Managers’ How to Guide…..€¦ · identifying workforce change and managing it informing HR...

Managers’ How to Guide….. Managing Workforce Change

Policy statement

Hampshire County Council is committed to improving the quality and efficiency of its services. Improvements can have inevitable workforce implications as the Council seeks new ways of working to make best use of the workforce and its resources. This policy defines the steps the Council will take to ensure change is fair, transparent and complies with statutory obligations.

Scope All employees employed by a Hampshire County Council

department (i.e. outside of schools) on the following terms and conditions;

EHCC

Soulbury Teachers

How to use this document

This document is not part of the formal policy. Instead it provides additional information to help you, as the manager, in the practical day to day application of the policy. It is expected that you will have an understanding of the Managing Workforce Change Policy prior to using this guide.

Managers’ How to Guide Managing Workforce Change of 12

Content

Roles and responsibilities ......................................................................................... 3 Types of change ......................................................................................................... 4 Policy stages .............................................................................................................. 4 How to develop the business plan ........................................................................... 4 How to plan the workforce change .......................................................................... 4

How to manage the consultation process ............................................................... 5 Why? ........................................................................................................................ 5 Who with? ............................................................................................................... 5 How? ........................................................................................................................ 6

How long? ............................................................................................................... 7 How to manage the outcome of consultation .......................................................... 8 How to implement the change .................................................................................. 8

How to manage a single phase approach ................................................................ 8

How to manage a multi phase approach .................................................................. 9 How to manage fixed term or temporary contracts when there are potential redundancies ............................................................................................................ 11

How to manage imposing change – dismissal and re-engagement .................... 11


Roles and responsibilities

As the manager you are responsible for:

identifying workforce change and managing it appropriately

informing HR Operations when change is being considered

working with HR Operations and the HR Business Partner (where appropriate) to develop the business plan and case

planning and leading the consultation period

considering representations made by employees and unions and establishing the final proposals

directly supporting, or arranging support for, employees during the period of change

implementing change, including decision making within the recruitment protocol

agreeing with HR who will be responsible for arranging meetings and the drafting and issuing of letters and documentation

All employees are responsible for:

conducting themselves in an acceptable and professional manner and complying with the policy

engaging in meaningful consultation

giving serious consideration to alternative proposals and voluntary measures put forward during consultation

The HR person / BP who is supporting the manager is responsible for:

advising on policy application and best practice

supporting the development of the business case and project plan

drafting and sending the S188 letter and HR1 form

agreeing with management who is responsible for arranging meetings and the drafting and issuing of letters and documentation

attending meetings in an advisory capacity and challenging proposals if necessary

HR does not perform a decision making role The trade union representative or Hampshire County Council work colleague is responsible for:

supporting their member/ colleague

attending arranged meetings or ensuring meetings are covered and not delayed


engaging in meaningful consultation

giving serious consideration to alternative proposals and voluntary measures put forward during consultation

ensuring the procedure is fairly and equitably applied They may make representations, submit papers, ask questions and address a meeting on behalf of the employee. They may not answer questions on behalf of the employee.

Types of change It is important to identify early on the type and scope of the change being proposed so that all foreseeable issues are acknowledged. This directly impacts upon the process that subsequently follows.

Policy stages

The following stages are relevant regardless of the type of change:

business plan

business case if required

consultation

conclusion of consultation and implementing the change How to develop the business plan

The business plan is the key driver for the programme of change and forms the basis of further planning. It involves the strategic scoping of the work to be undertaken to implement the change. The business plan must identify whether there are potential redundancies so that any necessary statutory consultation period and timescales can be factored into the plan. For minor change you must contact an HR Adviser in HR Operations who can support you to develop the business plan. You are responsible for obtaining the necessary approvals to the business plan from senior managers within your department. For significant and more complex change, senior management liaise with an HR Business Partner, supported by relevant managers and HR Operations. The HR Business Partner is responsible for obtaining the necessary approvals from the Departmental and Corporate Management Teams

How to plan the workforce change

Dependant on the scale of the change, it is helpful to identify a project group whose function is to:

develop and agree the project plan

discuss and agree proposals as to how to implement the change

identify key actions and associated timescales


allocate actions and tasks

monitor progress

approve any changes to the project plan The membership of the group is likely to include yourself, management and HR representatives and where relevant finance and communication representatives. The project group may also need to liaise with other areas of the business such as Facilities management and IT. The number and regularity of project group meetings depends upon the scope and complexity of the change. For complex change, especially where collective consultation is required, it is good practice to develop a communications and consultation plan which details the arrangements for:

employee briefings

employee workshops or discussion groups

individual employee meetings

availability and sharing of information such as the development of web pages and FAQ documents

involvement of trade unions in all of the above HR are responsible for obtaining data on the employee group/s affected and drafting a recruitment protocol, where one is required.

How to manage the consultation process Why?

Where there are no potential redundancies or dismissals there is no statutory obligation to consult however the Council regards consultation as best practice in the interests of good employee relations and therefore two week period of consultation is always followed. Where change does involve potential redundancies or dismissal and re-engagement, consultation is essential and where 20 or more redundancies/dismissals are proposed in one establishment within 90 days, there is a statutory duty to do so.

Who with? Consultation with trade unions takes place even if none of the

affected employees are members themselves. Directly affected employees – those employees whose employment terms may change and / or whose jobs are at risk of redundancy. Indirectly affected employees – those employees whose own


employment is not affected but who interact with those directly affected and there is a subsequent effect to them. You must remember to include employees who are absent from the workplace such as those on maternity leave, on a secondment or on sickness absence. Such employees may not be able to attend planned consultation activities and therefore you must make alternative arrangements to include them in the process where you can. Once you start making the proposed changes, remember you must also keep absent employees informed and involve them during this stage wherever possible. Your HR Adviser will be able to advise you on the appropriate way of dealing with this.

How? Informal consultation – where change is minor and there are no

potential redundancies, it may be preferable to adopt informal consultation routes. You should arrange informal discussion groups with local trade union representatives and employees to share the proposals and plan for implementation. Formal consultation – where change is significant and involves potential redundancies, formal consultation is necessary. The HR Business Partner leads consultation with a departments joint consultative committee (JCC) and if necessary, at the corporate joint consultative group (JCG) of which the trade unions are members. The consultation process must include consultation with a view to reaching agreement with the appropriate representatives on ways of:

avoiding the dismissals

reducing the number of employees to be dismissed

mitigating the consequences of the dismissals Consultation must be approached with an open mind on all these topics. This is demonstrated by the decisions taken at Employment Tribunal on significant test cases. You are responsible for liaising with the HR Business Partner or HR Adviser to help them complete the S188 letter and HR1 form. A template S188 letter is available to ensure all the required information is provided. This opens the consultation period. This is followed up with briefings and sessions with employees and their union representatives. Employees must be offered individual meetings and it is at their discretion as to whether they


wish to accept this offer as an opportunity to discuss concerns personal to them. Where you receive such requests, you must meet with the employee. Areas to be discussed during consultation:

business plan – reason for change and what the proposals are

details of the change

the plan for implementing the change

employee opportunities for providing feedback

how the feedback will be considered

any alternative options and ways of mitigating concerns

timeframes and key dates

recruitment protocol and redeployment

support for employees It is good practice to compile a briefing pack for employees including information on the above areas. You must also arrange for discussions to be minuted and records kept and shared with employees.

How long? Collective Consultation

Type of change Consultation

Any change or under 20 proposed redundancies

Minimum of two weeks (no statutory period)

From 20 to 99 proposed redundancies within 90 days (collective consultation)

At least 30 days before the first redundancy notice takes effect (statutory period)

100 or more proposed redundancies within 90 days (collective consultation)

At least 45 days before the first redundancy notice takes effect (statutory period)

Consultation Where collective consultation does not apply but you anticipate employees or trade unions are likely to reject the proposed change and therefore dismissal and re-engagement may become necessary, it is best to follow statutory collective consultation timeframes from the start. If you don’t and do end up in a situation of dismissal and re-engagement, you would have to start the statutory timeframe at a later date and this will prolong the overall timescales. In the meantime you can continue to attempt to obtain the employee’s agreement.


How to manage the outcome of consultation

Having sought feedback and alternative options during the consultation process, you and the project group are responsible for considering all options and deciding the final plans. Where employees and trade union representatives are proposing alternative options which you believe are reasonable and achieve the objectives of the driver for change, these should be adopted where possible. Ideally you should seek an amicable conclusion with trade union representatives and employees but this is not mandatory and may not always be possible. Where this is the case you may decide to continue with the change and if employees are resistant, you may need to consider imposing the change through dismissal and re-engagement. To ensure fairness, further consultation may need to take place before you reach this point. You must communicate the final decision to trade union representatives and affected employees, ideally in a face to face format. Although the consultation period has concluded, you must remain in communication with trade unions and employees during the period of change to update on progress and ensure they remained informed.

How to implement the change

Commonly change can either happen through:

a single phase approach where the change takes place all in one go within a short time period

a multi phase approach where one phase has to take place before a later phase can commence. This may be because either it is easier to break the change into smaller phases or because the outcome of the first phase needs to be known in order to continue with later phases

The change must be confirmed in writing to each employee at an appropriate point in the process, but no later than one month before the change becomes effective. The letter must set out the nature of change to terms and conditions and when it takes effect. The employee should be asked to sign a copy of the letter and return to indicate their acceptance of the change. Where the employee fails to return the letter you may consider imposing the change.

How to manage a Redundancy


single phase approach

Where the change involves redundancy of either a single post or loss of complete section and therefore no selection process is required, your actions under this policy are complete and you should move to using the Redundancy Policy. Please note that although the Redundancy Policy includes a consultation stage, your obligations to consult have already been met under this policy. Your next action under the Redundancy Policy is to formally meet with the affected employees to give them notice of redundancy. Other change / simple restructuring For other types of change where you have been able to reach agreement on the proposal and how it is to be implemented, you can mutually agree an appropriate notice period. The length of the notice period may dependent upon:

whether the change is immediate or phased

sufficient time to enable employees to make alternative plans or arrangements so that they can comply with the change

organisational requirements

budget

sufficient time to enable any support e.g. travel assistance to be put in place

transition / handover Variation to Contract: On occasion there may be a need to change clauses within an employee’s statement of particulars e.g. change of workbase. Where the change involves a contractual term, you must provide at least one months notice.

How to manage a multi phase approach

A multi phase approach often involves a recruitment protocol. A recruitment protocol and the tasks it contains depend upon the specifics of the restructure / redundancy programme. Below are some typical tasks which may or may not be part of a recruitment protocol. Matching – is the degree to which roles in the exiting structure, match roles in the new structure. To do this you must follow these steps: Step1 - identify the pool within which the matching process is to take place – where there are a large number of employees, it


may be possible to divide the pool into smaller sub-pools Step 2 – match by grade and where possible, by generic role profile Step 3 – match by task analysis. During task analysis you are responsible for analysing the degree to which an employee’s current role and the tasks they undertake match those tasks required in the new role. The match is expressed as a percentage and normally there must be an agreed percentage threshold which indicates a match to the new role or not. Alternative step 3 – where there are no potential redundancies and the skills sets across the pool are relatively common, you may ask employees to indicate their preferences for roles in the new structure. Preferences are not however guaranteed as you need to consider whether any employees hold protected characteristics which may give them preferential treatment for certain roles. Slotting - process whereby those employees who have been matched, slot directly across into the new structure because the number of posts in the new structure is equal to or more than the number of potentially matched staff and therefore no further selection is necessary. Ring fence - employees are assigned to a ring fence in order to give them prior consideration for roles through a competitive selection process. A ring fence is usually necessary where the matching and slotting process can not fully achieve the outcomes required because:

there are no comparable roles in the new structure

there are more people than roles within the new structure

old roles are disappearing and new roles are being created in the new structure

A ring fence is determined by grade, duties of the role and other relevant information. Those in a ring fence undergo a competitive selection process to identify who secures a role in the new structure and by default, those who don’t secure a role. Those who don’t secure a role are either:

included in an alternative ring fence at the same or a lower grade where they exist and are appropriate

made compulsory redundant with redeployment status Once you have reached the stage of competitive selection, your actions under this policy are complete and you should move to using the Redundancy policy.


At each stage of the recruitment protocol employees must be informed in writing of the outcome. Vacancies – are unusual but may become available because insufficient employees were successful during either the matching or competitive selection stage. You must carefully consider when to advertise such vacancies and who is eligible to apply. It is not necessary to wait until completion of the whole restructure as the vacancy may create an opportunity, including a promotion, for employees within a different ring fence. It is however best practice to only advertise externally once the restructure is complete.

How to manage fixed-term or temporary contracts when there are potential redundancies

Where an employee has been employed for four years or more on one or more successive fixed-term or temporary contracts and the work is coming to an end, the employee must be treated as if they are permanent and included in any recruitment protocol pools and ring fences. Where an employee has been employed for less than four years, their contract is not extended or renewed as the work is coming to an end and an objective reason for their dismissal must be identifiable. The employee is not included in any recruitment protocol and is dismissed through the Ending Fixed-Term Contracts Policy.

How to manage imposing change – dismissal and re-engagement

This is not the Council’s preferred mechanism of achieving change however in some circumstances it may be necessary. This route is only considered where the Council believes the change is reasonable and necessary and where the employee clearly demonstrates their rejection. You or the HR adviser must always seek advice from the Employment Law Team prior to imposing change through dismissal and re-engagement. Dismissal and re-engagement means the employee is dismissed from their existing contract, after appropriate notice, and re-engaged on a new contract, should they accept, which encompasses the changed terms or new ways of working. Where the employee accepts, their continuous service is not affected. Where the employee does not accept, their employment ends on the expiry of the notice period.


You must ensure you meet with each employee who indicates their rejection of the change to check there aren’t any alternative measures that could avoid the need to dismiss and re-engage.

Support Managers:

Any queries can be directed to HR Operations. How to guide Governance

Hantsfile reference: 7907229

Date of publication: V1 - April 2014 V1.1 – October 2014 V1.2 – November 2014

Planned review date: 3 years or sooner if required

Owner: HR Operations

Related EHCC 2007 section:

Section 23

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