A new book has been published with the aim of putting the heart into one of the more difficult aspects of HR: redundancies.
Titled ‘Redundancy With Love’, the book was written by Jill Aburrow, an HR professional of nearly 30 years, who lives in Shrivenham, Oxfordshire. During her career she has worked in and with every type of business, from large globally recognised names to tiny companies with a handful of employees.
Aburrow has run her own HR consultancy business, Heartfelt JR for five years, specialising in redundancy and disciplinary issues. Her aim is to make the redundancy process easier and more positive for everyone involved: managers; HR support; redundant employees; and those left in the business.
Commenting on the motivation for writing the book, Aburrow explained:
“Nobody likes doing redundancy. If you’ve ever experienced it, you’ll know what an emotional rollercoaster it can be. Most managers and HR professionals hate it.
“Having specialised in redundancies for much of my career, I wanted to put all of my experience to good use to improve the process for everyone involved.”
‘Redundancy With Love’ covers all aspects of the redundancy process, including helping managers create a redundancy plan, give the difficult message to employees, and support them after redundancies have occurred.
The book took over a year to write and edit, and was published in January 2023. Since then, it has been named as Amazon’s bestsellers list in HR & Personnel Management.
Aburrow believes this is testament to the fact there is a need for a more ‘heartfelt’ approach to the issue of redundancies – especially at the moment, with the cost of living crisis affecting the finances of so many.
She said: “I knew there was a real need for a comprehensive guide to redundancy. There’s a lot of legalistic, dry stuff out there, but often they ignore the human aspect and potential emotional toll of it all.
“I wanted to create an alternative guide with more heart. There’s definitely nothing else like this available and if it helps even one person have an easier ride, then it is a success.”
‘Redundancy With Love’ is available in paperback from Amazon (also available in Kindle) and a range of bookstores. For more information, please visit www.heartfelthr.com.
