Causes of Redundancy (Redundancy – Being out of work)

• The pressures of global competition and international economic recession which force organisations to take cost out of their business. This involves getting rid of some employees.
• Introduction of new technology. This has contributed hugely to the reduction in the number of semi-skilled people in the offices.
• The thrust for producing and added value has led to more use of such indices as added value per shilling/dollar/pound of employment costs to measure businesses performance with regard to utilization of human resources. If there’s no added value realised then organisations are forced to offload some employees.
• Setting of higher performance standards. The pressure for improved performance to meet more intense global competition explains why many organisations are setting higher standards for employees are not retaining those who do not meet those standards. Performance management processes are used to identify underperformers and deal with them.

Voluntary release. People also leave organisations voluntarily to further their careers or because they feel they want to leave the organisation. They may also take early retirement or even volunteer to leave under pressure or because they are being paid to do so.