How to tell someone they're being made redundant (with a scored example)

Redundancy is a business decision about a job, not a verdict on a human. If you start with their year, they will hear a performance story. Open with the structure: the team is changing, this post is at risk or is going, here is the process. Then you can say you know this is a shock. People who expected to stay are already reading your face. A long preamble of praise sounds like a stay. When the redundancy arrives late, it feels like a trick. Kindness is the fact, early, in private, before the all-hands.

They will ask. If the selection was fair and the role is gone, say so. Do not invent a performance narrative to make the business case feel neater. Do not say “it is a bit of both.” If they were selected from a pool, you should already be able to explain the criteria — and you should have been able to explain them before this room. If you cannot, you are not ready to have the meeting. Get the process straight with HR, then speak. A confused manager creates a claim and a rumour in the same afternoon.

In the UK, redundancy has rules: consultation, notice, pay, time off to look. You are not there to freelance a package. Walk the next steps you are allowed to walk. If there is a vacancy they can apply for, say how, not “I am sure we will find you something.” False hope is how people miss the window to apply elsewhere. If you do not know an answer, say you will come back by a time, and do. Write down what you said. Their memory and yours will already be different by the evening.

If they were also underperforming, this is still a redundancy meeting if the role is gone. Mixing the two makes the process look like a disguise. Keep the sentence about the role. If they ask about their work, you can say the decision is about the post, not a review. Save any reference for the process that is allowed to give one. A kitchen verdict about their year is how rumours and claims get built.

“Can I apply for the other role?” will come. If there is a vacancy, say how to apply and that you cannot promise the outcome. If there is not, say so. “I am sure something will come up” is how people wait and then discover the window closed. Uncertainty is allowed. Fiction is not. If you need an hour to check, give the hour, then come back. Do not guess a headcount in the chair. Write the vacancy answer in the follow-up so they are not relying on a sentence they half-heard while in shock. Shock is a terrible note-taker. Paper is not.

They need dates, pay, and a name to call. They do not need a speech about how this has kept you up. You can be sorry. You cannot make the meeting about your sorrow. If you need to be upset, be upset after they have the facts in their bag. A kind meeting is one they can replay without guessing what happens next.

Doing it in a group. Blaming “the board” when you sat in the room. Talking about how sad you are. Offering a job you have not got. Comparing them to the people who stayed. Practise the question “can I apply for the other role.” If you can answer with a process instead of a promise, you can run the meeting without making it worse. This page is practice for the conversation, not legal advice on a redundancy. Use Acas and your HR process for the design.