potential for managing employee reductions and vulnerability to redundancy.
Managers are also required to complete a Pre-Approval form to indicate changes in their establishment. The business case / MER document should be attached with the pre-approval form and these documents forwarded to HR Connect. HR advice should be sought prior to commencing this part of the process.
Time line
A time line should be determined from the outset with proposed key dates including the implementation date of the service redesign. Managers can plan out a timeline using model timeline available in theHR Point Library. Timelines agreed are indicative as there may be issues/suggestions that can either delay or speed up the process.
Equality Impact Assessments (EIA)
Once a new structure is drafted, the manager is required to complete an EIA for employees included in the service redesign to determine and measure the potential impact to existing employeesand the grades of those affected. An EIA is a systematic way of assessing the effect that a proposed service redesign and the MER is likely to have on employees,and service users.It is possible that decisions in an MER will disproportionately impact some employees who share protected characteristics .By completing an EIA this will enable early understanding of any negative impact and allow mitigation to be put into place. The manager should make note of this clearly in the EIA and note mitigations to minimise the impact on employees as far as possible.
Managers are also required to clearly state in the EIA how the service redesign could potentially impact those who are absent from work and if necessary address any negative impact. For example, alternative methods of communication must be agreed to ensure all employees receive information and have the opportunity to raise concerns. Employees absent from work could include employees who are off sick, on career breaks, employees who are temporarily working away from the service and employees who are on Maternity Leave/Adoption Leave/Additional Paternity Leave/Shared Parental leave. Statutory obligations apply to employeesMaternity Leave/Adoption Leave/Additional Paternity Leave/Shared Parental leave and managers must refer to guidance in this procedure where relevant. Managers need to be mindful that these obligations may change as circumstances change.
Changes to the workforce, should always involve Trade Unions and HR and it should be noted in the EIA at what stages in the service redesign/MER where this involvement by HR and the TUs is required The amount of involvement of HR and Trade Unions is determined by the size of the service redesign and the potential risk of redundancies arising out of the service redesign.
The EIA is a working document and is to be reviewed and amended accordingly as the Service Redesign and MER develops to ensure all issues are considered. Further EIA guidance can be found in theHR Point Library. Managers should also mindful of their in order to determine required actions.
Managers must contact their portfolio Equality leadto help with the understanding of under representation within their Portfolio and Positive Action relevant to recruitment. Further information can be found in the Workforce Profiling toolkit and viewing the most recent Workforce Equality Data. All EIAs should be monitored to ensure that any potential negative impact is mitigated as far as possible. This includes looking at previous and the most recent corporate MER EIA to ensure actions noted are undertaken. EIAs require sign off by Portfolio equality leads.
Communication plan
It is important that there is communication as part of your service redesignand MER process that reasonable and meaningful consultation,takes place throughout the process. Consultation is required by Law when dealing with the potential for redundancies. Employees and Trade Unions must be able to contribute to the consultation process. The consultation must ensure that employees have the opportunity to raise concernsand/or to offer suggestions to the proposals and have a means of support throughout the process.
The Communication plan should be detailed in the Business Case / MER document. This should identify key stages of consultation with employees.When there is a service reduction it is recommended that four staff / TU consultation meetings are arranged during the process. Meetings with the Trade unions must be planned and dates agreed with themfrom the outset. Trade Union involvement should therefore commence from Step 2 of this procedure and they should be invited to all staff meetings. There should be options for individual meetings to take placebetween employees, management and Trade Unions at relevant stages in the process and upon request from the employee. Managers should take note of the key staff consultation meeting in this procedure. Each meeting should be formally noted and all information should be accessible for all employees to view Individual employee meetings with management musttake place prior to the launch of the proposal where any employee is adversely affected by the proposals. Individual meetings should also take place should an employee be unsuccessful in any recruitment process (Step 10) and istherefore potentially selected for redundancy.
Step 2 -Developing the service redesign and Workforce structure
Although the Manager will have shared the service redesign and workforce structure proposals with his/her immediate Manager, the proposals will now be at a stage where these, together with all associated documents (including job descriptions) can be shared within the service.