recommend and justify which employee(s) to make redundant in a given situation

📚 Scenario: The Little Lemon Café

The Little Lemon Café employs 10 staff members. Due to a sudden drop in foot traffic, the café’s monthly revenue has fallen by 35%. The owner, Ms. Patel, must decide whether to reduce staff to keep the business afloat.

🛠️ Factors to Consider

• 💰 Cost of redundancy: Legal fees, notice pay, and potential compensation.
• 📈 Performance: Who consistently meets targets?
• 🧩 Skill diversity: Employees who can cover multiple roles.
• ⏳ Experience: Senior staff may have institutional knowledge.
• 📊 Future needs: Roles that will be essential after the crisis.

📊 Decision‑Making Matrix

🤔 Recommendation

Based on the matrix, the most cost‑effective and least disruptive redundancies are:

1. Eli – low performance and low redundancy cost, but can be retrained for basic barista duties.
2. Carlos – specialist chef role with low performance and high redundancy cost; removing him saves money but requires a quick replacement or menu simplification.

These choices minimise financial impact while preserving key skills (Alex, Beth, Dana) that can adapt to the café’s new, leaner operation.

📌 Exam Tips

• Always start by identifying the problem (e.g., revenue drop).
• Use a criteria list (cost, performance, skills, redundancy costs) to evaluate each employee.
• Show a clear decision‑making process – explain why each recommendation was made.
• Remember the legal and ethical aspects of redundancy (fairness, notice periods).
• Keep your answer concise and structured – use headings, bullet points, and tables where appropriate.

Good luck! 🚀