EMPLOYEES REPORTING mental health problems, such as stress and anxiety, is predicted to spike by 40 percent as the UK comes out of lock down.

Last week figures from the Learning and Work institute forecast unemployment in the UK could reach 4.2 million, as employers make the uncomfortable decision to contribute to furlough tapering or make redundancies. 

Today, new research by Stay Nimble shows the impact on the country could be even greater than job losses – as employees who experience badly handled redundancy are more at risk of developing mental health issues. 

It’s vital employers consider the part they can play to help people going through redundancy.

Dominic Atkinson, co-founder of social enterprise Stay Nimble

Nearly one in five respondents in the UK claimed to have experienced anxiety following or during the redundancy process – and a further one in 10 being diagnosed with depression. 

Of those surveyed a third described feeling insecure post redundancy and more than half saying the process left them feeling humiliated or scared for the future.

Co-founder of social enterprise Stay Nimble, Dominic Atkinson, is urging UK business leaders to carefully consider their options regarding how they handle redundancy – advising that employees should get the same investment leaving the role as they would starting it.

Skill set

He recommends giving exiting employees ‘strengths testing’ to help them apply personality traits and strengths to other roles – rather than job hunting based on skill set.

An overwhelming three quarters of people across the UK said having financial advice, career coaching and mental health support when exiting a business would have had a major impact on their future success.

Atikinson, who started Stay Nimble to provide digital career coaching and support to thousands of people across the UK, said: “These findings demonstrate once again the devastating impact that redundancy can have on an individual, and our communities.

“Reflecting on the recent findings from the Learning and Work Institute forecasting a gap of 10,000 Job Centre Plus work coaches, it’s vital employers consider the part they can play to help people going through redundancy.

Cracks

“Too many workers will slip through the cracks if we don’t mobilise all available career support professionals and point this towards areas of most need. There is a lot of focus on safeguarding the mental wellbeing of current employees, and we’re calling on employers to consider extending that safeguarding beyond the life of the employment contract in order to support our communities to ride out the next wave of this crisis.”

With 41 percent of respondents admitting they didn’t trust their employer to handle redundancy well, and over half said they would share a bad redundancy experience on social media, businesses need to consider the lasting impression they leave on an exiting employee as it could be reputationally damaging.

The North West of England is forecast to have the highest cases of stress and anxiety in the UK (45%) as waves of redundancies are predicted in the region.

Atkinson added: “Badly handled redundancy can also have a knock-on effect on ‘surviving’ employees. In the north west alone, our study showed 65 per cent of those avoiding redundancy felt they were negatively affected by the experience of their co-workers. 

“From feeling like their own job was no longer safe to believing that their employer didn’t care about its people, the findings painted a bleak picture for the entire post-furlough workforce.

Transition

“We firmly believe that employers who ensure that an employee leaving gets the best possible transition support will be the organisations that thrive in a post-Covid world.” 

Following the research, Stay Nimble has launched a whitepaper, Best Practice Offboarding, to help businesses offer employers advice for navigating post furlough redundancies. 

Stay Nimble is also currently providing thousands of coaching sessions with Career Development Institute registered advisers at no-cost to workers recently made redundant due to the pandemic, through corporate partnerships with major multinationals.