Outplacement: What Is It Anyway?

Outplacement 2.0 is the cornerstone on which we’ve built our entire company. To us, it means a reimagining of traditional outplacement.

Unfortunately, outplacement and career transition services are two of the least discussed subjects in the talent management space today. Surprising, given that we’ve recently begun to emerge from a pretty dark economic tunnel.

So to define Outplacement 2.0, the kinds of services we provide here at Careerminds, we have to examine traditional outplacement. Traditional outplacement started with a noble goal, to put people back to work quickly after a layoff. The model on which many traditional outplacement companies are based used the most cutting edge tools of their day, including early learning systems, some online aspects and reaching out to participants based on their needs.

Sabrina Baker, a Next SHRM blogger and career counselor, writes about outplacement here:

Outplacement services are designed to aide individuals with structuring, executing and adjusting their job search efforts. The main areas outplacement services cover are goal creation, tool refinement, company research and networking/social media. Individuals working with an outplacement center works with a career counselor and has ongoing meetings for a period of weeks or even months.

Employers use outplacement for a multitude of reasons, the most common being to show employees that they care about their future, despite seemingly necessary layoffs or redundancies. And while there are lots of agencies that offer outplacement, the model changes very little from company to company.

Until recently.

Our company and a few other early entrants have flipped the model above on its head by taking the tools of today and applying them to the career transition sector. Best practices from e-learning have been incorporated into our Learning Management System for an increased registration and completion rate. Personal branding and social networking, lauded as the one true hope for today’s jobseeker, are integrated into both the curriculum and the training for career counselors. And because nearly everyone needs better communication skills and more efficient time management, we’ve built those into our system too; letting counselors and participants speak on their own time and at an accountable but manageable pace.

As you can see, there are a lot of differences between the way things used to be done and Outplacement 2.0. One of the most significant changes is that employers and participants can SEE the ROI of using the new model of Outplacement.

Outplacement is an investment in not only your own employees but in the dynamic workforce around you. A recent press release showed that Careerminds participants went back to work 28 weeks faster than their transitioning counterparts (as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Department).

Want to learn more about Outplacement 2.0 can save your employees valuable time and your organization valuable money? Sign up here for more information: https://careerminds.com/outplacement 

photo credit: kevin dooley via photopin cc