Your employer announces mass redundancies: Six steps to take in the first 24 hours

• 9 November 2026
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• Employment

An announcement of large-scale redundancies is a shock. It is natural to feel powerless, to feel that the outcome is a foregone conclusion. But the announcement is only the beginning of the process. You can still influence the conversation, and the first 24 hours are critical to laying the groundwork for an effective consultation.

Our Employment team has extensive experience advising groups of employees through large-scale collective redundancy exercises. Most recently, we supported more than 120 UK employees affected by Cloudflare’s global redundancy programme, advising on the employment and equity-related issues arising from the process. Drawing on that experience, this article shares six practical tips on what works best in the immediate aftermath of an announcement, including the importance of organising early and taking a coordinated approach to consultation and negotiations.

Where an employer proposes to make 20 or more redundancies at one establishment within a 90-day period, they are required to carry out ‘collective consultation’. They must do so before decisions are finalised, while there is still scope to take employee suggestions on board. Organising effectively strengthens your collective voice, and early strategic legal advice can help you navigate the process, test proposals to secure fairer decision-making, improved redundancy terms, or alternatives that may save jobs.

To make the most of collective consultation you will need to act quickly. As an affected employee, you start on the back foot: by the announcement, an employer will typically have spent weeks or months preparing. You, on the other hand, will be hearing of the proposals for the first time. You will often be asked to nominate and elect people to speak for you (‘employee representatives’) at this first announcement and will have little time to do so and to get ready for consultation. That imbalance makes the first 24 hours after the announcement critical, as you lay the foundation for effective collective action.

This article sets out six practical steps to help you preserve information, organise as an effective group and choose representatives, and prepare to instruct lawyers at the earliest opportunity.

Here are six steps to take in the first 24 hours.

1. Write down exactly what you have been told

The first announcement often comes as a shock. While the details feel vivid in the moment, they can be difficult to recall even 24 hours later. Similarly, the significance of comments made in conversations that happen around the announcement may only become apparent in the course of subsequent discussions.

A detailed contemporaneous record will help your group and its lawyers connect the dots, identify issues and shape an effective response from the outset. Details that appear irrelevant in the moment may, with additional context, provide clues to proposals or evidence that lawyers can use to challenge aspects of the proposals or consultation process. Record what was said and who said it, covering both the announcement and any conversations that happen on the fringes or afterwards, for example with individual managers.

2. Identify the right group of affected employees

Your priority should be to “find your tribe”, as this will dictate your engagement in the rest of the process. Depending on the circumstances, that may be all affected employees or it may be a sub-set. Getting this right is important: if your interests are not broadly aligned, that will make it challenging to act collectively and conflicts of interest may make it difficult or impossible for lawyers to represent the group as a whole. Size also matters: if the group is too small, you will not have an effective voice in the consultation. If it is too large, that may make it difficult to coordinate and make it more likely that conflicts might arise within the group.

Start thinking about this as soon as possible after the announcement. A group may naturally expand over time (and may continue expanding after the first 24 hours), but you should build up a core group for essential early decisions as quickly as possible. Start talking in groups with clearly shared interests and build out through trusted networks. Remember colleagues who are not currently at work, including colleagues on sick leave or family leave to avoid leaving anyone isolated, and to bring different perspectives into your group discussions.

3. Choose your employee representatives carefully

Your employer will likely have shared details of how you will be represented in collective consultation in or shortly after the initial announcement. Unless your employer recognises a trade union, that will usually mean electing representatives.

Consider the proposed election arrangements as a priority. What ‘constituencies’ is the employer proposing? Do they make sense? Are the numbers of representatives proposed appropriate to the number of employees in each group? As a practical guide, one representative for around 10 employees can work well, while one for up to 20 remains manageable (though the appropriate ratio will depend on the circumstances). If something does not look right, raise it promptly and keep a record.

Next, think about your representatives – this is one of the most important decisions you will make and you will often have little time to nominate candidates. Your representatives will be responsible for liaising with your employer and with your lawyers, passing information back to the group and leading discussions to arrive at joint positions, and, if matters become contentious, conducting litigation on the group’s behalf.

The best representatives will not always be the loudest in the room, nor necessarily the most senior. Representatives should (as the name suggests) be representative of the whole group, bring different perspectives and command the trust of the group. On a personal level, representatives will need the confidence to engage with senior decision-makers, but also the skills to listen and communicate difficult messages constructively. Ideally, they will have a good understanding of the business and be able to absorb and analyse detailed information. They will need to be committed and prepared to go the distance, as far as litigation, if necessary. It can be very helpful to have at least some representatives with previous experience of a redundancy process or of instructing lawyers, but that should not be determinative.

4. Plan how your group will approach consultation

Communication among your group is essential to instructing lawyers together and engaging effectively in the collective consultation process. You will need effective channels to coordinate, for representatives to pass information to the group from the employer or from lawyers and for the group to discuss proposals and reach joint positions. Different channels may be needed for different purposes. Think about how this will work.

Informal messaging groups, such as WhatsApp, can be very effective for coordinating and discussing logistics. They are not, however, appropriate for detailed discussions.

Some discussions will need to take place on the employer’s systems or premises, or through secure systems provided by your lawyers. The employer may share sensitive business information during consultation. Preserve relevant material, but do not remove it from the employer’s systems or circulate it outside authorised channels without first consulting your legal advisors, as removing information may breach information security policies and create a disciplinary issue.

Think about how you will discuss detailed proposals – in our experience, disseminating material by email and then discussing it in person or on calls is most effective. Your employer is under a legal obligation to provide appropriate facilities to enable effective consultation. Think about what you may need from your employer to facilitate group discussions, such as dedicated communication channels, meeting facilities and time to meet during working hours.

5. Gather information and key documents

While information about the proposals will generally be limited at this stage, you should begin to compare notes. You may find that different colleagues have different pieces of the puzzle and a picture starts to emerge. Start looking for inconsistencies or for indications that aspects of the proposals may already have been decided. Tell-tale signs can include role or line management changes over the past months, out-of-cycle or unexpected promotions that may suggest certain colleagues are being protected, or indiscreet comments from managers.

Begin gathering relevant documents so that the group can brief its lawyers quickly. At a group level, collect any redundancy policy, communications about the proposed exercise and relevant global remuneration documents including share or share option plans, LTIPs or other bonus or commission plans. Each individual should also locate their employment contract, job description and any associated documents and any incentive award documents.

Once you have pooled information, start thinking about the gaps and the questions that emerge. What documents are missing? How will you obtain them? What questions come to you about the proposals (as far as you understand them at this stage)? You do not need to have all the answers (or even all the questions) within the first 24 hours, but there is value in capturing your thinking from the earliest stage, to give you something to build on as discussions progress.

6. Seek collective legal advice early

Employees often wait until the end of the process to seek legal advice individually. In a collective exercise, that can mean missing important opportunities to influence consultation or negotiate improved terms at group level. Engaging lawyers early on in the collective process can have huge advantages in helping you navigate the process, identify and defend common interests as a group (while providing access to bespoke advice for those in special circumstances) and scrutinise and challenge employer proposals and develop counter-proposals while there is still an opportunity to influence outcomes. Instructing lawyers early and collectively is also usually more cost-effective than approaching advisers individually. Where lawyers are involved from the outset, they can help the group seek a contribution to legal fees from the employer, although such a contribution is not guaranteed. Even where no contribution is available, or it is inadequate, collective instruction offers economies of scale by allowing members to share and significantly reduce their costs.

Make initial contact with lawyers as soon as a credible core group begins to form, even if the group is still expanding or representative elections are not yet complete. Once the group and its representatives are established, formalise the collective instruction so that advice can shape the consultation from the outset.

There is no guarantee that organising collectively will prevent redundancies. However, forming a group quickly, making early contact with experienced lawyers and using their advice throughout consultation can put you in a considerably stronger position to influence proposals and press for better outcomes.

How we can help

Our Employment team can advise groups of employees through large-scale collective redundancy exercises. You can contact us as soon as a core group begins to form. We can advise on the immediate steps, help you organise and, once representatives are in place, work with them to develop the group’s consultation and negotiating strategy.

Read more about our work supporting the Cloudflare employee group here.