HR groups launch recession survival guide

Personnel specialists have launched their own staff-focussed guide to surviving the recession.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) and the Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Services (ACAS) launched the guide, Managing in Recession, in response to increased demand for advice on redundancies and business restructure.

ACAS reports that a third of calls to its helpline in January were recession-related, while the CIPD says that the proportion of redundancy-related queries on its own HR helpline has doubled since last year.

The guide urges employers to think long-term, warning that making lay-offs now only to have to recruit later is expensive.

And where staff cuts are unavoidable, the groups recommend that employers know the law, start thinking about redundancies at least three months in advance and offer employees flexible working hours and voluntary redundancy.

The CIPD's chief executive Jackie Orme said: "Many employers are looking to their employees to develop new ways of working to cut costs and boost productivity, often in an environment where people have lost colleagues to redundancy.

"In these circumstances the extent to which employees are engaged and willing to go the extra mile for the organisation is critical."