Quick Summary:
- Why does AI-driven redundancy carry greater reputational risk than crisis-driven restructuring?
- What does the current labour market mean for employees you exit today?
- Why is outplacement support important during restructuring and how do you get it right?
When redundancy follows a financial crisis, most people understand why. When it follows record investment in AI, the reasoning feels less straightforward to those affected – and that’s precisely why outplacement is important when the business case for change is strength, not survival.
It’s also where HR leaders are increasingly finding themselves. We asked our MD, Mike Burgneay, for his insight:
“What we’re hearing most consistently from clients right now is organisational redesign on a significant scale – driven partly by cost and streamlining pressures, but increasingly dominated by the impact of AI and automation. The question organisations are wrestling with is no longer whether roles will change. It’s how to manage what happens to the people in them.”
– Mike Burgneay, MD and Head of Client Services, Chiumento
That combination creates a specific exposure. When ONS data shows redundancies at 4.9 per 1,000 employees and unemployment at a multi-year high of 5.2%, with payrolled employment down 134,000 year-on-year, the external landscape your exiting employees are walking into is significantly harder than it was.
Productivity gains from automation typically reduce the need for headcount rather than replace it – and in a market this tight, displaced employees feel that gap acutely. For HR, the question is not whether roles will evolve. It’s how the organisation will be perceived when they do.
Employees and candidates are already drawing their own conclusions
Microsoft research identifies knowledge work – administrative, analytical, and information-sharing functions – as among the roles most exposed to AI-driven redesign. IBM has frozen thousands of anticipated hires it expects AI to absorb within five years.
These are not fringe cases. They are the signal that capability redesign is reducing headcount, not just reshaping it: and that the people in your organisation doing those roles are likely already aware of it. CIPD’s Labour Market Outlook (Winter 2025/26) puts 2.6 unemployed people behind every vacancy. The individuals you exit today are navigating that reality tomorrow.
Remaining employees aren’t just watching how departing colleagues are treated – they’re updating their own risk assessment about whether to stay. They understand the external landscape. How departing colleagues are treated in this moment does more for internal trust than any all-staff communication: because it’s evidence, not messaging
The framing of redesign changes the stakes
There is a meaningful difference between redundancy that follows a financial crisis and redundancy that follows innovation. When restructuring is framed around modernisation, automation, or capability gaps, it carries an implicit message that employees – and external observers – interpret personally: your skills are the problem.
Recent examples of profitable technology firms, such as Block announcing significant workforce reductions despite strong financial performance (BBC, 2026) have illustrated how quickly that framing becomes a reputational story. The scrutiny is higher precisely because the business case is not distress – it’s strategic choice.
Externally, candidates are increasingly evaluating whether organisations balance innovation with accountability. When redesign happens under that level of scrutiny, how transition is delivered becomes as visible as the decision to restructure itself.
Outplacement isn’t a courtesy – it’s how your reputation is built or lost
Structured career transition support changes the story organisations tell: internally and externally. There is a meaningful difference between redesigning a capability structure and writing off a person. Outplacement is how organisations demonstrate they know the difference.
That distinction matters to people leaving, to those staying, and to anyone watching from outside. For the individuals going through it, good outplacement is the difference between leaving with a plan and leaving with uncertainty – and that experience stays with them long after they’ve landed.
At Chiumento, we work with HR leaders to deliver outplacement and career transition support that is aligned to transformation strategy – not added as an afterthought once process has concluded. The organisations that protect their employer brand through redesign are the ones that treat transition support as part of the transformation investment, not a cost to be minimised at the end of it.
If organisational redesign is on your horizon, we’d welcome the conversation. Get in touch with us today.
FAQs
Why is outplacement important during organisational redesign?
When restructuring is driven by innovation or AI adoption rather than financial distress, employees and observers apply greater scrutiny. Outplacement support signals that the organisation values the people it is parting with – not just the capability structure it is building. That distinction directly affects employer brand, remaining employee trust, and future talent attraction.
When should outplacement services be introduced in a restructuring process?
Ideally before the process concludes rather than as a final gesture. Organisations that integrate outplacement into their transformation planning – rather than bolting it on at the end – see stronger outcomes for exiting employees and fewer reputational risks during the programme itself.
How do you make the internal case for outplacement investment?
The most effective internal cases we see don’t lead with cost – they lead with risk and timeline. What is the reputational exposure if this restructuring becomes a story? What does losing a key retained employee, spooked by how their colleague was treated, actually cost to replace? Frame outplacement as risk mitigation and transformation infrastructure, not as a line item in the redundancy budget, and the conversation changes.
What should HR leaders look for in an outplacement provider in the UK?
Look for a provider that aligns support to your transformation strategy rather than offering a generic off-the-shelf programme. Relevant experience in AI-driven restructuring, flexible delivery models, and measurable outcomes for participants are key markers of quality.
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Iona works across Chiumento’s Digital Marketing Executive. Working on blog and comms projects, Iona helps to shape how the organisation talks about change, redundancy, and the employee experience. With experience in the education, law, and HR sectors, she brings a cross-industry perspective to workforce planning and organisational change. Iona contributes to content that supports HR leaders through restructuring and is particularly interested in how clear, human communication builds trust during times of uncertainty. She holds a BA in Illustration and brings a creative, insight-led approach to everything she writes.