Run a fair redundancy. Protect the business. Sleep at night.
A fair redundancy in a small business rests on a fair reason, meaningful consultation with each employee at risk, fair selection against objective criteria, a real search for alternative work, and a written decision with the right to appeal.
The HR Doctor Redundancy Guide walks you through a fair consultation for every person at risk. It generates the right letter at every step and gives you a tribunal-ready record of the decision.
For UK individual redundancies under 20 at one site. From £2,000 plus VAT, paid once per redundancy round. Your records, ring-fenced.
By Richard Tunnicliffe, Founder, OES HR, working in HR since 2003. Figures checked against the legislation on 26 October 2026.
How do I run a fair redundancy process in a small business?
Take each employee at risk through seven stages, in order, and keep a dated record of every one. This is the order the Guide's board follows, with what it produces at each stage.
| Stage | What happens | When it lands | What the Guide produces |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. At Risk | You confirm the business reason, the pool and the selection criteria, then let each employee know their role is at risk. | Day one, once the business case is written down. | At-risk letter |
| 2. Consultation | You meet each employee in private, at least once, on the reasons, ways to avoid redundancy, the criteria and their concerns. | From the at-risk letter, before any decision is made, for as long as is reasonable, set by the case. | Consultation invite and meeting minutes |
| 3. Selection | You score the pool against objective criteria such as skills, standard of work, attendance and disciplinary record. | During consultation, before the decision. | Scoring matrix |
| 4. Alternatives | You look for suitable alternative work and offer it in writing. The employee can try a new role for 4 weeks. | Before the current contract ends. The new job must start within 4 weeks of the old one ending. | Redeployment offer |
| 5. Decision | You confirm the outcome in a meeting and in writing, with the notice period, the redundancy pay and the right to appeal. | When consultation closes. Statutory notice starts: one week, then a week for each full year from 2 to 12. | Dismissal letter |
| 6. Appeal | A manager who was not involved in the decision hears the appeal and confirms the outcome in writing. | Within a reasonable time of the dismissal letter, set by the case. Acas gives 5 days as an example. | Appeal outcome letter |
| 7. Closed | You pay redundancy pay, notice pay and untaken holiday, and keep the full record. | On or soon after the leaving date. | Tribunal pack: every letter, every note and the timeline |
Sources: Acas, Managing a redundancy process (updated 7 April 2026); gov.uk, Making staff redundant; Employment Rights Act 1996, s.86 (notice), s.98 (a fair reason), s.138 (trial period) and s.139 (redundancy).
What does a redundancy consultation involve for one employee?
Consultation means talking with the employee and listening, before any decision is made. Acas says to meet each affected employee in private at least once, and to cover the changes needed and why, ways to avoid or reduce redundancies, the selection criteria and any concerns they raise. Consider letting them bring a companion.
It does not have to end in agreement. It has to be held with a view to reaching agreement, including ways of avoiding or reducing the redundancies. If you do not consult, gov.uk says the dismissal will almost certainly be unfair.
In the Guide, each meeting has its invite and its minutes, and every file note is dated as it is written. How many meetings to hold, and what to put in writing, is covered in our article on getting individual consultation right.
Sources: Acas, Managing a redundancy process, step 4; gov.uk, Making staff redundant, part Redundancy consultations.
What is the redundancy process for fewer than 20 employees?
When you propose fewer than 20 redundancies at one establishment within 90 days, there are no set statutory rules for how you consult, no minimum consultation period and no HR1 form. You consult each employee at risk individually, and a tribunal still judges whether the process was fair.
At 20 or more, collective consultation applies. It must start at least 30 days before the first dismissal, or 45 days at 100 or more. You notify the Redundancy Payments Service on form HR1. Failing to consult can cost a protective award of up to 180 days' pay for each affected employee.
The Guide is built for the under-20 route at one site. The 45-day rule and the HR1 form are explained on the main site, along with employees' statutory rights and consultation periods.
Sources: gov.uk, Making staff redundant, part Redundancy consultations; Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, s.188 and s.193; Acas, Managing a redundancy process, step 4.
How much does a redundancy cost an employer?
One redundancy has four cost lines. The free calculator works out each one and the total.
- Statutory redundancy pay
- Half a week, one week or one and a half weeks' pay for each full year of service, depending on age, for up to 20 years, with weekly pay capped at £751. The most it can be is £22,530. Two full years' service are needed to qualify.
- Notice pay
- One week from one month's service, then one week for each full year from 2 to 12 years, at the employee's full weekly pay, whether they work it or you pay in lieu.
- Untaken holiday
- Statutory leave is 5.6 weeks a year, 28 days for a five-day week. Any untaken statutory leave is paid when the employee leaves.
- An enhanced payment
- Your choice. The first £30,000 of redundancy and enhanced pay combined is not usually taxed.
Those are the costs of doing it properly. If a tribunal finds a redundancy unfair, it can award compensation on top of redundancy pay. For dismissals before 1 January 2027, that award is capped at £123,543 or a year's gross pay, whichever is lower. Discrimination compensation has no cap.
From 1 January 2027, the Employment Rights Act 2025 removes the unfair dismissal cap. The same date cuts the service needed for an unfair dismissal claim from two years to six months.
Win or lose, a defended claim costs legal fees and months of management time.
The main site covers the statutory redundancy pay errors that lead to claims and what employers owe during the notice period.
Free redundancy cost calculator
Every line and the total for one employee, no sign-up. Uses the rates for redundancies on or after 6 April 2026.
Sources: Employment Rights Act 1996, s.86 and s.162; the Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2026; the Working Time Regulations 1998, regs 13, 13A and 14; the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003, s.403; the Employment Rights Act 2025; gov.uk, Holiday entitlement; gov.uk, Tax on termination payments.
Why do redundancies go wrong?
On process, more often than on the decision. The business case is usually sound. The trouble starts when the process is rushed, informal, or misses a step a tribunal looks for.
One missed consultation meeting. One badly worded letter. One selection matrix that cannot survive cross-examination. Any one of them can turn a sound decision into an unfair dismissal.
Owners running their first redundancy often work from instinct, a template or a search engine, and keep almost no record. The process feels reasonable in the room. It does not read as reasonable on paper.
For the conversations themselves, handling tough redundancy talks humanely sets out how on the main site.
Time and focus
Weeks of your attention go to a dispute instead of the business. Customer work slips. Other staff watch.
Reputation
In a business of fewer than fifty people, one badly handled exit is visible to everyone who stays. The next hire reads about it before they accept.
How does the Redundancy Guide work?
Four moves. You always know what to do next.
1. The board
Every person at risk moves through the stages of a consultation: At Risk, Consultation, Selection, Alternatives, Decision, Appeal and Closed. You see where each person is on one screen. Nothing slips.
2. The right letter at every step
At each stage the Guide generates the document for it, filled in with the employee's details. At-risk letter, consultation invite, meeting minutes, scoring matrix, redeployment offer, dismissal letter, appeal outcome letter. You review, you send.
3. A record that stands up
Every action is timestamped. File notes lock 48 hours after they are written, so the record reads as contemporaneous.
4. A tribunal pack in one click
At the end you download one pack for any person at risk: every letter, every note, the full timeline and document integrity checks. If a claim ever lands, the defence bundle is already built.
How is this different from Acas templates or an HR toolkit?
Acas publishes free redundancy guidance and template letters, and they are worth reading. An HR toolkit gives you documents to adapt. Both leave you to hold the sequence, fill in each letter and keep the record yourself.
The Guide holds the sequence for every person at risk on one board. It generates each letter with the employee's details, timestamps every action, locks file notes 48 hours after they are written and builds the tribunal pack in one click. You still make every decision, and the record shows how you made it.
What do I get when I activate the Guide?
The whole round, start to finish.
Every person at risk in the redundancy round you activate for, from the at-risk letter to the appeal outcome.
The process OES HR runs for its retained customers.
The same steps, in the same order, now in your hands.
Records that stay yours.
Each customer's data is ring-fenced from every other customer. You own and keep your own records.
Who is behind the Redundancy Guide?
Built on founder Richard Tunnicliffe's HR experience since 2003.
I have spent two decades inside redundancy processes for UK SMEs. Most of the owners I meet are not trying to cut corners. They are trying to do the right thing, under pressure, with too little time and no one senior in HR to guide them.
They do not need another three hundred page handbook or a generic template pack. They need a calm, clear voice saying: do this next, then this, then this. That is what the Redundancy Guide is. A proven process, turned into a product, so the right answer is in front of you at every step.
Richard Tunnicliffe, Founder, OES HR
Built in Stoke-on-Trent, for employers across Staffordshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Shropshire and the West Midlands.
Case study: closing a service line with dignity
A professional services firm in Staffordshire, around forty staff, lost its largest customer in late 2025. The service line that customer supported could not stand alone, and twelve people were at risk. The owner called us before telling anyone. We mapped the whole process before a word was said and ran genuine individual consultation. We searched every surviving team for alternatives and calculated each redundancy payment to the penny.
Two of the twelve were redeployed into the surviving practice. The other ten left with their entitlements correct, references in hand, and a process they could see was fair. No appeal escalated. No claim was filed.
“I dreaded every one of those meetings. What I did not expect was to come out of them able to sleep. They knew it was real, they knew it was fair, and they knew I had fought to keep as many as I could. The HR Doctor did not make it painless. Nothing could. They made it right.”
How much does the Redundancy Guide cost?
One fee. The whole process. Start to finish.
From £2,000 plus VAT
Paid once per redundancy round, for UK individual redundancies under 20 at one site. No hourly billing and no subscription.
Any fee above £2,000 is set by a scope review of the number of roles at risk, before you start.
What do owners ask before they activate?
Is this legal advice?
No. The Guide walks you through a compliant process and produces a defensible record of it. It does not replace legal advice. For advice on a particular dismissal, use your solicitor, and the Guide gives them a clean, dated file to work from, with every letter and file note in order.
Do I still need a solicitor?
For complex cases or live tribunal claims, yes. For a clean individual redundancy run properly, the Guide is built to walk you through it without one. If you bring a solicitor in later, the file is already in order: every letter, every file note and the full timeline for each person at risk.
What about 20 or more redundancies (collective consultation)?
The Guide is built for individual redundancies, under 20 at one site. Proposing 20 or more at one establishment within 90 days triggers collective consultation, a different statutory process with minimum periods and an HR1 form. Book a 15 minute demo and Richard will scope the right route with you.
What if my situation changes after I start?
You keep access for the redundancy round you activated for, however it unfolds. If someone is redeployed or is no longer at risk, you move them on the board and add a file note saying why, so the record stays complete. If you face a second round inside 12 months, talk to us before it starts.
Why from £2,000?
From £2,000 plus VAT, paid once per redundancy round. It prices the exposure, not the software. For dismissals before 1 January 2027, unfair dismissal compensation can reach a year's gross pay, capped at £123,543. From that date there is no cap. Legal fees and management time come on top.
How is the Guide different from Acas templates or an HR toolkit?
Acas publishes free template letters, and an HR toolkit gives you documents to adapt. The Guide walks you through the process itself: each person at risk moves through seven stages on one board, each letter is generated with their details, file notes lock after 48 hours, and one click builds the tribunal pack.
Who is the Guide for?
- You run a UK business without a senior in-house HR function.
- You face a redundancy round of fewer than 20 roles at one site, or you are weighing one up. The weight of it sits with you.
- You want to treat people fairly. You also want to protect the business.
Who is it not for?
- Businesses that want agreement rather than advice.
- Leaders who want to skip consultation and rush the outcome.
- Anyone after a free template and a shortcut.
- Businesses with a full in-house HR team and a tested redundancy process already in place.
Questions worth sitting with
- What would it cost the business if this went to tribunal and landed badly?
- What would it cost with your team, if the process looked unfair from where they sit?
- What will it cost your own time, sleep and focus over the next 90 days?
- If the process is already moving, what would it cost to pause and do it properly from here?
- If someone you made redundant rang a solicitor tomorrow, could you produce a complete, dated record of a fair process?
Book a 15 minute demo
Fifteen minutes on the tool, with your situation in mind. You leave knowing what the Redundancy Guide will and will not do for you. You also get a straight answer on whether it fits, or whether you need hands-on support instead.
No pressure and no follow-up chase. One clear answer, then back to running your business.
Calendar not showing? Book on Calendly instead.
Take the seven-step process with you
The Redundancy Roadmap puts the process OES HR runs with its retained customers on one page. Seven steps, from defining why the redundancy is needed to a dignified exit. It is built to sit on your desk while you work. No sign-up and no email address needed.
Download the Redundancy Roadmap (PDF)