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Career Transition, Outplacement and Mobility

Why the Value of Outplacement is Always Higher than Cash

Why the Value of Outplacement is Always Higher than Cash

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If your organization is debating between offering cash or career transition support to impacted employees, here are some important things you should know before making a final decision.

Cash or career transition? This could be one of the most important decisions your organization makes over the next 12 months.

Let’s face it, it’s going to be a tough year for many companies. Last year, a mix of resilience and government support programs helped a lot of employers stay afloat and in the process, kept many individuals on the payroll who might otherwise have been laid off.

Although it’s not clear when those supports will disappear, it looks more and more likely that even with COVID-19 vaccines being administered, new outbreaks and new variants of the virus will take a toll on the global economy and push employers ever close to reducing headcounts.

Those conditions will bring many organizations to the precipice of the question posed above: if your organization has to manage a downsizing, will you give them the opportunity to work with a career transition firm or offer them a cash payment and let them face joblessness on their own?

However, for mid-market companies to get full value from an investment in outplacement, there are some common mistakes that must be avoided.

We’re not talking about severance, which exists in addition to career transition support for many individuals in transition. This is a scenario where an employer offers a choice between career transition support or a cash payment instead of CT. In some instances, employers have stopped offering career transition and go straight to an additional cash payment, which means employees never get to find out the benefits of working with a CT firm.

Both options are the hallmarks of caring organizations that want to give their people the best possible chances of finding another job. But increasingly, we’re seeing that the two options are simply not created equal.

If your organization is weighing these two options, here are some important things you should know before making a final decision.

Career transition is a GPS for displaced individuals

Career transition has always served as a trusted partner to help displaced individuals navigate the sometimes opaque paths to new and better jobs. That has never been truer than now. With so many people displaced by the pandemic and so many companies in flux, it is harder than ever to find the best job openings and develop the strategies to land them. Like a GPS, career transition can help your displaced individuals plot the quickest route from their old job to a new and possibly better job.

Finding a new job is a skill unto itself

Although some people are naturals when it comes to searching for a new job, for others, it is a strange and awkward experience. Some of the people being displaced right now may not have had to apply for a job in years. Career transition not only supports the development of basic job-search skills, but it is also a master class in strategies to help displaced individuals cut through the clutter of online job boards and get to the front of the line for the best available jobs. Finding a new job today is a huge task; a proactive career transition firm can help individuals connect to job openings, many of which never make it to the online job boards. In this very difficult and complex job market, CT is the right tool for the job.

Speed is of the essence

Career transition is the quickest path to a new job. It has long been known in the career transition industry that the longer someone is out of work, the harder it gets to find that next new and better job. Career transition consistently helps its candidates get jobs faster – up to 65 percent faster than those who try to find a new job on their own.

Career transition is a gateway to a broad range of career development strategies

There was a time when Career transition was focused on learning resumé writing and interviewing techniques. Now, however, that simple and traditional approach is gone. Career transition is now shorthand for reskilling, upskilling, and redeployment opportunities. Laid-off individuals are given an opportunity to re-imagine their careers, and career transition helps them identify the best strategies to realize their career dreams.

Cash does not protect the employer brand as much as career transition

One of the reasons why an employer offers support to displaced individuals is to protect their brand as a top employer. If you treat your people badly in a downsizing, it can prompt top talent to leave your organization and may make it harder to recruit top talent in the future. Research shows that best-in-class companies are 2.5 times more likely to use career transition. They know the warm feeling that comes with a cash payment fades quickly once displaced individuals realize the job of finding their next job is much bigger and more complex than first thought.

The lure of the cash payment will no doubt endure, particularly in a labor market where so many organizations are under pressure to cut costs and reduce headcounts. But if the goal of a cash payment is to truly help a displaced worker land on their feet at a job that is as good or better than the one they just lost, then the choice is pretty clear.

Career transition is a win-win for both organization and individual. And right now, as we continue to chart an uncertain path into the future, everyone could use a little win-win.

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