Working in partnership in redundancy situations

In March 09 Job Centre Plus (JCP) and nextstep made contact to discuss action that could be taken to address the closure of Huntsman Tioxide (an engineering company) in North East Lincolnshire particularly focussed on IAG and job search.

Huntsman was just at the start of the process and it quickly became apparent that the initial information that only a proportion of the workforce would be made redundant was optimistic. The whole site would be closing with the loss of a predicted 126 staff that would leave as part of a staged approach culminating with the closure of the site in July 09.The organisation chosen by the CYH Operations Manager to work with Huntsman were igen - future pathways who are one of the teams who deliver the nextstep service in the Humber area.

Nextstep worked in partnership with both JCP and the HR manager at Huntsman to plan a series of interventions to ensure that the staff affected were given tailored support to support them through the process of redundancy. Other organisations were also involved by Huntsman to provide specialist support on other matters.

Initially Huntsman carried out one to one interviews with all staff to determine the types and levels of support needed. Prior to this nextstep discussed with the HR manager the potential structure of the support matrix and informed them of the range of support nextstep could offer.

Once a matrix of identified support was complete Huntsman, JCP and nextstep made contact again to plan a series of linked interventions.JCP came in to deliver presentations regarding benefits and the support JCP could offer. Simultaneously nextstep advisers delivered in pairs a series of series of group and one to one IAG sessions focussed around CVs and effective job seeking. In addition approximately 20 Skills Transfer Analysis (training funding) applications were completed to support staff in accessing JCP funding.

These sessions were delivered over a number of weeks culminating with interview skills sessions to prepare staff for success at interview stage. In addition Huntsman set up a resource centre for staff to access information and a range of other services including support for those planning to retire.

We were informed by JCP that approximately 30 of the staff were planning to retire and a further 30 had found work.