What is outplacement and how can it help when streamlining the workforce?

Having to get rid of valued members of staff, because of redundancies, can be a challenge for even the most experienced HR professionals. In fact, it can be a stressful event for everyone. Cutting back on a workforce isn’t easy. Both departing employees and managers are going to experience ups and downs as they face this new world, either due to a reduced workforce or having to find a new job.

There is good news, however.

Employing outplacement services can mean the whole process, delicate as it might be, is made much easier for both the employer and the employees who are being let go.

How can that be? What does outplacement mean and why is it necessary? Additionally, how can you navigate through redundancies, making sure you’re doing it with the right outplacement provider working alongside you?

In this article, we’ll explain exactly what outplacement services are and when you might need them. We’ll also explore the functions to look for when deciding which is the right outplacement services provider for you and your organisation.

So what is outplacement, exactly? Put simply, it’s a valuable service for any organisation’s displaced employees, helping them to transition to a new job outside of the original company following a redundancy drive, and is provided by a specialist outplacement firm.

Outplacement is designed to take the stress out of the process of workers being laid off, for whatever reason, by equipping them with the tools required to find new, fulfilling roles. It helps them to get back into work more quickly than doing the job search on their own, and also helps business owners or employers to ensure that staff members are primed to succeed when let go.

Outplacement companies come in all shapes and sizes, from boutique outfits handling a few tens or hundreds of employees at a time, to multinational firms that potentially deal with thousands of workers who have been made redundant. Many companies choose to go with outplacement providers who are small enough to allow flexibility, but large enough to have the resources behind them to handle significant numbers of employees at any one time. If looking around for outplacement services for your requirements, it’s best to opt for the best of both worlds.

Additionally, the outplacement process is normally offered as part of a redundancy package. This is so that businesses can protect the corporate / employer brand from being tarnished should they need to reduce the size of their workforce.

Let’s delve deeper into this, as well as other situations where you might decide to use the services of an outplacement provider.

An organisation would normally seek outplacement services when redundancies are imminent. This could be due to a number of reasons, such as restructuring or budget cuts. Below are some of the most common reasons why an organisation would need to shed staff, and when you might consider offering outplacement to any departing members of staff:

• Restructuring of the organisation
• Downsizing (i.e. reducing the number of staff)
• Decreasing operational costs
• Failing business performance
• Poorly performing employees
• Office relocations and / or plant closures
• The uncertainty of the economic climate
• Changing the strategic direction of the company
• Supporting staff with career changes
• Merging with another company
• Being acquired by another company

As previously mentioned, there are many different types of outplacement providers out there, offering many different types of services. While they all share the same target of helping redundant employees back into the workplace in new and meaningful roles, it’s worth taking a moment to consider the different approaches and different services offered to achieve this result, as they can differ quite a lot.

The best outplacement companies capitalise on the powers of innovative technology to deliver services to workers located anywhere and at any time. This modern, tech-savvy approach – using online resources, customised job search counselling, and expert coaching – ensures that displaced employees can explore their options fully in order to be placed in an ideal role as soon as possible.

So let’s now get to grips with the typical services that are offered with outplacement support, across the different types of provider.

Want your departing employees to get the best possible start in securing a new role? Of course you do. That’s where career transition coaching comes in, a service that pretty much all outplacement companies provide. It kicks off early in the process, where participants are matched with career transition experts in their field.

Outplacement coaches:

• Assess each employee’s strengths and weaknesses
• Assist with crafting a compelling and industry-smart CV with an updated and complementary LinkedIn page
• Prepare for interviews
• Navigate job postings in order to identify next steps in the participant’s career

Traditionally, onboarded participants visited their assigned coaches at their office or joined via a group webinar, where the coach started them on their job search with specific pointers, casting an eye over CVs and LinkedIn accounts.

In this day and age, with cutting-edge technology at our fingertips, modern outplacement providers have realised this doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. 

What does make sense is using the power of modern technology to provide support to workers at any location, either within their home country or across the globe. That means the coaches can provide 1-2-1 coaching, with participants having the option of choosing to do this either face-to-face or online. Most participants choose a virtual model, because it gives them the freedom to use outplacement services at times that work best with their schedule while doing it all from the comfort of their own home. 

In reality, coaches should form the most flexible part of the process, adapting to the goals, needs, and experience level of each participant – from senior executives to individuals – while ensuring they’re focused on making the right career decisions for them. Think of these coaches as expert guides who have the insight of the ins and outs of the job market, how to use the right technology to get through the right door, and how to handle the whole job search process, from application to accepting a new position. 

While coaching portrays the human aspect of outplacement services, the other side is career knowledge in the form of online tools, databases, training, and many other resources. These resources mean the participant can undertake further research on upcoming jobs and identify new strategies in their own time. It’s another way that a technologically-driven outplacement provider can offer flexibility while reflecting the client’s requirements.

Up-to-date outplacement providers totally understand how the job market works. There’s no need to trawl around recruitment agencies in your high street or knock on the doors of businesses handing out your printed CV. Everything is online now. This includes knowing how to optimise online profiles and navigate the job search process online to help participants stand out in a crowd. It also means possessing the right knowledge to get CVs past any applicant tracking systems that many companies use nowadays. 

By providing this level of support, participants will get back into the workplace in no time without completely exhausting their redundancy pay. This, in turn, reduces stress levels while protecting your company at the same time. 

When asking the question, “what is outplacement?” and deciding on which provider to use, it’s important to understand which are the most important features to look out for. As mentioned, all providers want the same thing for participants and their clients – and that is to get departing employees back into a new role as soon as possible. But the specifics of how this support is provided varies widely from outplacement firm to outplacement firm. 

Below, we break down each element that you should look for during your search for the best outplacement services provider for your organisation. 

How long does it take to find a job? Well… how long is a piece of string? It can vary so much, with so many variables – such as the level of the employee, the type of industry they’re interested in, and what sort of salary they would be happy with.

With all of that in mind, one of the critical elements to identify is the term limit for participants or, ideally, the lack of them. Most outplacement providers work with participants for a set period of time, from a few weeks to a few months. But once that time frame has elapsed, outplacement services will end and participants have to continue down the road of searching for a job on their own if they haven’t secured a placement. That’s a huge red flag, as the type of outplacement firm that does that places their bottom line as more important than getting the job done. Not good. 

Careerminds offers outplacement services that run until each participant is placed in a new role, known as “until placement”. This means offering flexibility while providing unlimited support, no matter what the participant’s job title, experience level, or career journey. Careerminds believes that outplacement firms should work with participants until they’re placed, however long that takes. We know that our service works, and are willing to state that claim. 

Be wary of retainer fees as they allow outplacement companies to make money without doing much work – great for them, but not so great for you. It’s totally understandable that you might want an outplacement provider always at the end of the phone, just in case, but it doesn’t make much sense to have them on hand while you keep paying them for times when they’re not actually doing anything. Any outplacement provider you choose should act as a strategic partner, working with you when needed, with no retainer fee, because it’s more about giving your organisation and your employees the support that you and they need.

It’s simple at Careerminds – we don’t charge retainer fees, as we believe that outplacement is an important service that all companies can use and retainer fees shouldn’t get in the way of that. 

With technology constantly evolving and advancing at a dizzying speed, outplacement providers need to be moving with it to make services as accessible, relevant, and as easy to use as possible. That means offering virtual outplacement solutions that give participants flexible coaching support, eLearning courses, social networking, and online job search tools at the click of a button, while preparing them for the job market with the same technological skills. That’s why you need an outplacement provider that not only understands the current market, but also the future market, and how to get ready for it.

The benefit of a strong technological backbone is flexibility. Finding work, and the processes involved, varies from job seeker to job seeker. Whichever provider you choose, they should be able to tailor their outplacement services to each of your participant’s circumstances, goals, needs, and experience level. When asking, “what is outplacement?”, it’s not just about getting staff back into work into just any job, it’s about getting them back into jobs that are fulfilling and meaningful.  

When choosing an outplacement services provider, it’s worth evaluating the outplacement coaching services on offer.

• Are the coaches professional and experienced?
• Is the coaching they provide on a 1-2-1 basis or only in groups?
• Can the coaches handle the requirements of different types of people – from entry-level employees up to senior executives?
• Are coaches randomly assigned to employees or are they matched properly? 

Having a dedicated coach, who offers expert and personalised coaching and who understands an employee’s needs, is an important factor that can make or break the success of the participant landing a new role. 

While the primary goals of outplacement services are to get departing staff back to work while protecting your brand, they should also be seen as thought leaders in the HR space, portraying authoritative and influential views on all of the latest trends. This provides you, as the client, and participants in the outplacement process, with access to industry experts, and ways in which to navigate through any potential obstacles you might face with various career transition topics. If you choose a provider that’s tech-driven and connected to the HR sphere, they should have a wealth of industry knowledge that you can lean into to make sure all transition needs are fully covered.

Here is Raymond Lee, Careerminds CEO, discussing this topic to give you a better example of what thought leadership looks like:

At the end of the day, you want to discover an outplacement provider that will act as a strategic partner to your business. That’s why it’s so important to take all of this criteria into account from the start of your search. Or, if you’ve already found a provider, it’s worth evaluating their offerings, then continuing to re-evaluate as the partnership progresses, to make sure it’s going in the direction you want it to go. As the job market shifts, you want to make sure the outplacement provider you’ve chosen shifts with it, in order to remain at the cutting-edge of technology and trends, maintain transparency and flexibility as a true business partner, and reassure you that your employees are in good hands.

The last element to consider is finding out about an outplacement provider’s results. This includes assessing reviews, case studies, and engagement rates. It’s also worth checking out if their outplacement services include transparent participant data, surveys, and results that you can monitor throughout the programme to track progress. Then you can see how well the outplacement services work and how effective they are, meaning you can come to the right decision about which provider to choose, while achieving a healthy return on your investment.

So that you know, Careerminds has an outplacement engagement rate of over 80%.

To sum up what outplacement is, it’s a must for getting your displaced employees back to work after a redundancy drive. The best outplacement firms:

• Use expert and flexible career coaching
• Capitalise on digital platforms, which ensure outgoing employees have all the tools they need, whenever they want and wherever they are
• Offer an “until placement” package that looks after your employees all the way to securing a new role
• Make the transition as stress-free as possible
• Be a thought leader at the cutting-edge of technology, that researches and finds solutions to any arising HR problems

Remember, it’s the displaced employees who are the most important aspect of the entire process. Our core core philosophy at Careerminds is a people-first approach. 

If your organisation is considering outplacement services or you have any questions about the process, contact us today, and start putting your mind at rest about the whole process.

Elizabeth Openshaw

Elizabeth Openshaw has over 12 years of experience in the job search sector, including extensive expertise in outplacement and CV reviews. Previously a Journalist on national publications, she is Director of her own company, OpenDoor CV Expertise Ltd. You can connect with her at Elizabeth Openshaw | LinkedIn.