Step 6: Manage staff after a transfer
TUPE transfers can be stressful for your employees and their representatives. It’s important that you support your employees and help them to adjust to the changes.
Inform and consult after the transfer
By law, once the transfer has happened, you no longer need to inform and consult staff representatives and affected employees about the transfer unless there are:
- any proposed changes in working practices
- redundancies
But it’s a good idea to continue informing and consulting affected staff to understand their concerns and support them as they settle in after the transfer. You should communicate regularly with your employees and their representatives and continue to work through transfer plans to make sure it’s successful.
Steps the old employer should take following a transfer
You should talk regularly with, and listen to, your staff to make sure:
- any reorganisation of teams or working practices has been successful
- they can manage the workload
It’s good practice to:
- reassure your remaining affected employees through regular meetings and updates
- listen and respond to their concerns, and help to maintain performance and quality of work
- check they are coping well after the transfer
- look at introducing team building activities and reward schemes to boost morale
Steps the new employer should take following a transfer
Employees who have transferred to your organisation may have different ways of doing the same job.
To help the transferred employees settle in, you should:
- welcome them to your organisation, including introducing them to any new team members and their line manager
- use the induction process to introduce rules, policies and standards so they know what is expected of them and how things should be done
- hold regular team meetings to integrate any new employees with their line managers and existing staff
- put in writing any changes to their terms and conditions of employment, for example the name and address of their new employer and what is happening to their pension arrangements
- check they understand the terms which transferred over with them
- make sure any reasonable adjustments have been successfully implemented for disabled employees
It’s good practice to:
- listen to employee suggestions and arrange discussions to generate ideas to improve processes - this could help identify and resolve problems before they escalate
- ensure line managers support employees while they’re adjusting to change
- consider appointing buddies or mentors for new employees to deal with queries and identify problems as soon they arise
If you plan on making any changes in working practices ('measures') or redundancies, you must inform and consult staff and their representatives.
If transferred employees do not want to work for you
If any employees want to leave after transferring to your organisation, they’ll need to give written notice by resigning.
In these situations, you’ll need to:
- confirm the notice period and agree a leaving date
- pay them any outstanding wages and holiday they’ve built up (‘accrued’) but not yet taken when their employment ends
They will not usually be entitled to any additional payments such as a redundancy payment or make a potentially successful claim for constructive unfair dismissal if they object without good cause.
They might be able to object to the transfer and make a claim to an employment tribunal if they were not informed about the transfer before it happened. See If you do not inform or consult.
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More information
You can find more information on TUPE transfers and how to handle: