Outplacement

Outplacement is a process of helping departing employees to expedite job and career changes. If your company will have a large number of employees who will be leaving, it is preferable to engage a company that specializes in working with large numbers of employees at various levels to pursue new jobs or explore new careers. If your company has few or only one employee that will be departing, an individual executive career coach might be a better choice since they can generally provide more individualized and comprehensive support.

The three most common types of transition support for departing employees are:

1. Individualized coaching – One-on-one individual coaching is most appropriate for leaders and senior managers.
2. Group sessions – These are suitable for most employees. The sessions will typically be segmented to match different employee levels.
3. Providing copies of a comprehensive self-help career search book, such as 12 Steps to a New Career, to all departing employees without additional professional career support.

Whether you engage a company or an individual executive career coach, they will tailor their programs to your budget and the number and levels of employees you want to include in the service.

Executives, senior managers, and those that have spent most of their careers at your organization, will need to employ a more strategic career change approach. Consequently, they will benefit the most from working directly with an executive career coach who can provide a more personalized and comprehensive service.

Group sessions are more appropriate for directors, managers and senior staff as programs can be structured for group involvement at different levels.

If you have limited financial resources that prevents your organization from offering your employees any outplacement service, please consider giving them a self-help comprehensive career search book, such as 12 Steps to a New Career. This book will be a life saver for your departing employees because it will help them to learn and understand everything they need to know about how to make a job or career change.

12 Steps to a New Career contains over 260 pages of straight talk and practical suggestions that employees can implement right away. It helps them to:

• Understand how the job market works at different levels, particularly at more senior levels, and how they can be more successful in their search.
• Communicate their skills and experience in ways that set themselves apart from other job seekers.
• Craft a powerful and compelling resume that will impress recruiters and potential employers.
• Develop and expand their network so others will want to help them speed the process along.
• Become skilled at answering interview questions that most employers and recruiters will be asking.

To see an overview of the contents of “12 Steps to a New Career”, click here. As further support to readers of the book, the Executives section of this website contains downloadable copies of all the examples and worksheets covered in the book at no additional cost.

To find out more about the range of outplacement services that might work for you or to request multiple copies to give to your departing employees: Contact Carl or phone us at 310-489-3115.