Outplacement - Where do we go from here?

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CV Writing - the art of the possible
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“Change…” the word can send shudders down the strongest manager’s backbone!
One of the hardest challenges facing businesses today is to successfully manage significant changes without losing either morale amongst the workforce or productivity.
The worst case scenario is to end up with hostile, soon to be ex-employees reluctant to take any form of redundancy package, with associated press coverage about how terrible the firm is, coupled with anxious employees wondering whether it will be them next and a management wondering how on earth all this happened without them knowing.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

The secret to handling change well is communication. It sounds very obvious when written down but it is surprising how rarely communication is put high on any change agenda. The basic contract that exists between employer and employee is not simply the legal one but a psychological one as well. When you employ me I immediately expect from you a degree of ‘fairness’ in all your dealings with me and this is true across the board – high and low. It is the responsibility you accept the moment you become an employer. Maintain a good psychological contract with your employees and you have won half the battle, as they will trust you to have their best interests at heart and have confidence that you are honouring the deal that exists between you.

Change is always difficult to handle but change involving the reduction of staff numbers due to relocation; merger or downsizing is the hardest. Having to reduce the numbers of employees has two main effects. Firstly, it unsettles everyone – both those who are staying and those who are going, and secondly, it is hard to regain productivity after the event. It is a brave organisation that handles this on their own; safer perhaps is to bring in an outside firm that specialise in handling change.

All well and good, but how do you find the right people to help you? Type ‘outplacement’ into a search engine and you will have a plethora of firms trying to sell you their wares – what should you be looking for?
It is the word communication again that counts. A good outplacement specialist will have this at the forefront of their package. They will be able to offer a whole range of services but the most important are those that concentrate on working with the emotional response of the workforce – keeping that all important psychological contract in tact.

The first, and arguably most important rule is to get help right from the beginning. Don’t bring in the specialists too late and expect them to mop up the damage. It is far better to include your change experts right at the start so they can assess how best to inform and keep informed everyone in the business of what is going on and why it is necessary. Consequently, you need to check that the firm you are proposing to use is capable of doing this and understands the relevance of it.

There is a temptation to employ an outplacement firm that offer to take the problem away – ‘out of sight out of mind’. This is rarely a good idea for the main reason that I have been stressing throughout this article – communication. The last thing you want is feedback from absent, perhaps disgruntled employees affecting your survivor’s performance. A well-run redundancy programme has everyone on board understanding the issues and being kept in the ‘family’ for as long as possible. Indeed, in today’s business climate you may require employees leaving the business to work their notice.

Tangible and real – The Curriculum Vitae

So, the first thing you should look for is the willingness of the outplacement specialist to come in early and be ready to work in-house, what next?
Here at AccendoCV we believe the next most important step is to offer practical help for the leaver. Not only do we like to keep the leavers in the know as to why their redundancy is necessary, and understand why it is them rather than someone else (good selection criteria), but we give personal coaching for their next steps. First and foremost is to help them create a powerful and effective CV, secondly, a career counselling session – preferably one-to-one - with a consultant to discuss their future and possible channels to their job market. To create an effective resume, tailored for the clients chosen target job markets is a key competence of AccendoCV. Redundant employees need practical and tangible help.

We will thoroughly explain where to find jobs, how job boards on the web actually work and which are the right ones for them (there are 750 in the UK alone!), help with networking and the secret of how to approach people in a non-threatening way to get that all-important foot in the door.  We also believe that you should give each leaver a tailored project plan to follow and access to further help via phone and email for a period after the event. Finally by taking one of our consultants on board we will quickly get a job shop organised by contacting local employers and pulling together a list of opportunities. This is usually very successful as it makes finding new employees easy for the new employer whilst creating new opportunities for your leaver, and is visible to the survivors.

The Role of the Resume helps the Survivors

Our process is visible to the survivors – they see their colleagues receiving practical help from an organisation that is focused on practical resumes and cover letters, the core toll for job change. Good feedback from the leavers is the most valuable outcome you can have, and leavers who feel cared for will do just that.

Times have changed and outplacement does not have to be the tedious off site office, which pretends employees are still employed. And without this cumbersome overhead, the cost of new outplacement can be reduced. Redundancy is a matter of fact, it no longer carries the taint that it did ten years ago, and employers realise that it is a feature of a moving economy.
The ideal outcome of a successful change process is to have retained the good will of the existing workforce plus productivity, motivation and the rest, but at the same time to have helped the leavers on to a new career path in such a way that they experience the minimum upset possible. If you can sit back and with your hand on your heart say that this is just what has happened then that has to be a good feeling and worth the extra investment of time and resources it takes – we think so.

If you want to get your CV to the top of the pile, get the best resume you can buy - Get a CV and cover letter from AccendoCV.

Phone: 0845 170 7654
Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm

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