Partner Article

Firms told to innovate to save jobs

Small business owners have been urged to explore different options rather than cutting staff by the Chartered Institute of Personal and Development and the arbitration and conciliation service (Acas).

With cash flow tight for many small firms cutting costs by loosing staff can seem like the best option, but businesses that cut too many staff have been warned that they will damage staff morale and could leave themselves worse off in the long run.

“Many of those organisations that were quick to lay off people in the last recession struggled to meet renewed business demand when the economy picked up again,” said John Taylor, chief executive of Acas.

Employers are being advised to offer voluntary redundancy rather than sacking staff, consider pay freezes and look to re-train workers in different areas of their business rather then laying them off.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .