Professionals in the sector have offered guidance for HR companies on how to deal with employees and finance effectively during a slow economy.
Jim Savege, corporate director for organisational development for Cumbria County Council, said firms should "provide feedback" and demonstrate "empathy for people who are scared about their jobs".
Reducing head count dramatically will only lead to expensive re-hiring in the future and a better solution is to begin "re-skilling, retraining, redeploying, or shifting staff", he advised.
Associate director of The Work Foundation Peter Carroll also offered guidance, saying HR companies need to "understand the fundamentals of redundancy agreements, policies and their legal ramifications".
He told Personnel Today: "I think HR tends to dive into the whole situation around employee benefits and that can be counterproductive."
A recent poll carried out by Lloyds TSB found that almost two-thirds of 2,000 people polled felt that UK employment prospects were worse than this time last year.
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