It is true of most businesses that the people who they employ
are at once their single biggest asset and single biggest
liability.
Whilst employers usually derive satisfaction from the fact of
providing their employees with an income, a good place to work and
job security it is a sad fact that, especially in economically
challenged times when order books are not as full as they were last
year, or the year before that, the responsible business owner must
constantly review its workforce to ensure that it is operating to
optimum capacity.
Redundancy occurs most usually when the employer is overstaffed
and no longer has the same requirement for the number of workers
that the business employs. This overstaffing may be due to a
reduction in the volume of work required to be done within the
business because demand for its products or services has decreased
but it is often linked to other issues such as technological change
and geographical relocation.
