Redundancy Resilience for HR Professionals.
Starfish Search were delighted to once again partner with PPMA and City CV to deliver our latest webinar – Redundancy Resilience for HR Professionals. This webinar focused on those tough talks, the best ways to handle the conversation around redundancy and the importance of putting people at the heart of it.
It’s an uncomfortable topic for so many of us and almost certainly the area of any manager’s job they enjoy the least, with participants highlighting feelings of anxiety, uncomfortableness and even mistrust from other employees.
City CV has carried out some private research and some fascinating statistics were shared which highlights how underequipped many of us are. Their studies indicate that 45% of HR professionals enter HR via non-HR career paths, and 82% of HR professionals have had no training on how to handle redundancy conversations. 82% of HR professionals with no formal training are expected to deliver messages that can change someone’s life and deliver it in a way that is both empathetic but also clear, concise and to the point.
It’s natural to think about the impact redundancy will have on the person on the other end of the conversation, the one whose life is about to change, and members shared their experience of these conversations, the most common emotions they faced were anger, disbelief, or outrage. Just as important in this dynamic is the person whose role it is to deliver this message – the HR professional, and members shared how it made them feel. They shared feelings of sadness, difficulty in processing their own emotions and some felt the organisation hadn’t equipped them fully to explain why this decision had been made. We discussed some practical tips for HR professionals to consider before, during and after the process to make it go as smoothly as possible, centred around preparation, controlling the conversation with clarity of message and time for reflection and to unwind afterwards.
Local government and the wider public sector is becoming increasingly aware of the importance of a strong employer brand when attracting and retaining talent, particularly as we face a national skills shortage in certain areas and challenges in recruiting to senior roles. It’s so important to remember the role that outplacement support plays in this, it shows your organisation will look after it’s people from beginning to end. A robust outplacement strategy can make or break your employer brand.
At Starfish Search we’re proud to support so many people on their employment journeys, if you’d like to connect with us to discuss how we might help you we’d love to hear from you.
This webinar is available for a limited time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaGYChig0_I and we’re delighted to be teaming up with PPMA and City CV for our next webinar in October 2024 focusing on imposter syndrome in the workplace. Please follow us for all the latest news and events https://www.linkedin.com/company/starfish-search
Celebrating New Leadership: Announcing Starfish Search’s 2025 Promotions
At Starfish Search, we believe in the transformative power of skilled and principled individuals to shape successful organisations. We are therefore delighted to announce the promotion of four exceptional colleagues, each of whom exemplifies our values of integrity, professionalism, and inclusive leadership.
Webinar Recap: Navigating Recruitment in the AI Age with PPMA
Starfish Search recently partnered with the Public Services People Managers Association (PPMA) to deliver a timely and thought-provoking webinar: “Navigating Recruitment in the AI Age.” Our own Sunita Patel was joined by Jason Makepeace from GovCats to explore how artificial intelligence is already reshaping recruitment, leadership, and workforce planning across the public sector. If you missed the session, the full webinar is available to watch here.
Lorraine Payne Named Among Top 10 Interim Consultants in the 2025 IIM Awards
We are incredibly proud to share that Lorraine Payne, Partner at Starfish Search, has once again been recognised by the Institute of Interim Management (IIM) as one of the UK’s top interim consultants, securing a place in the Top 10 for 2025. This honour, based entirely on feedback from interim managers themselves, celebrates the individual consultants who go beyond the brief — those who listen carefully, understand deeply, and deliver consistently for the interims and organisations they support.
ACCREDITATIONS
ESPO is a public sector owned professional buying organisation (PBO), specialising in providing a wide range of goods and services to the public sector for over 40 years. Starfish Search has been awarded a place on ESPO’s Strategic HR Services framework (3S). Services we offer under the framework include: Lot 1, Executive and Managerial Interim Recruitment Lot 2, Executive and Managerial Permanent Recruitment.
Starfish are proud to be certified Disability Confident Committed. This scheme provides employers with the knowledge, skills and confidence needed to attract, recruit, retain and develop disabled people in the workplace.
Crown Commercial Service supports the public sector to achieve maximum commercial value when procuring common goods and services. In 2020/21, CCS helped the public sector to achieve commercial benefits equal to £2.04bn - supporting world-class public services that offer best value for taxpayers. Starfish Search has been named as a supplier on Crown Commercial Service’s Executive and Non-Executive recruitment. Services we offer under the framework include: Lot 3 - Non-Executive and Public Appointments.
Bloom, launched in 2012 is the UK’s leading marketplace for professional services. They provide an end-to-end solution for the procurement, contract management and payment of all professional services, via the compliant NEPRO³ framework. Their public sector clients have access to 20 professional services categories and over 4500 accredited suppliers. Bloom provides swift routes to market via either direct award or mini competition. Starfish is an accredited supplier to BLOOM; our services can be accessed via this framework - Executive and Non-Executive Search and Interim Management.
Join the starfish team
We hire people who bring insight, integrity and ambition to their work. If you’re ready to contribute to shaping the future of leadership and you want to explore our current opportunities please get in touch.
