Getting Help with Redundancy Situations

Many businesses are having to face the prospect of making redundancies and whilst this is never a comfortable position to be in, there are things that can be put in place to support you during the transition.    Jo Thurman, Regional Director of Personal Career Management, explains how outplacement can help in this challenging situation.

 

2020 is not going to be a year any of us forget. We’re living through such fundamental changes to many aspects of our lives and the subsequent hit on the economy means, that despite the government schemes, businesses have been and will continue to be forced to make redundancies.

This will bring a surge of people onto the job market.  Some will be looking for work for the first time in many years and feeling unskilled and anxious about navigating the online job world and standing out in a crowded market.  Many will feel that they have little realistic hope of returning to the same field of work for some considerable period, if at all, and so may be having to think about changing career paths.

At a time of such personal uncertainty it’s natural for confidence to take a knock. Our experience shows though, that no matter what the job market there are always opportunities and those individuals who understand their options and can market themselves persuasively are more likely to be successful.

Since the first lockdown in March we have seen exactly that.  We have many examples of people being hired quickly into the same field, even gaining promotions; many where they have successfully transferred into a new sector capitalising on their transferrable skills, and some who are on a clear planned pathway to completely switch careers.

What is Outplacement? Should I ask for it as an employee?

Something that helped these individuals have clarity on what they wanted and move forward with confidence, was having access to Outplacement support. This is job search support funded by the organisation making the redundancies and provided by expert external suppliers.

Outplacement can take many forms and doesn’t need to be expensive to be effective.

It can include one or more personal sessions with a specialist career management coach. And if your coach has significant recruitment industry experience as well as a career management  coaching qualification, they will be able to help both with those bigger exploratory what next questions, and provide, really up to date practical advice on selling yourself in the current job market.  For groups of staff, a highly cost-effective Outplacement solution can be providing all those affected with access to a series of webinars either tailored and live or pre-recorded.

There are also inexpensive digital platforms such as our own, icareercoach™ that are excellent sources of support for larger groups or where budgets are limited.  It includes comprehensive content including:

  • Career psychometrics to help identify key skills, motivators and achievements
  • CV advice including a step by step interactive CV builder
  • An interview simulator to record and practice answers
  • Hundreds of videos and features on job search techniques and career development
  • Self-development modules including leadership skills, building confidence and handling difficult relationships at work
  • Careers questionnaires to help explore over 10,000 different career options and pathways

The content of your Outplacement programme should be tailored to your individual priorities and could include support on any of the following:

  • Managing uncertainty and building confidence
  • Reviewing your career journey to help decide on the next chapter
  • Understanding your work style, values and goals to help you identify realistic options
  • Selling yourself on your CV, LinkedIn, with recruiters and in interview
  • Job search planning – using your time well to find both advertised and unadvertised roles
  • Alternative ways of working, including self-employment or consulting

Outplacement – the benefits to the organisation

So, for the individual, getting expert Outplacement can make a real difference to moving on positively. But what about the organisation making the redundancies – what’s in it for them?

Often these redundancies are very much regretted losses resulting from the economic impact of Covid, rather than any planned strategic change in company direction and definitely little to do with an individual’s capability.  So even though company funds might be tight, outplacement is important to provide genuine help to those who are about to face the most competitive job market for decades. It protects the company’s brand and shows the company as a caring employer reducing anxiety and maintaining morale and engagement of the redundancy survivors who see their exiting colleagues well-treated.

My company can’t pay?

If your business is not able to fund Outplacement, the same services are all available for individuals to self-fund and they can even make significant savings by funding the support through a reduction in their final settlement saving them the VAT element and some tax for those in higher bands.

 

In addition, there are considerable free resources for skills and learning including from the Government, and organisations like Open University and FutureLearn.  Some members from local networking group, Buscomm have pulled together free resources to help including a series of Career Cast videos available on our Youtube channel.

Whilst undeniably tough to get notice of a redundancy, there is help available and for many, ultimately it can be the catalyst to a new and exciting adventure giving momentum to taking on new skills, including even setting out on self-employment.

 

Jo Thurman

Regional Director Personal Career Management

Jo has been with Personal Career Management for 8 years working with individuals and organisations on Outplacement job search support, Career Change and Executive Coaching.  She’d previously had more than 25 years’ experience running specialist independent recruitment businesses in London. Personal Career Management is a 17 year old independently owned business named best in class by our partners Guardian and Telegraph Jobs.