The Benefits of Outplacement

If you are an employer who is faced with the unfortunate reality that in order to remain competitive and profitable you must lay off some of your workforce, you are probably struggling with how to ensure that the employees who are affected will get through the lay off and wondering how you can best ensure they are able to move forward quickly. While laying off employees is sometimes necessary, particularly in today's world, it is never easy. No employer wants to see hard working, valuable employees without a job or income to support themselves and their families. So what can you do? Severance is good, it allows the employee a bit of a cushion to get their bearings, continued health care benefits for a period is nice, who wants to be unemployed and worry that they can't afford health care? But what about giving the employee a resource that they can work with in order to be prepared and successful in their job search? Many employees have not been in the job market for years and have no idea how to navigate, how to create a resume that works in today's electronic driven world, how to interview, how to launch a successful job search strategy or even how to deal with the stress of being unemployed.

All of this and more is part of what Outsourcing provides. For a small fee per employee, an employer can engage an Outsourced firm such as Pinnacle Resource Partners www.pinnaclerp.com, to provide one-on-one support to the displaced employees. This support is invaluable as it provides the displaced employee with the tools and skills to quickly find a new job. For the employer, aside from the satisfaction of knowing that you have provided transitional support to these employees, you also increase your visibility as an employer of choice for your remaining employees as well as future employees, clients are happy to be working with such an employee centric partner, and you also save costs on unemployment and more importantly, reduce the chances for employment related litigation.

In the past, Outplacement involved a work center in many cases, where displaced employees would go to attend group workshops, use a cubicle, etc, basically it was a cookie cutter approach. Today, Outplacement has to be much more than that. It has to be individualized and focused in order to be effective. Most people have a home computer and don't need a center to go to, thereby eliminating the need for brick and mortar, which results in lower costs to you. Some Outplacement firms charge up to $5,000.00 per employee---this is completely unreasonable and not economically responsible. A good Outplacement provider should be flexible in their approach, be able to provide support virtually and be able to show you exactly what the employee will get.

Today, 72% of employers are utilizing some sort of Outplacement when laying off or downsizing--the benefits and values are absolutely worth it!