Getting outplacement right for your employee

The global reach of the coronavirus pandemic and the resultant economic repercussions have forced many businesses to make some tough decisions and reassess the infrastructure of their workforce.

Layoffs, reductions in salaries, and furloughs have been ubiquitous the world over. While these decisions have been fundamental in ensuring the future operation of an organisation, it’s the delicacy in the handling of these matters that will prompt either employee and consumer confidence or distrust: a significant determiner in future loyalty and brand reputation. 

Treating people with dignity, whilst following the proper procedures, is crucial now more than ever if organisations wish to retain key employees or attract new recruits once the proverbial smoke clears, and this involves taking care of your employees and protecting employer branding, especially during times of decline. 

One of an organisation’s best tools in maintaining future employee loyalty is to provide outplacement services to displaced workers, especially those who are being fully exited.

As a strategic HR consultancy, Global People Solutions have been providing outplacement support and coaching across a comprehensive range of industries and sectors, tailoring its services to understand which approach will be most useful, whilst acting as an impartial sounding board as displaced employees begin to make decisions about their career and transition to their new future.

We help them to analyse the opportunities available to them by supporting their applications, collaborating on everything from CV refinement to discussing each transitioning employee’s unique skill set and how these might align with roles that are currently available in the marketplace.

Our professional outplacement coaches provide guidance on how best to pivot careers based on jobs and sectors that are hiring, enabling laid-off employees to include new and potential career ideas into their search.

Many organisations have retained employees for years, even decades, and the job search process has shifted dramatically in the past few years alone. Creating powerful CVs and applications for every role, refining interview skills, harnessing the power of LinkedIn and social networking, and working on personal branding can increase someone’s chances of being interviewed and ultimately selected for a role. Our one-on-one coaching and mentoring sessions are geared towards the successful outcomes of each of these components.

What’s in it for employers? 

For starters, an employer’s brand is what separates them from the pack: it’s what makes them unique and makes people want to work for a particular organisation ahead of another. 

Offboarding, in all its iterations, can dramatically affect employer branding if it’s not handled sensitively. Still, given the current situation, it’s essential to know that the decisions a business makes now can either plague or elevate them based on how they structure the experience. 

By offering employees outplacement support, coaching, and mentoring, we can help to safeguard your brand’s future by providing displaced workers with the fundamental skills for them to succeed.  

Social responsibility when managing a reduction in workforce is crucial for employers who are providing professional outplacement services to transitioning talent, and it’s equally vital to reassure remaining employees that they are valued and demonstrate the support that you are offering to those affected.

Outplacement is a great way to help employees during layoffs or redundancies which will always be a delicate subject: the current pandemic has only amplified that stress.

Employers that do everything in their power to help their workers through these times will be remembered when it is all over. Those who do not will, too, but for dramatically different reasons.

Published by Elaine Codona (LinkedIn - 13 August 2020)