Case Study - Lundbeck Pharmaceuticals - Outplacement and HR Support

"Handling a redundancy situation is never easy, but DBA's expertise and support, both to Lundbeck's management team and the employees, proved invaluable throughout the redundancy and outplacement process; none more so than during the consultation period"
Peter Trickett, Operations Director

With a site of 65 employees threatened with closure, Lundbeck Pharmaceuticals (headquartered in Denmark) wanted to have a UK based HR professional to provide expert support during the closure. The brief was simple - support the management team and employees throughout the consultation and redundancy outplacement processes.

Our project had three key elements to it:

Be an independent voice on the site Employee Consultative Forum and help to steer the Forum towards productive and agreed outcomes.
Provide expert legal and management support to the site management team as and when required.
Provide outplacement training and re-deployment support for affected employees.

It was very important that the Employee Consultative Forum was helped to influence the outcomes of the consultation effectively. Previous support from different suppliers led them to be very wary of external HR consultants. We ensured they felt comfortable at all times and received confirmation from them on several occasions that we walked the fine line between independence and supporting the management team extremely well.

In providing support to the management team amongst a number of other things we:

developed a working plan to help control the implementation of the project
provided employment law and management guidance as required
provided benchmark data to ensure enhanced redundancy packages were in line with industry norms
re-drafted overly legalistic solicitors letters to retain legal accuracy yet make them more personal and understandable for the employees
checked and re-checked redundancy calculations for accuracy
produced the redundancy letters and associated documentation
highlighted key concerns and hot issues for employees

Our Outplacement service was quickly put into action when the redundancies were confirmed. We delivered highly effective workshops to help the employees plan for a successful entry into the jobs market. Direct feedback from them tells us that they found our help invaluable in securing their next job.

Using our network of contacts we contacted several hundred companies in the region to alert them to the available skills and employee profiles. Whilst we cannot claim sole credit for all the employee's next roles, a significant proportion of them received active support from us and a good number of them were introduced to their new employers by us.