When you have a new position to fill, your first move might be to advertise externally. What if there was another way? Redeployment allows companies to take advantage of its pre-existing talent, meaning you might find the perfect candidate a lot closer to home!

Of course, this transition is likely to require a little on-the-job training. However, providing development opportunities could actually promote social mobility. Bonus!

Read on to find out about how your business and your employees could benefit from making this a part of your recruitment strategy.

What is it?

Redeployment means moving an employee from one part of the business to another role within it. This role could be completely different from the original one: it might have brand new responsibilities or even be based in another location.

It is a common strategy that companies adopt in place of making employees redundant. They may also use it as part of a job rotation strategy which enables employees to switch between different roles in order to develop diverse skills.

When is it useful?

If a company is considering redundancy, it must look at redeployment options first. After all, if redeployment is an option but isn’t offered, this could be grounds for an employee to claim unfair dismissal.

Rather than make someone redundant, an employer might find suitable employment for them elsewhere in the company. Assuming the employee accepts the redeployment offer, they can move directly into their new role, meaning that employers avoid making redundancy payments.

Advantages of redeployment

For an employee facing redundancy, the main advantage of redeployment is obvious: it prevents job loss. This is especially important for people who have worked at the company for a long time or those who have no desire to re–enter a competitive job market.

For businesses, it allows talent to be retained. As Harvard Business Review explains, “Companies that shed workers lose the time invested in training them as well as their networks of relationships and knowledge about how to get work done.” Redeployment allows their pre-existing knowledge to be applied in a new position. 

The business world is constantly changing, and businesses may need to restructure to keep up. Redeploying employees between departments may be one easy way to modernise. Roles that are no longer relevant can be replaced by different positions for the same staff members. This enables the business to launch new, innovative projects.  

Redundancy payments represent a significant cost. An efficient redeployment programme can save money as they save staff members’ jobs. This can also avert a potential public relations disaster. Redundancies never look good, so pursuing redeployment instead can help maintain a company’s reputation. 

Potential difficulties or drawbacks

One downside of redeployment is that it can be costly to retrain staff members. It really depends on how drastic the change to their job role is. If you need your employees to demonstrate entirely new skills, you should expect to pay out to support their learning process.

Another problem you may face is employee resistance. No matter how great you think the opportunity is, there will always be people who’d prefer to stay in their previous position. Communication is key to overcoming this challenge.

As people get to grips with their new responsibilities, it’s likely that operations will suffer. Employers must be realistic about this: there will undoubtedly be a period of adjustment while redeployed team members gain confidence and get comfortable.

Although redeployment has many advantages – especially when compared with redundancy, which should always be a last resort – it isn’t always feasible. Its success depends greatly on the skillset of the employees in question and the company’s business needs.

Redeployment strategies

If you want to incorporate redeployment into your business model, try the following:

Assess the skills of your workforce regularly. Keep an up-to-date skills bank that you can refer to when new opportunities arise.
Consider how skills could be transferred. Maybe someone in customer service has the communication skills to make it in marketing?
Promote internal networking. If employees have relationships with their colleagues in other departments, they’ll feel less apprehensive about moving between teams.
Be aware of employees’ redeployment rights. Any employer contemplating redeployment must understand and mitigate potential legal risks.
Accentuate the positives. You can incentivise reluctant redeployment prospects by offering them benefits such as free training or an increased salary to make the change.

By Meghan Taylor, The Writers’ Guild

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When you have a new position to fill, your first move might be to advertise externally. What if there was another way? Redeployment allows companies to take advantage of its pre-existing talent, meaning you might find the perfect candidate a lot closer to home! Of course, this transition is likely to require a little on-the-job
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