Outplacement in 2025: What’s Changed, What Hasn’t & What Matters Next

Outplacement has always been about helping people land on their feet after layoffs—but how companies approach it has shifted dramatically. It used to be a quiet, often modest gesture: a resume workshop, a job search tip sheet, maybe a few weeks of career coaching for senior leaders. While well-intentioned, these efforts were often reactive and inconsistent.

In 2025, the context is entirely different. Economic uncertainty is constant, the scrutiny on employer brands is sharper than ever, and employees—either leaving or staying—expect companies to manage transitions with empathy and foresight. Career transition support is increasingly seen less as a perk and more as a business strategy that protects brand equity, supports retention, strengthens rehire potential, and keeps productivity steady during turbulent times.

In this article, we’ll explore our recent Careerminds 2025 report Improving Career Transition Support, to better understand the current landscape in outplacement support. We’ll leverage relevant stats and valuable findings from our research to shed light on this shift from nice-to-have to the new normal.

For a long time, the main reason for investing in outplacement was to avoid bad press or legal issues. The thinking was: help departing employees a little, protect the company’s image a lot. Those motivations haven’t disappeared, but they’re no longer the whole story.

Today, however, leaders see measurable business value in doing more—and doing it better. Among surveyed organizations in our 2025 report on Improving Career Transition Support, 82% now include career transition support in severance packages, and only 12% offer it as optional.

Those stats are a far cry from the “do just enough to get through the layoff” mentality of the past. Outplacement is now tied to retention, culture, and even recruitment. A well-managed transition program signals to current employees that the organization values people, even in difficult moments—and there could lie the difference between keeping and losing top performers.

Curious to see the full report? Click below to download our 2025 report Improving Career Transition Support, with data and insights to confidently guide your workforce management strategy.

Traditional HR teams used to run outplacement programs in-house. This decision was about keeping costs low and the process close. The problem is that the demands on HR have since multiplied, and the scope of what makes outplacement effective has expanded.

Now, more organizations are partnering with external providers who can deliver specialized, scalable support. According to our report, three out of five companies plan to increase their use of outsourced career support partners. 

In addition to the reasons listed above, outsourced providers tend to offer a richer menu of services, including personalized career coaching, LinkedIn and resume optimization, financial advice, training, networking, job introductions, and interview prep—which many internal teams can’t match in terms of scale or speed.

What used to pass as a generous outplacement program a decade ago wouldn’t even meet today’s expectations. In 2025, most organizations recognize that one-size-fits-all approaches are ineffective, and “comprehensive” means covering more than just job search basics.

Our report data shows that 73% of organizations now provide four to five types of support, with larger employers (63%) often offering five or more services. 

The most common transition support services include:

• Career coaching (69%): Ongoing, personalized guidance that adapts to each participant’s career goals.
• Job search support (64%): Resources, introductions, and targeted search strategies.
• Resume and profile optimization: Positioning candidates effectively in an AI-driven recruitment environment.
• Training and reskilling: Preparing people for new roles, sometimes in entirely new industries.
• Financial advisory services: Helping employees navigate income changes and plan for the future.

This broader scope reflects a deeper understanding of what employees need to transition successfully: immediate tools, long-term skills, and confidence in their next step.

Even with all of these changes, certain fundamentals about outplacement remain unchanged. Layoffs are still a fact of corporate life, and mishandled exits still damage brand reputation, weaken trust, and make future recruitment harder.

While technology has streamlined program delivery, human connection is still the cornerstone. Participants consistently rate one-on-one coaching as the most valuable part of the process. No matter how advanced the platform, a supportive, skilled coach helps people navigate uncertainty with confidence—and that’s something no algorithm can replace.

Not long ago, an outplacement program could be considered “good” simply because it existed. If a departing employee received a resume review or a short seminar on job searching, the box was checked. However, workforce expectations and organizational priorities have matured since then, and the bar has risen.

Today, high-performing programs are easy to recognize as they share several defining traits:

• Broad eligibility: Outplacement is included in severance for most, if not all, impacted employees.
• Comprehensive scope: Four to five integrated services are standard, addressing both immediate job searches and long-term career adaptability.
• Expert delivery: Outsourced specialists provide depth, scale, and quality beyond what most internal teams can deliver.
• Measurable outcomes: Faster reemployment times, higher rehire rates, better satisfaction scores, and stronger brand metrics are tracked and reported.

Strategic oversight: These programs aren’t isolated HR projects. They’re embedded in business strategy and supported at the executive level.

These are clear, measurable, bottom-line benefits. Falling short of these benchmarks not only puts a program behind the curve, but also risks tangible costs in lost talent, diminished trust, and weakened brand reputation.

Another striking shift in recent years is who’s talking about outplacement. For years, it lived quietly in the HR or procurement space, handled as a transactional necessity rather than a core part of business planning. That’s changed; career transition is now firmly on the C-suite agenda.

Why the heightened attention? Leaders have seen how the exit experience shapes the entire organization’s health. A well-managed layoff helps those departing, while also stabilizing survivor morale, protecting customer perception, and reducing the risk of costly legal disputes. In a competitive labor market, it also sends a message to future candidates: “We take care of our people, even when they leave.”

Executives are increasingly aware that a poorly handled layoff can undo years of brand-building. Conversely, a thoughtful, well-resourced outplacement strategy can reinforce company values, demonstrate leadership accountability, and foster alumni goodwill—increasing the chances that they return as valuable “boomerang” hires. 

Outplacement has become a brand, culture, and risk-management tool that belongs squarely in leadership discussions.

The evolution of outplacement has shifted HR’s role from administrator to strategist. In the past, managing layoffs often meant coordinating logistics, notifying employees, and handing out whatever limited support the company had arranged. Now, HR leaders are expected to design transition programs that are robust, measurable, and aligned with organizational goals.

This means acting as both a program architect and an internal advocate. HR must compile offerings that reflect the workforce diversity, from career coaching to reskilling, while also demonstrating the return on investment to the executive team. They need to know—and show—how outplacement influences retention, brand perception, and even future recruitment.

It also means building partnerships. For many, outsourcing delivers a modern, high-quality experience without overloading HR’s already heavy workload. But even with external partners, HR owns the strategic vision and ensures that the program reflects company culture and values.

The current state of career transition is a visible statement of how an organization values its people, a tool for protecting business performance during change, and a competitive advantage in the fight for talent. HR leaders who embrace that role, equipping themselves with the right data, partners, and internal champions, will set their organizations up for long-term resilience.

Outplacement in 2025 is about much more than helping someone update their resume. It protects your brand, supports your people, and strengthens your business for what comes next. Organizations that embrace this broader view and invest accordingly will not only weather workforce changes better but also emerge stronger on the other side.

Click here to download our 2025 report Improving Career Transition Support to see the full data, compare your program to industry benchmarks, and discover how leading companies are redefining career transition for the modern workforce. 

You can also click below to connect with our experts and learn more about how you can modernize your organization’s transition support with Careerminds’ results-driven, industry-leading outplacement services.