Change Management

From time to time your business may go through change, including a restructure of your operations. The resulting changes can be minor in nature. Other times, the changes can result in fundamental changes to the structure of your business and, potentially, a reduction in the number of staff that you require.

It is essential that you obtain professional advice about how best to manage that change process, as it could have significant implications for your business if it is not done correctly. This is particularly so if there is change within your business that will potentially result in loss of employment.

Our experienced employment legal team has successfully facilitated change management strategies across a huge range of organisations, covering all aspects of change management. As a result, we have the skills and expertise to guide you through this change process to ensure that you meet your obligations and minimise risks, so that you can successfully continue your transformation and move ahead with your business goals.

The MV difference

Highly experienced change management lawyers

Our legal team can help manage and effect change within your organisation by:

advising on your obligations where changes to your business are proposed, including any consultation or redeployment obligations;
advising on the change management process, including on the methodology to be adopted for selecting roles to be made redundant; and
preparing communications to employees about the change (including, where necessary, any documents to effect the termination of an employee’s employment).

Helping you meet your obligations and manage risk

If there is change within your business that will result in loss of employment, you may have to comply with obligations before you can terminate the affected employees’ employment. These may include the obligation to consult with employees over the proposed changes, to offer voluntary redundancies, and/or to consider redeployment options for affected employees.

Failure to comply with these obligations may lead to action by the employees such as notification of an industrial dispute, claims of breach of the terms of the relevant industrial instrument or unfair dismissal applications. Organisational change can also give rise to a range of other risks, including general protections applications or discrimination complaints, particularly in circumstances where an affected employee might have a protected attribute. There are also various entitlements to which employees may access if made redundant, including notice and redundancy pay.

Our highly experienced change management lawyers can advise you on and help you navigate thorough the complex legal landscape to determine the policies or procedures and/or the industrial instruments that apply to the affected employees.