Sarah Chiumento, chief executive of Chiumento, a talent consultancy

Every day seems to bring news about an organisation making redundancies and all of us will remember the horror stories such as the company that sacked its staff by text message. Thankfully such cases are rare and more firms are realising that their image will be improved if they treat people well.

First, consider the impact of redundancies on retained staff. It is crucial to maintain morale in difficult times; people are bound to feel an allegiance to former colleagues and will often maintain contact with them. They can become resentful if they think their friends were handled harshly or unfairly.

Second, if you handling redundancies well, staff will speak positively of their experience, which will improve the company’s image. Ultimately, markets will pick up, and you will again need to recruit. If you behaved badly in the past, it could put people off. It is a mistake to take a short-term approach to redundancies.

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