One of my regular columns in Health and Safety At Work Magazine, responding to questions and giving careers advice and guidance to health and safety professionals.

1. Know-how
ASK THE RECRUITMENT EXPERT
After five years in post, I know my very senior role is going to
become redundant. I’m really worried the impact on my career and
my CV of taking a step down now but see no option, because of the
state of the market. What should I do?
Redundancy, whatever level
yo u a r e a t , c a n b e ve r y
tough. Unfortunately, the way the
economy has developed in the last
few years means it’s something
that many people have faced. I fear
that, though the market continues
to steadily improve, there will be
more people in this situation in
the next year or two. The harsh
truth is that you can only deal with
the employment market as it is,
not how you would want it to be
and that you need to make decisions about what is important to
you. You need to establish facts
quickly and then weigh up your
options.
Timescale is a very significant
factor and before you do anything
else, you need to think about
how long you might remain employed and how your redundancy
package might change over this
time. Is there an opportunity to
take voluntary redundancy on an
enhanced package if you leave
more quickly? If so, how much
better off might you be if you leave
voluntarily? This is obviously very
impor tant, as the better your
package, the bigger a buffer you
have and the more time you’ve
bought yourself to decide on your
career move. With your very understandable concern about how
your next move might impact on
your career, it’s really important
to make your decisions from a
position of knowledge.
While the market is undoubtedly improving, there’s still plenty
of scope for more growth and
there’s certainly a chance that
you’ll have to compromise on your
next move, depending on how long
you have to look. Only you will
know what is acceptable and no
one wants to step down any further than they have to, either financially or in terms of responsibility.
Don’t be too concerned about going sideways, or even backwards
a little, if that’s what you have to
do. The market will continue to
improve and before too long there
will be more suitable roles for you.
It won’t be hard to explain why you
had to take a step down and you
certainly won’t be the only person
who has had to do it.
Mark Burton, Attwood Burton
At t wood B u r ton is a h ea lt h,
safety and environment
r e c r u i t m e n t c o n s u l t a n c y,
www.attwoodburton.co.uk
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May 2013 health and safety at work