What outplacement did next

The next few years present outplacement consultancies with a once in a generation opportunity to respond to what some commentators have called once in a generation economic conditions.

Outplacement has an opportunity to deliver greater value to individual careers and contribute more positively to the health and success of their clients' organisations.

Working with individuals who have experienced outplacement at various levels illustrates the need for a new process that delivers career long benefits. Academic and customer satisfaction studies over the last few decades highlight this. For example, outplacement is challenged for focusing only on re-employment [Davenport, D. W. (1984). Outplacement counseling: Whither the counselor? Vocational Guidance Quarterly, 32, 185-190] and for having little or no interest in studying the results from the perspective of individual clients [Wooten, K. C. (1996). Predictors of client satisfaction in executive outplacement: Implications for service delivery. Journal of Employment Counseling, 33, 106-116].

More recent studies offer new insights but the example of the challenges above best illustrate the need for innovation in the aims, delivery, results and measurement of quality outplacement services. Why? Because the need for change highlighted in 1984 and 1996 has had enough time to sink in.

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Have you gone through an outplacement process as an individual? Has your company engaged an outplacement consultancy? What were your experiences? What were the results? What were the longer-term outcomes? If you have an opinion please comment here or email me at worklifefusion(at)googlemail(dot)com

Challenging the outplacement response to redundancy

How could outplacement services deliver more value to both employers & employees?

Outplacement success is traditionally measured by how quickly an individual gets back to work. While this is not an unreasonable aim, it often doesn't take into account the longer-term impact on the individual's career. Evidence also exists to show that long-term commercial & organisational opportunities from the employer's perspective are also being missed.

Getting an individual back into work is a necessary objective but the longer-term after-effects of redundancy - as well as the number of individuals who go through outplacement repeatedly -presents a challenge that providers of outplacement services have yet to respond to meaningfully.

So, is it reasonable to ask outplacement providers for something more strategic than short-term re-employment? In my view the answer is yes, and there are now practical as well as statistical means to support this.

Employees, employers and outplacement providers could all benefit from a revision of their aims and expectations. Providing individuals with a service that achieves short-term re-employment but also considers broader career factors - e.g. personal success, managing opportunity situations, decision making in context, etc. - can deliver value to the former employee well into the future and well beyond the initial redundancy event.

A service that considers the long-term aims of the former employee also creates advantages for the employer as well (employers are the fee-paying client after all!).  As discussed in a previous post, investment in an individual's future is one that repays both parties over time. As well as more meaningful management data from every intervention, employers can positively impact their organisational culture and employer brand. In-turn helping them to attract, motivate and retain the people they need in order to be successful.

Delivering value in outplacement situations is a challenge to employers and outplacement providers alike. Both sides should be looking to take their partnerships and the opportunities they create, to the next level. In the economic climate many commentators are now predicting, benefits to employers and employees facing redundancy situations play a pivotal role in business and career success for a growing number of people on both sides.

If you have an opinion or a personal experience relevant to this subject or any of the other subjects discussed on this blog, please comment or email me directly!