The Real Cost of Redundancy

Just like resolutions of quitting smoking, getting healthy and drinking less, "New Year, New Career" has long been the hackneyed headline on recruitment advertisements to capture the attention of active jobseekers intent on making a positive change to their working lives. But not in January 2009. For more and more people the decision has been taken out of their hands and the reality of redundancy has bitten.

On the 5th January, the BBC News website published an article entitled "Firms urged 'try to keep staff'", which in itself isn't a particularly revolutionary strategy for success in any business. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7808425.stm)
The crux of the story was to highlight the real cost of making someone redundant, based on a formula put together by the CIPD. The actual, average figure they came up with, for what it's worth, is £16,735. In my opinion, despite all the 'n's, 'h's and 'y's (which is too complicated for someone of my limited mathematical capability and own up, yours too) they've missed a vital piece of the formula. Where is the calculation that measures the damage that redundancies can have to the reputation of the organisation
as an employer and among other things, the higher attraction costs associated with that? Whilst it's a commendable attempt by the CIPD to warn of the compound financial cost of redundancy, it is disappointing that they have neglected such an important point.