How and When You Should Switch Outplacement Providers

Outplacement is a service that many companies buy once and never think about again. This is largely because outplacement is only used on an event-driven basis during layoffs or other reduction events. The rest of the time, it’s common to feel stuck in an outplacement contract with an outdated provider that hasn’t evolved with the modern world, charging retainer fees and other costly features that you don’t need.

This is why it’s important to regularly review your current contract and consider if you should switch outplacement providers. Staying with an outdated outplacement provider can cost your company more money than its worth, without providing your outgoing employees with the support they need in today’s ever-changing job market. This can be very detrimental for your outgoing staff, your company’s reputation, and your bottom line during an already strenuous reduction event.

In this article, we will discuss how to review your current outplacement firm and determine when you should switch outplacement providers, as well as how to go about finding the best new partner for your organization.

The world of outplacement has been changing drastically in recent years to align itself with the modern job hunt. Gone are the days of responding to classified ads or commuting to a central office to receive support from a coach who doesn’t fully understand the market. The internet has fundamentally changed the way job hunters land new roles. As the job market evolves, outplacement changes with it, and so should your outplacement provider. 

Given these industry advances, it’s essential to periodically evaluate your current outplacement provider to make sure they are utilizing the latest techniques and technology to provide your outgoing employees with more flexible, accessible, and personalized support. If they aren’t doing this, you should consider switching to a new outplacement provider who has a more modern, tech-driven approach. 

Of course, you don’t want to forget about the personal touch with one-on-one coaching and deep industry knowledge. So finding an outplacement provider who can offer both the high-touch and high-tech in a hybrid approach is the ideal scenario and can be very beneficial for your organization.

Also outdated are the concepts of term limits and retainer fees. Many old traditional outplacement firms still utilize these costly elements, but some modern providers like Careerminds have done away with them, putting more stock in their ability to support your outgoing employees for as long as needed until they are placed in new, fulfilling jobs. 

If an outplacement provider is not up to the task of finding new work for the modern job seeker, you’ll be left with unemployed workers who will continue costing your organization unemployment and other benefits for much longer. So switching outplacement providers could save your organization considerable cost as well. For example, companies who switch to Careerminds save an average of 20 percent on their outplacement costs. We offer a free downloadable pricing sheet to help you compare our outplacement costs with other providers. 

The point here is that outplacement services shouldn’t be forgotten once they’ve been purchased. Every few years, or at least every time you have a reduction event, it’s smart to evaluate your current outplacement provider to see if they are doing everything they can to get your impacted employees back to work without further financial hardship and undue stress from programs that don’t work.

To do this, make a list of questions you have about outplacement and your organizational needs, and then dig into your current provider for their answers. You will then also want to make a short list of top candidates to consider for switching outplacement providers and assess them with the same list of questions and criteria to get a fair comparison. Once you have objectively evaluated your current outplacement provider based on these questions, you may discover that they fall short of your outplacement needs. 

Many of our Careerminds clients come to us from other outplacement providers because they see all of the benefits of switching to our industry-leading services. Besides the lowest fees in the industry, these also include our comprehensive list of program services, our competitive 30:1 participant-to-coach ratio, and our superior responsiveness, professionalism, and results. If you’re interested in learning more, click below to download our comparison sheet and see how we stack up against your current outplacement provider.

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See how we compare to other outplacement providers.

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Now let’s look at what these questions and criteria for your outplacement provider evaluation should consist of. When looking into new options to switch outplacement providers, it’s important to look for those more modern approaches, features, and terms we touched on earlier. 

Expanding on that, here is the list of essential criteria your ideal outplacement provider should be able to offer:

1. Fully transparent reporting
2. No retainer fees
3. No term limits
4. Support until placement
5. Modern tech-driven approach
6. Global virtual outplacement support
7. Expert coaching staff
8. Knowledge of today’s job market

We’ll break down these ideal outplacement attributes and features to illustrate why each is an essential part of the decision to switch outplacement providers.

Possibly the most important criteria you should look for in your outplacement provider is their transparency of data and reporting, so you can actually see the return on your outplacement investment. 

According to Andrew Piddington, Careerminds SVP of Key Global Accounts, “A lot of companies don’t seem to have a clear line of sight into data and their ROI. They’ll have an outplacement provider that doesn’t share data with them really. And largely the reason for that is, quite candidly, that they don’t want anyone to see the data because it’s not good. So we are very proactive with data. And we’re very proud of our results.”

At Careerminds, our innovative virtual portal provides clients with 24/7 access to clear outplacement data, key performance indicators (KPIs), and metrics on their outplacement services, such as participant engagement rate, successful placement rate, and satisfaction rate of your participating employees. 

To this day, many traditional firms still charge retainer fees. These fees can add significant unnecessary cost if you don’t use your outplacement provider all of the time, which you probably aren’t. Outplacement as a service is largely dependent on a layoff or reduction in force (RIF) event, which means that you will only use them when you truly need them. 

Unlike lawyers, who also typically charge a retainer, outplacement services are not utilized in everyday business matters. Despite this fact, retainer fees are still charged by many outplacement providers. This essentially means you are paying for the luxury of not using their service. Then, when you need to use it, you have to pay again. This doesn’t make any sense.

Modern outplacement providers, who are able to operate more flexibly and cost-effectively online, will not charge you this excessive and outdated retainer fee. Here at Careerminds, we believe that outplacement is an important service all organizations should utilize and retainer fees shouldn’t get in the way of that. We do not charge retainer fees and only require payment when your employees actually need our help. 

In fact, we are able to offer lower outplacement fees in general due to our more cost-efficient model that was designed from the ground up to be virtual, accessible, and global-reaching, as well as our impressive 95 percent placement rate that has proven to find new, fulfilling jobs for participants in an average of two months.

The same is true when it comes to term limits. Most outplacement providers still use term limits, meaning that if your outgoing employee doesn’t land a new job in a specified amount of time, they are cut loose from the program and left to go it alone. 

Typically, these term limits last from a few weeks to a few months. Though, no matter the length offered, this overall concept creates unnecessary restrictions and risk for you and your impacted employees, adding more stress and potential costs for everyone involved in the outplacement process. It also shows the provider’s uncertainty that they will be able to place your employee if the going gets tough. 

Why pay for a service that has no guarantee, especially one that is so personally important to your staff member? Everyone has different needs and setting a time limit for the service greatly reduces the chances of an individual finding a new job. 

Careerminds is currently the only firm that doesn’t set term limits on outplacement services. Instead, we offer our outplacement support “until placement.” Let’s explore a bit more of what that means.

This is another crucial element of outplacement support that is very rare among providers. The alternative to setting term limits is to offer outplacement support “until placement” or until outgoing employees have been placed in a new, meaningful role. 

At Careerminds, our dedicated team works with outgoing employees to provide them outplacement assistance until they are placed in a new job. This means that if a participant doesn’t find work in three months–the typical term limit offered by other firms–we will continue to work with them, even if it takes a year or more. We know that our services work and are willing to put our money where our mouth is.

Of course, it usually doesn’t take that long. Our Careerminds outplacement participants find new job placement in an average of 11.5 weeks. But the important thing is that we will continue to offer outplacement support for longer than that if needed, as long as it takes.

Today’s job market requires having an online presence and understanding more advanced technology. Job seekers need to navigate applicant tracking systems, and find opportunities across various online job boards and networking websites. They are also often struggling to make ends meet while looking for new work, making it difficult to schedule and travel to in-person coaching sessions.

Modern outplacement providers can help with this and more by combining personalized coaching with online platforms that allow job seekers to land new, fulfilling roles without the added stress of commuting to in-person meetings with whatever coach happens to be at the office that day. This tech-driven accessibility and flexibility provides participants with the support they need to find new work on their schedule.

Careerminds’ modern outplacement services feature a robust online portal that offers a variety of tech-driven support and resources for participants, including virtual one-on-one career coaching sessions via video conferencing tools like Zoom or Microsoft Teams, webinars and other e-learning, virtual job fairs and live job feed, personal assessments, and powerful AI assistance with interviewing, resume writing, job searching, and matching.

In the same vein, this more modern, virtual approach should also allow participants to access their outplacement support in any location, market, and country where they are located. This is especially important for participants who don’t have the freedom to travel to a physical office location for in-person coaching sessions. 

A global online outplacement platform allows participants to meet with their coaches virtually, wherever and whenever they need. Of course, it’s always nice to offer the option for in-person coaching at a brick-and-mortar location if the participant so chooses, but it should not be required. 

This is why a balanced, hybrid approach of high-tech and high-touch, like the one we offer at Careerminds, is so essential for modern outplacement providers. Our Careerminds outplacement services are available in 100+ countries and 70+ languages around the globe, along with a robust online portal of resources and a vast network of expert coaches who provide localized, personalized support for every participant.

This brings us to the next key element for any modern outplacement provider: employing expert career coaches who are highly qualified to support participants through the program from start to finish.

Careerminds is committed to hiring, training, and developing only the best outplacement coaches to deliver services for transitioning employees and clients. We employ over 1,000 Careerminds career coaches around the world, with an average tenure of 20+ years, many of whom are also Fortune 500 alumni. We also require extensive ongoing training with our coaches as part of our commitment to remaining ahead of recruiting and job search trends.

For example, here are a few of the minimum Career Coach Qualifications for all of our Careerminds coaches:

• Bachelor’s degree in human resources, psychology, or any other related field
• Minimum 20+ years of career development, executive coaching, or leadership development experience
• Minimum of five years working at the executive level
• Three years experience as a mentor and coach to other career coaches
• Certification in at least one personality assessment (DiSC, Myers Briggs, Birkman)
• Executive resume writing experience and ability to provide effective, productive feedback and editing services to clients throughout transition period
• Familiarity with various career transition strategies with keen ability to leverage social networking sites, such as LinkedIn (must have an active LinkedIn profile)
• Quick study on technology usage and strong desire to embrace technology as a means for service improvement
• Experience with boards of directors, private equity, and entrepreneurship
• Passion for delivering service that exceeds candidate and client expectations
• Exceptional communication skills, particularly verbal and written
• Extensive experience supporting executives including CEOs, COOs, CFOs, and all executive functions, and across industries including aerospace and defense

To be a truly effective partner for your organization, your outplacement provider needs to be a thought leader in the HR space and expert in the modern job market for your industry. This means keeping up with the latest trends, providing your employees with access to industry experts, and advising your organization on how to navigate any potential transition challenges.

At Careerminds, we strive to be a true strategic partner with our clients. As the job market changes, we continue to change along with it to stay on the cutting-edge of technology and trends, maintain flexibility and transparency, and assure our clients that their employees are in good hands. If you look for outplacement firms with these qualities, you’ll be well on your way to finding the best possible outplacement partner for your organization.

It is easier than you think to switch outplacement providers, and equally important to regularly evaluate your current provider to see if a switch would benefit you. Modern outplacement providers should continue to evolve with the advancing job market and industry landscape, and stay up-to-date on the latest technology and trends to best support your employees. 

If your current provider does not exemplify these qualities, it might be time to switch outplacement provider. This can be as simple as signing a new contract. If you have a current contract, many times these do not keep you from canceling them. If your current contract is for a certain limit of time, make sure you check back and re-evaluate your current provider before resigning.

In your evaluation, remember to look for whether the outplacement provider requires retainer fees and term limits, or if they instead offer unlimited outplacement support until placement, like we do here at Careerminds. The best outplacement providers only charge when someone uses the program instead of charging retainer fees and other upfront costs. That way, you only pay what you need to pay and your staff are better off for it.

You also want to make sure they have a modern hybrid approach that blends high-tech virtual resources that are globally and flexibly accessible with high-touch personalized support and expert coaching staff who stay up-to-date on today’s job market trends and industry knowledge. Use these criteria to evaluate both your current outplacement provider and other top provider options you are considering. You can also effectively assess your outplacement provider options by requesting a demo of their platform and examples of their past case studies to see what they really offer.

Here at Careerminds, our industry-leading outplacement services offer incredible results for your outgoing employees with an 80 percent engagement rate, 95 percent placement rate, and whopping 99 percent satisfaction rate. If you are interested in learning more, and discovering why 100 percent of companies who switch to Careerminds stay with us, click below to speak with our experts and see if you should switch outplacement providers and work with us at Careerminds.

Rebecca Ahn

Rebecca is a writer, editor, and business consultant with over 10 years of experience launching, managing, and coaching small to midsize companies on their business, marketing, and HR operations. She is a passionate people advocate who believes in building strong people, teams, and companies with empowering culture, content, and communication that facilitates meaningful results at every level and touchpoint. In her spare time, Rebecca is an avid traveler and nomad who also enjoys writing about travel safety and savvy. Learn more on her LinkedIn page.