Somerset Chamber Members RBHR and New Leaf have announced a new collaboration called WRAP – Wellbeing, Reset and Advance Programme, to provide an outplacement package to support the wellbeing of employees facing redundancy.
With Citizens Advice receiving calls every two minutes from people seeking advice about redundancy the members said they were seeing an “escalating employment crisis”. Recently, announcements of redundancies in Somerset have come from Honeywell Aerospace, Clark’s, Relyon and Mulberry with a further 29% of businesses expecting to decrease the size of their workforce in the next three months according to BCC’s Quarterly Recruitment Outlook.
Becky Wright, Founder of New Leaf, said the new collaboration had wellbeing at its heart: “Whilst there is a lot of focus on safeguarding the mental wellbeing of current employees, I’m calling on employers to consider extending that safeguarding beyond the life of the employment contract in order to protect their mental health and wellbeing. Employees should get the same investment leaving the role as they would starting it, this is why we are launching this new service”
Ben Malik, Managing Director of RBHR, said: “So many businesses are currently in the process of reviewing their structure and staffing levels and while a thorough restructuring process is essential to ensure all the legal and consultative requirements are covered, so too is the transitioning support for employees who will ultimately leave the business.
“I would therefore encourage employers to see outplacement support as part of the end to end management of the entire restructuring process. This has many benefits not just from a brand perspective externally, but also internally as it rewards those leaving who have given loyal service, and has the potential to open a door for those individuals as another closes, plus promotes a supportive internal culture for those who remain.”
Becky said the new service was different as it put wellbeing at the heart of the transition for employees. She said employees who experienced badly-handled redundancy were more at risk of developing mental health issues and the new service aimed to prevent that from happening.
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