What to do when the furlough scheme ends – all you need to know

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), otherwise known as the furlough scheme, is coming to an end on 30 September 2021 – the end of this month. With the deadline looming and 7% of the UK’s workforce still on furlough, many employers will be spending this month mulling over their potential course of action when the scheme ends.

To help you navigate through this period, we’ve created a whole range of great resources to ensure you understand the options available to you as an employer. Whether you foresee your business returning all employees from furlough, or if you need to adjust working hours or pay, or if you need to turn to redundancies or lay-offs; these resources can help you act wisely, compliantly and as considerately as possible.

What options are available to me as an employer when furlough ends?

From taking people off furlough back to full-time hours, through to restructuring, short-time working, lay-offs or redundancy; if your business is struggling, consider this download your potential next steps, at-a-glance.

What if I do have to make people redundant?

While redundancy is never a pleasant topic, it’s certainly one that requires careful consideration and expert guidance. Our HR and Employment Law experts have put together a redundancy checklist for employers, containing five of the key things you’ll need to think about before embarking upon a redundancy process.

What if I choose to restructure – how do I do that fairly and legally?

Restructuring can be a very effective way of ensuring business success, especially after tough periods. But it must be done properly.

Restructuring could include changes to employees’ terms and conditions; restructuring the business to combine roles or replacing existing roles with new, more appropriate ones; or reducing headcount through redundancy. Changes driven by genuine business need and executed fairly can be accomplished without putting your business at further risk, but there are some key things to bear in mind.

In this guide, our HR & Employment Law experts outline the most essential considerations you need to make if you’re planning on making changes to your business.

How do I make the return to work easier for employees coming off furlough?

There are some important factors to bear in mind when arranging for employees to return from furlough. Our HR and Employment Law experts have complied the key considerations you need to make when bringing people back from furlough in our free guide, so you can ensure the transition is as smooth as possible.

What if employees are resistant to coming back to work?

The return-to-work process can be complicated by employees who may be resistant to the idea of coming back into the workplace. There could be several reasons why an employee is refusing to return, from Health & Safety concerns to preferring to work from home. So, it’s important you know how to handle these situations.

From how to communicate the return-to-work process with employees, to what to do if an employee prefers to work from home, to how to handle concerns or conflict around social distancing and face coverings (and more); here’s our complete troubleshooting guide.

Moving forward

Performance management for remote workers

If you do move employees to remote working once they return from furlough, you need to be aware that this requires a whole new set of performance management skills as an employer. Our HR experts have gathered some of their top tips to help you engage your homeworking employees and get you motivating, supporting and developing them, no matter where they’re based!

Recruitment and retention

Happy, motivated and content employees are key to productivity and moving past the impact of the pandemic. Whether you need to recruit new talent after losing employees during the pandemic – industries such as hospitality have been hit significantly by job vacancies as people move out of the industry – or whether you need to ensure you retain your current staff, we can help.

Our quick guide to recruitment and retention takes you through all you need to know about recruiting and retaining your business’ greatest asset.

Industry-specific guidance

Most of our guides provide all-encompassing guidance that can be used by employers in all industries. However, we do have a few industry-specific guides that can help employers through the end of furlough.

Nurseries

Redundancies

The COVID-19 crisis has sadly forced many nursery settings nationwide to make redundancies to make sure they’re in the strongest position to survive beyond the pandemic.

No one likes dealing with redundancies, but knowing the correct processes can make it a bit easier for all involved. Our free guide provides a comprehensive checklist for redundancy in nurseries.

Moving forward – recruitment and retention tips

When it is possible again, your nursery may need to kick up your recruitment drive. Or, crucially, you may need to ensure you are retaining as many current staff as you can. In the exclusive free guide, we show you how you can recruit smarter, engage the great people you hire and create happy and motivated employees.

Recruitment and retention in Care, Manufacturing and Construction

Here are some industry-specific guides on recruitment and retention in the care, manufacturing and construction industries, so you can ensure you have the best people for the job. This is key to ensuring business success as we move into the ‘new normal’.

How we can help

As always, our team of HR, Employment Law and Health & Safety experts are here for any of your concerns or queries during this tricky period. Our advice line is open 24/7 to all Citation clients, or you can email enquiries@citation.co.uk . If you are not yet a client of ours and would like to seek advice, please call 0161 532 4899 and our experts will be happy to help.