Outplacement Services: What to Look For

Outplacement services are a great way to ensure that your employer brand doesn’t become tarnished during a reduction in force (RIF) or more temporary layoff events. And if there’s one thing the last two years have taught us about downsizing, many organizations fail to realize the importance of this step when it comes to the employee lifecycle.

But we get it. Layoffs and RIFs are incredibly stressful for everyone involved, even those retained.

There is a solution, though: next-gen outplacement, which has the power to soften the blow and ensure that your exiting employees are on a path toward their next step.

While most people-first organizations understand the need for outplacement in 2022, amassing proposals and sifting through all of the options can still be a challenge.

To that end, we’ve put together a brief guide that can help make your buying process as easy as possible by highlighting what aspects of outplacement service providers need to offer in today’s ever-changing landscape.

Outplacement Services: The Basics

The most crucial part of finding the right outplacement service provider for your organization is to ensure that they will need and exceed all of your goals. Remember, not all outplacement firms are created equal.

Everyone knows, for example, that outplacement can help:

• Your exiting employees take their next step
• Improve and retain your employer brand
• Protect internal morale during stressful times
• Reduce your risk of negative reviews on sites like Glassdoor

But HOW these providers make this happen is where the real concerns need to lie, including what the experience is like for you, the client.

Outplacement Services and Client Experience

If there’s one thing most outplacement providers lack is transparency. At Careerminds, we know that organizations want to see and track what happens to their ex-employees and ensure that our service does what we say it will do. So, instead of just sending a report, we’ve created the InMind Portal.

The InMind Portal’s top features include:

• Participant Management: Upload individual or multiple participants at a time
• Dashboard: Detailed status charts, success metrics, and participant survey responses
• Knowledge Center: Resources and FAQs at your fingertips

We also implement next-gen AI and machine learning technologies to improve the job search process to be more accessible than ever before. We’re also there every step of the way, providing unlimited coaching UNTIL someone lands (that means there are no term limits).

Support Behind the Scenes

One of the other things the best outplacement service providers offer is help with events behind the scenes. Again, we understand how difficult reductions can be and know that those carrying out the reductions are often overlooked in this conversation. So we created a solution.

These services are complementary to our primary services and include:

• Event Consulting. Receive the best practices for events, have your company communication reviewed, fine-tune your notifications, create logistical plans, and more with our expert guidance.
• Training. Receive RIF training for managers and others carrying out the event and then keep the training going by learning how to prepare for conversations with survivors—what we like to call Future Teams.
• Day-Of Notification Support. When it’s time for the event to unfold, we’re there with you. A virtual support coach will be available for impacted employees, and we even offer on-site support if the event is over 20 individuals at a single location.

Outplacement Services and Flexibility

Lastly, outplacement services must be flexible and agile. Every event is unique, and each group of participants has individual needs. From executive transitions to entry-level workers, you need an outplacement provider that can handle anything.

With unlimited coaching that ensures every career level has the time they need to succeed (most Careerminds participants land new roles in 11.5 weeks), an engagement-based structure that only charges if your employees use our program and the ability to service participants and clients anywhere they are (even dispersed, global teams), we’ve found the secret to outplacement: meeting you where you are and delivering guaranteed results.

Outplacement Services Key Takeaways

When it comes to outplacement, your service provider needs to go a step beyond what has been traditional outplacement services. They need to be agile enough to handle any event and have support and transparency to ensure that your event goes off without a hitch.

Josh Hrala

Josh is an HR journalist and ghostwriter who's been covering outplacement and offboarding for over six years. Before pivoting to the HR world, he was a science journalist whose work can be found in Popular Science, ScienceAlert, The Huffington Post, Cracked, Modern Notion, and more.