Outplacement support: Its value to organisations and individuals

Outplacement services provide guidance and support to outgoing members of an organisation, usually when their positions have been made redundant.  It can be immensely valuable for people who are facing involuntary unemployment to have objective, professional support to help them to come to terms with their situation and prepare themselves for a productive and satisfying future. 

A key feature of the most successful organisations is their view of employees as assets rather than costs.  Forward-thinking companies invest in their staff and support their professional development throughout their career.  However, in this current, extremely turbulent financial climate, organisations are under ever-mounting pressure to increase productivity and cut costs.  As a result, many are asking employees to work even harder, take on more responsibilities and are looking to make their organisations leaner by making some positions redundant.  Good companies realise, nonetheless, that there are several reasons to provide independent outplacement support for departing staff who may be struggling with trust and confidence issues.

Over the years, I have worked with a great number of clients who have either been made redundant or were about to be.  I have been employed by many organisations to provide valued members of their staff objective outplacement support to help them cope with redundancy.  I believe outplacement services are of value to individuals and organisations in the following key ways.  They can:

• Allow leavers to discuss openly any feelings of concern about their future 
• Enable leavers to assess options and develop a strategy for taking control
• Reinforce a feeling of trust among survivors that the company values its staff
• Prevent unwanted turnover among survivors who may panic and ‘jump ship’
• Cut down absenteeism and disaffection among survivors
• Relieve management pressure from the fallout from the redundancy process
• Reduce the likelihood of unfair dismissal litigation claims
• Protect the company’s reputation as a fair employer

I would be happy to meet with you to discuss how I can provide outplacement support for your employees.  Typically you would give me background on the circumstances surrounding your employees’ situations and I would then meet with each individual confidentially to:

• Develop a programme of support depending on their particular needs
• Clarify their feelings and identify any misgivings they may have
• Encourage them to think openly and broadly about new options and directions
• Help them consider the implications of each route they might take
• Identify skill/experience gaps and devise strategies for how to fill them
• Assist them to explore issues of self-confidence and self-esteem
• Help them identify barriers to progress and tools for how to deal with them

If you would like to discuss how I could provide outplacement support for any of your employees facing redundancy, or any other career-related challenges, please get in touch.