According to the latest ONS figures, the UK’s unemployment rate rose to 5% in the last quarter of 2020 – mostly driven by a record rise in redundancies as a result of the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic. For those directly affected, it feels grim and we’re seeing stress and anxiety levels soar. Now, more than ever, it’s essential that responsible businesses step-up and ensure their employees get the support they deserve.
How outplacement services benefit your employees – and your business
As a business leader, you don’t have to manage redundancies alone. There are lots of valid reasons for investing in an outplacement support partner as part of a wider programme:
- You will alleviate stress anxiety for those directly affected
- You’ll be supporting the people you have to let go in a practical, results-driven way… as well as reassuring your remaining employees
- You’ll be actively demonstrating your corporate social responsibility credentials
- You’ll be protecting your brand and reputation
- You will cool down the heat across your organisation.
Supporting employees at this pivotal time gives them something tangible to focus on. They’ll see immediate benefits, as well as having something of enduring value to take with them as they develop their future career. With the right outplacement partner, you’ll be helping employees:
- Move on faster and find a job sooner
- Understand today’s – often digital – job market, especially if they’ve not needed to search for a new role for many years
- Change direction or switch sectors
- Regain control with professional tailored support – at no cost to them
- Refresh their CV and LinkedIn profile to reflect their skills and achievements
- Prepare for their next interview and gain confidence in their abilities
- Learn new life skills – such as how to deal with stress and change, foster resilience and manage their mental health and wellbeing
- Feel supported, empowered and encouraged from the very beginning.
Not only does outplacement support help employees find new work with CV overhauls, job search strategies, interview training and practice, and tailored career coaching, it also instils useful behaviours and approaches that go on to benefit them as they transition to new roles and evolve their career.
You’ll be showing compassion during times of crisis and change. Giving your employees an opportunity to re-evaluate what drives them and making a difference to how they feel about redundancy/redeployment. You’ll also ensure they have professionals to turn to whenever they start to feel overwhelmed and their mental health is suffers.
What to look for when you’re considering an outplacement services provider:
- A trusted partner
- Expertise where it counts
- Experienced professionals who can offer proactive career transition support from shop floor to board room – and who can demonstrate experience across multiple sectors
- A safe pair of hands to relieve the pressure on you, as an organisation and on the people you support
- A company who can align with your business: one who takes the time to understand your priorities and concerns, and can adapt to these with flexible programmes, such as offering different ways of accessing services – group sessions, workshops, small meetings, video calls – can all be extremely valuable. Not everyone learns in the same way
- Support with mental health and wellbeing – being made redundant is one of life’s most stressful events.
At City CV, we offer all of this with outplacement services that flex to your needs.
Partner with us, and you can rely on us to take care of every element of the outplacement support programme – leaving you free to support your people and organisation on the ground.
This may be expert advice and guidance to help your people prepare a CV, or you may benefit from comprehensive career coaching, including strategies and job search support on a one-to-one or group basis. We can also ensure all your employees have access to a wellbeing support line.
Our Career Refinery is an intuitive portal and app that makes it easy and cost effective to educate, engage and empower employees about their choices. It contains a vast range of career development resources : from a digital CV builder tool to learning modules on everything from time management to building resilience and access to weekly career webinars with our CEO Victoria McLean, other City CV team members and expert guests.
“We employed City CV’s professional services to help support our colleagues who had selected voluntary redundancy. We wanted to provide them with assistance to find a future role and City CV provided an excellent service which provided a ready-made, fully coordinated programme delivered by a
career consultancy. Their knowledge and experience and the support they provided has made a huge difference to those that have used the service.”
Jane Howkins, Head of Talent and Resourcing, Moto Hospitality Ltd
Find out more about the outplacement support we offer to corporate clients.
Call us on 020 7100 6656 or email us.