When asked which workplace issues currently worried them, over a third (36%) of senior managers and almost half (42%) of executives without management responsibility identified redundancy, revealing that uncertainty and job insecurity is still rife despite talk of economic improvement.
However, redundancy doesn’t appear to be a concern for CEOs with only 5% of them labelling it as a worry. Their greatest concern was a potential tax investigation by HMRC (12%) and employee stress and impact on health (11%).
Richard Candy, underwriting director at Abbey Legal Protection, which commissioned the survey, commented: "Although the wider economic environment appears to be more positive than it was this time last year, the issue of redundancy is clearly still at the forefront of employee minds, and one that concerns them on a regular basis. CEOs themselves may not be worried about their own management positions but they should be aware of the wider sentiment among their workforce.
"It would be misleading for managers to give their employees a false sense of security by pretending that the market is back to normal and redundancy is not a workplace possibility. At the same time, however, it should not be an ongoing concern that affects employee performance. Redundancy is still a real threat in the current economic climate and if businesses are forced to cut costs through a reduction in head-count, then it is critical that they meet their obligations as employers and follow the right procedures in order to avoid potentially huge legal claims."
