Why supporting staff through organisational change is crucial

One of the most challenging aspects of a restructure is redundancies. They should be approached with empathy, compassion, and diligence. Beyond an organisation’s legal obligations, in a digital age of online transparency, how someone leaves is as important as your onboarding process.

It is imperative that a transparent, fair, and proper procedure is followed, in line with Section 16 (England) of the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook. This is not just about reducing the risk of potential claims against the organisation; this is about reflecting your cultural values and doing the right thing by your employees.

Restructures are unsettling for everyone involved. One of the biggest challenges is maintaining productivity and performance through what are often long periods of transition. Outplacement and career-transition support can help.

How Seymour John can help

Seymour John’s outplacement and career transition support services help ICBs mitigate legal risk, reduce costs and maintain morale and productivity, during periods of change, restructure, redeployment and redundancy.

Seymour John's service offering is built specifically for public sector employers looking to support affected employees in a practical, professional and compassionate way. We provide tailored career transition programmes that can include organisation-wide briefings, group workshops, 1:1 coaching and on-demand support, depending on the scale and needs of the workforce.

Support typically covers CV writing, application support, interview preparation, LinkedIn and personal branding, job search strategy, career planning, confidence building and redeployment support.

Management support

We also work with clients to shape delivery around their own context, timescales and employee groups, whether that means large-scale training sessions, targeted support for specific teams, or more bespoke coaching for senior leaders and executives.

NHS career-transition training delivered by NHS recruitment specialists

What sets this service apart is that it is not delivered by generalist trainers, but public sector specialist recruitment consultants — who understand the realities of the market, the challenges of organisational change and the importance of achieving tangible outcomes for both employers and employees.

 

How Career Transition Support Helps ICBs Reduce Redundancy Costs

1. Reduces the length of time staff remain on payroll

ICBs often face long notice periods, especially for senior AfC bands. Effective outplacement support accelerates redeployment or external job placement, helping reduce the number of weeks of salary (alongside pension and other on-cost liabilities) being paid during consultation and notice periods. For large-scale restructures, shaving even two weeks off average notice periods can offer significant cost savings.

2. Boosts internal redeployment success

ICBs are under pressure to minimise compulsory redundancies. Career transition support:

• Helps staff identify transferable skills
• Prepares them for internal interviews
• Increases confidence and mobility across the system

Every successful redeployment is a direct cost avoided — no redundancy payment, no exit costs, no backfill recruitment.

3. Reduces the risk of appeals, grievances, and legal challenge

It is our experience that poorly supported staff are more likely to challenge selection decisions, raise grievances and pursue claims around the process, discrimination, or fairness. Offering career transition support is a sign of a considered, compassionate, equitable process to your people that speaks of an organisation that cares. This, in turn:

• Lowers the likelihood of disputes
• Reduces potential legal fees
• Minimises delays that keep people on payroll longer

4. Maintaining morale and productivity during change

Productivity is inevitably impacted in the midst of an organisational restructure. It is not just the people going through the consultation process that can be affected. One of the most overlooked aspects of redundancy is the people retaining their jobs.

When colleagues see peers being treated well, it helps maintain engagement, reduces sickness absences and helps maintain productivity.

5. Supports system-wide workforce planning and avoids over redundancy

As an experienced, NHS-specialist recruitment consultancy, we work with senior leaders to help them make informed, system-wide, people-planning decisions, based on the latest data, including:

• Skills supply
• Likely redeployment outcomes
• Talent pools across the ICS

This helps boards avoid unnecessary redundancies by identifying where staff can be repurposed or shared across trusts, PCNs, or system partners.

Career transition support can be delivered across the ICS, enabling:

• Shared talent pipelines
• Cross organisation matching
• Reduced duplication of roles and redundancies

A system-wide approach means fewer people exit the NHS unnecessarily, helping reduce direct and indirect redundancy costs and ensuring valuable knowledge is not lost.

In brief

Seymour John’s career transition support doesn’t just soften the blow for staff; it shortens notice periods, reduces payouts, mitigates legal risk, and keeps the system functioning. For ICBs under financial pressure, it is a key, proactive intervention that improves cost control while maintaining organisational culture. To see what this looks like in practice, read the case study, below.

Read the case study