There will be situations when a company owner or CEO will have to make an unfortunate decision. Economic downturn, restructuring, (digital) transformation, closing the company, a pandemic or bad business results might force them to consider making redundant certain employees, even high-ranking ones.
Usually, leaders are sad to dismiss their colleagues but the person that had to leave the company is definitely the most distressed one. Most of them enjoyed a long career in the company and were perhaps planning to stay till retirement and suddenly they are completely on their own. After the severance, their income will drastically decrease and they will have to find a new job, something they might have never experienced in their life. This all makes a big impact. Furthermore, a poor lay-off experience will make it even harder for the employee and considerably affect a very negative view of people in and outside the company. Treating employees poorly during a reorganisation often leads to loosing trust of talented employees which in turn results in other employees leaving the company, high staff turnover and a significant retention problem.
The solution called executive outplacement could support the whole process and safeguard positive reputation of the company. It gives the employee feeling of being taken care of even after leaving the company. The outplacement company cannot guarantee finding a new job for the candidate in the program but receiving outplacement consultancy puts people in a far better position to find a new opportunity. Usually, the morale of employees suffers during times of uncertainty and change. Showing people that the company still looks after them regardless of what the future holds, is a powerful way to counter this.
How does outplacement work?
The aim of outplacement consulting is to actively support managers during their transitional period in between jobs. This is done in the form of counseling, coaching and actively seeking a new work environment. New Europe Resourcing designs an individual and personal approach in order to maximize the chance of success for candidates to find a new position in another company.
What are the steps in the process?
- We make an assessment based on key competences for a future position which the candidate aspires (among others strengths and development areas)
- Coaching and training presentation and interview skills
- Lead a discussion on personal motivation and potential career path
- Providing the candidate with insight into the current market trends and advise on jobs and companies
- Giving consultation on CV writing and improving the candidate’s digital profile
- Providing consultation on compensation and benefits packages as per market trends
- Defining a target list of companies/potential employers according to the individual’s preferences
- Contacting employers in order to identify opportunities for the candidate
The time of the support can vary but is usually agreed on 6 months.
Learnings?
Managers that have worked for a long time in their function and have been employed in only one or a few companies are used to interview candidates but seldom have found themselves on the other side of the table. We are often paired with outplacement candidates that have just left their company and the emotions could be high. Especially, during the first meetings it is normal that the candidate has to blow off steam and is in a state of confusion or negativity or not very motivated to start looking for a new job. Therefore, they often ‘forget’ all the basics of how to engage in an interview. This could be a lack of preparation or direction, a moment of self-reflection or ambitions that are changing. Therefore, we always start with a competency-based interview in which we base-line the candidate and from there try to advise him/her how to improve their interview preparation and skills. Finding a new job could be a job in itself and people are usually underestimating how much time, effort and perseverance it takes to find what one is looking for.
Some candidates perceive the moment of redundancy as a (welcome) chance of finally change direction. We had a very nice experience with a manager that worked for many years on an international corporate position and she eventually saw the opportunity to start her own company, in which she became very successful. We were happy to coach her in that direction becoming aware of her specific skills, which were rare on the market and therefore, she could rather fast find interested clients and develop her own business. Recently, we had a candidate that during the process of looking for new opportunities found out that it would be very difficult to find the same level of job in the industry where she previously worked and she decided to re-activate her University degree knowledge and moved from a sales position in pharma to again being a dentist, which she practised many years ago.
We learned that next to helping people successfully manoeuvre through the transition process and improve the chance of re-employment it is also worthwhile to work on self-esteem, self-worth and career and social status. In addition, we concluded that it also matters that the candidate does not find any job but the right one, which fits his/her competences and desired corporate culture.
Not every career will always work out how it was planned and we believe that with a chance of going through outplacement support, the new start would be more optimistic and confident.
‘New Europe Resourcing’s consultants have conducted thousands of executive search interviews and gained valuable insights. Through regular client and candidate surveys we additionally collected a wealth of information and knowledge.’