Global Outplacement: What You Need to Know
July 01, 2020 by Josh Hrala
Choosing a global outplacement provider can be a daunting task. What features should a top-notch provider have? What are the differences between different programs? What are the cultural norms in the various countries about the type of services provided?
We’ve covered how to generally shop for outplacement in the past. You can read all our tips here. However, global outplacement needs are even more of an explanation to ensure that you are choosing a provider that fits your needs and the needs of displaced workers who may go through the program.
In today’s blog, we’ll go over how our global outplacement services work on a high level and explain the benefits of offering outplacement to staff members. Let’s jump right in.
Global Outplacement: How It Works
Global outplacement extends the reach of local outplacement programs to help companies with employees spread over large geographical regions. In today’s world of virtual work and dispersed workforces, global outplacement helps companies provide support to their staff members wherever they happen to be.
Outplacement, as a refresher, is a service offered to displaced workers that helps them land a new role outside of their current organization. There are many benefits to providing outplacement. You can read them all here and we will give a summary of these benefits later on in the article.
So how does it actually work?
There are many different ways a global outplacement provider can extend their support to many different countries, cultures, and languages. Many outplacement companies rely on partner networks to deliver global outplacement which can oftentimes impact the quality scores of the program.
At Careerminds, our philosophy with global outplacement is a one firm/firm approach. What does that mean? Careerminds carefully recruits and trains global coaches who can deliver global outplacement consistently around the globe, leveraging one platform, one client portal, delivering transparent results to the customer.
Our outplacement program is primarily virtual, allowing workers to obtain our services from the comfort of their homes and on their own schedule. However, in countries where face-to-face is still in demand, programs are blended to offer on-demand face to face support with virtual delivery.
Are you in procurement? If you are researching an RPF, check out our link below on outplacement costs, or take a look at our comprehensive FAQ page here!
Global Outplacement: Seamless Integration
Having a workforce spread around the globe can lead to many different challenges, but outplacement shouldn’t be one of them.
To that end, the best global outplacement providers should connect seamlessly to your HRIS systems.
For example, Careerminds’ global outplacement has one-click integration with all of the most common HRIS systems, such as:
- SAP Success Factors
- Workday
- Ultime Software
- ADP
- Oracle
Our secure API connects and stores all of your employee utilization data, survey results, and landing page data, ensuring that you always know how your workers – regardless of their physical locations – are using our system. That’s transparency and reporting made simple and easy to understand.
This level of reporting and connectivity ensures that you know how your employees are doing during the program in the simplest way possible.
Global Outplacement and Until Placement Support
One of the most important things to consider when shopping for global outplacement services is to make sure that the provider offers until placement support.
‘Until placement’ means that the provider will work with participants until they actually land their next role, making sure that they are not cut off from services before they land. This is especially important in countries where work councils require program lengths to match certain job levels and tenure with organizations.
An executive needs a different level of support than a mid-level manager. These two individuals may require different amounts of time to land their next role, different coaching strategies, and many other variables that term limits do not take into account. With until placement support, all levels of workers are taken care of.
The goal with a global outplacement provider is to ensure that they are giving the same level of support to workers outside of the US as they are inside the US. And that means until placement support, dedicated coaches, eLearning tools, and more. You can read about all of the boxes your outplacement provider should check here.
The Benefits of Global Outplacement
So far, we’ve been talking about how global outplacement works, but haven’t really touched on why you should consider providing outplacement in the first place.
The benefits of offering outplacement to your staff members cannot be understated.
The biggest benefit is that your employees will be able to make an exit from your organization and land a new role elsewhere with a support system along with them every step of the way. This is one of the best things a company can do for their staff members who are going through one of the hardest business transitions in their lives.
Outplacement, in general, also allows companies to make tough business decisions. No one likes to hold a RIF or a layoff event, but they are facts of life in the business world. Outplacement helps smooth out the RIF process by helping those displaced workers move on.
Outplacement is also very similar to severance in that it protects the company that offers it. Severance, as you probably know, protects the company from legal action by having an employee sign a waiver in return for a payment.
Severance doesn’t, however, protect the social and brand damage that can come from reductions. Layoffs, no matter their reason, can have a negative impact on employer branding and many other socially-focused areas. If left unchecked, these forms of backlash can impede future hiring, decrease talent retention, cause a dip in morale, and many other things.
Outplacement helps to negate some of these things by showing employees that they will be taken care of if they were to ever be let go. It shows that organizations care about their staff members and also truly provides them a path forward during a stressful time.
Global outplacement providers help organizations make it easy to offer this level of support to anyone on their team regardless of their location.
The Wrap Up
In summary, choosing a global outplacement provider can seriously boost your company’s employer brand while also ensuring that your staff members – regardless of location – will be supported if they should ever be let go.
When shopping for global outplacement, make sure the providers you are considering make the process as easy as possible for your company and displaced workers. Also, you want to ensure that the company selected is using their own people to deliver global services and not a network of partner firms. For companies, this means one firm with one-click integration into HRIS systems and a high level of transparency. For workers, this means a network of dedicated, one-on-one coaches that can support them on their terms.
If you want more information on global outplacement or outplacement in general, you can read some more of our guides here. You can also see a demo of our outplacement here.
In need of outplacement assistance?
At Careerminds, we care about people first. That’s why we offer personalized talent management solutions for every level at lower costs, globally.