Prepare an employment adviser brief for a closure

Start with the employing entity, locations and current business activity. Explain whether the proposal concerns the whole operation, one department, a move or a possible transfer. State the commercial reasons in plain language and distinguish evidence from forecasts.

List the people and engagement arrangements through a suitable secure method. The adviser may need contracts, start dates, roles, working patterns, policies and relevant agreements. Ask what information is necessary before circulating personal material widely.

Do not classify people from the payroll list alone. Acas explains that employment status depends on the agreement and the actual working relationship. The people engagement map helps expose cases requiring advice rather than silently treating everyone alike.

Provide copies of relevant staff messages and a factual account of meetings. Say whether any dates or outcomes have been mentioned. An adviser cannot assess the position accurately if an earlier promise is left out because it now seems inconvenient.

Include proposed asset-sale dates, premises constraints and possible continuing work. Label each date by its source and current status. The linked employment and asset timeline shows how to keep these facts connected without allowing one workstream to predetermine another.

A fictional owner supplies three versions of a closure date: a personal target, the landlord's correspondence and an auction planning suggestion. The brief preserves all three and explains their origin. Choosing one and calling it "the deadline" would hide the question the adviser needs to examine.

Write the questions in order of urgency. These may concern the appropriate process, communication, consultation, a potential transfer or the facts needed for pay calculations. Do not ask the adviser merely to approve a timetable already treated as final.

Agree who will obtain missing records and how new facts will be reported. A consistent adviser facts pack reduces the risk that the accountant and employment adviser work from different proposals.

Employment rules and processes differ by jurisdiction. State where people work and ask for advice covering the relevant locations.

The equipment brief for UK Auction Group can then describe practical staffing constraints and provisional dates without including unnecessary employee details. The employment adviser remains the contact for the employment process.

Explore employees and handover.