Everyone has a difficult time coping with the loss of a job, whether they are the person in charge of managing redundancies or the person who is being made redundant.
However, one way to alleviate the pain and stress is to make use of outplacement services, which assist employees in finding new jobs in the shortest amount of time possible. However, outplacement services are beneficial not only for the employee but also for a number of other parties.
They lessen the amount of work that needs to be done by the HR staff and reassure the employees who are staying with the company that their departing coworkers will receive assistance. It’s a win for everyone involved.
However, what exactly is outplacement, and what benefits does it provide?
This article serves as a guide to outplacement and the ways in which it can assist individuals, whether you are an HR manager looking to offer outplacement services or an employee looking to purchase a package on your own.
WHAT KIND OF OUTPLAY SERVICES ARE AVAILABLE, AND IN WHAT WAYS CAN THEY BE OF HELP?
There is a wide variety of delivery options available for outplacement services. These include individual coaching, group workshops, online resources, and senior executive outplacement services. Let’s take a closer look at these to better understand the advantages they offer.
Personal instruction and training
Individual coaching is exactly what it sounds like: private, one-on-one career counselling and consulting that is centred on the client’s specific requirements. Video calls or in-person meetings are the two most common ways that sessions are held. This is the most expensive component of an outplacement package, and the number of hours included in your package has the greatest influence on the total cost of the outplacement service.
Individual coaching is especially helpful if you need assistance dealing with the emotional fallout of being laid off, want to change the direction your career is heading in, or have been out of the job market for a while and require some additional assistance with your job search.
Workshops for the group
Workshops in groups are frequently utilised as a cost-effective method of providing outplacement support. This method is especially favoured by large organisations that experience ongoing changes in their staffing structures. However, group workshops are also available outside of organisations, and they provide a service that is beneficial to those who are limited financially or who would rather not work alone.
Workshops can cover a wide variety of topics, but the majority of them are geared toward educating participants on the most recent strategies for job hunting and providing assistance with updating resumes, writing cover letters, and submitting applications online.
A community and the opportunity for peer support can help make the job search less lonely and more fun, which is one of the benefits of participating in a group workshop. The information is delivered in person, which prevents procrastination, it provides a community, and it provides the opportunity for peer support.
Online resources
The majority of outplacement packages include access to various online resources. The process of finding a new job can be simplified and sped up with the help of a comprehensive online package that provides a variety of resources and information.
The online package provides tools for career profiling assessments, interview planning, articles, podcasts, and contact information, all of which can be used to put together an effective job search strategy.
The fact that online services can be accessed at any time of the day or night is one of the greatest advantages of using them. As a result, employees can conduct job searches around their other obligations and do so without having to travel or attend in-person training sessions.
Executive services
The outplacement consultant handles all or a significant portion of the job search work on behalf of the executive as part of executive services, which sets these services apart from other outplacement options.
Because of this, executive packages have a prohibitively high price tag, and access to them is restricted to directors and executives at the C-level. The advantage of using these services is that they reduce the amount of work that is required of the executive and make the most of the executive’s network as well as the network of the outplacement consultant without requiring the executive to make direct contact with employers.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE COMMON COMPONENTS THAT MAKE UP A STANDARD OUTPLACEMENT PACKAGE?
Outplacement services typically include a variety of different components, such as counselling for those who have been laid off and training for those who are looking for work. Outplacement counselling, for instance, will come with varying amounts of individual consultation time and with any number of bonus services, such as additional support around CV writing, interview practise, and LinkedIn branding, amongst other things.
Because many employees are unfamiliar with modern methods of job searching, the majority of benefits packages centre on assisting workers in improving their ability to search for new employment. It is not the intention of the packages to do the employees’ work for them but rather to assist them in helping themselves. This is significant because, rather than simply providing a band-aid solution to the individual’s issue, it assists the person in developing their knowledge, confidence, and ability to persevere.
Typically, packages consist of guidance, training, and information on important job-search skill sets, such as career planning and self-marketing skills (CV-writing, interview practise etc). But in a world that is increasingly moving towards self-employment and contracting, there is also assistance available for determining whether or not it is possible to shift away from working for someone else. Last but not least, the individual looking for work has access to a repository of resources, such as podcasts, blog posts, and tools, which they can use to broaden their knowledge base, increase their level of expertise, and make their job search even more successful.