Ten tips for using an outplacement service
By: John Davidson
Tags: Coaching, Life Lessons, Careers, Life, Career Advice

10 tips for using an outplacement company when you’re made redundant

Who’s controlling your life? The Science Museum — ©2017 John Davidson

I have recently had chats with a few ex-colleagues who have spent 15 or more years in one organisation and now find themselves in the position of leaving the company they’ve spent a long time building their reputation and career in. Some have had the benefit of outplacement programmes, and others have only the benefit of friends and colleagues to rely on. The questions I get asked are remarkably similar and so I thought I’d share my pearls of wisdom on outplacement as a fellow Secondhalfer and also as someone else who thought they’d work for the same company until they retired.

Hopefully you’ll have a few months between that fateful day where you agree it’s time to move on and actually leaving, because there’s a lot to consider, but even if you don’t have long, don’t rush the process. As a Secondhalfer, your story matters and there are many moving parts to it.

I’ve shared a tool I developed with Kay here called the Identity Wheel, but as a one line summary unless you have no family, friends or others to consider then they are a key part of your decision making. You may fancy swapping your job where you travel three weeks in four, but others around you are used to that pattern and being around every evening takes time for everyone to adjust to. The strain is even harder the other way around where you suddenly start travelling, and so you need to be very aware that your decisions don’t exist in a vacuum.

So, my strong advice is to start with your own Identity Wheel and take a baseline of where you are at with your health, family, friends, money etc. This provides a set of lenses through which all of your decisions can be seen. If you don’t, you’ll almost certainly have an ‘uh-oh’ moment later in the process.

Once you do that, there are two key questions to consider above all else, which we’ll deal with first.

Same field?

The first decision shapes everything. It’s almost so big that you can’t see it and it sometimes needs someone else to call it out for you, but will you stay in the same field? If you’re a long serving project manager, will you stay doing that? Keep teaching? Keep marketing? I know it sounds obvious, but many of the skills you have are transferable, and at your stage in life you may not have the same need for income that you had 10 years ago which presents an opportunity to retrain and do something completely different. Socially useful, but lower pay is great — but only if your family agree.

On my outplacement journey I met several people that were changing fields entirely — from project management to owning a street food stall for example. Just yesterday I was chatting to a training buddy at the gym and he was telling me about his dream of running a gym, and is even doing his level 3 diploma (slowly) — he’s currently a surveyor. My LinkedIn profile has today come up with one of my old finance directors in an energy company leaving to become the CEO of an online travel company.

The point is that there’s no rule that says that you must stay in the same field of work, but you need to make this decision first, as everything else you do will depend on this.

Employee, contractor, or business?

Your next big decision is one that will determine most of the rest of the process, particularly when working with an outplacement agency, as they will offer short courses and facilities that play to each of these decisions. If you use a bit of all of them you won’t really make the most of your time, so really think hard now.

Employee

If you’re reading this, then you’ve probably spent a long time as an employee and it’s quite natural and comforting to assume that this is what you’re going to do next. But really think about whether that’s the right thing for you. Here are some things to consider, some good and some not so good:

Being an employee means you never need to worry about where your next piece of work is coming from

When you’re an employee, you can move roles without having all the skills needed, as you’ve built trust in your ability to adapt

You will still be subject to restructures, moves etc and could find yourself back reading this article again before retiring — this time older, and less willing to go through the upheaval again

You will be competing with younger, talented people so to a certain extent you’re starting again

You will be competing with younger, talented people so to a certain extent you’re starting again (that’s deliberate, as this can be both a positive and a negative)

You may choose to move up (in which case you need to step up a gear from where you are now), stay at the same level (but be prepared for the expectations to be different) or one down a level (to give you some breathing space). Whatever you choose, strongly consider the pros and cons

You may need to adapt to very different working conditions — some will be better, some worse, some just different

You have a whole new world to explore and get involved in, which will be tiring but rewarding

Contractor

Being a contractor is fundamentally different to being an employee. You rarely see the outcome of your work, you never feel at home and you get excluded from lots of corporate events. Of course, this may appeal to you. You’ve learned what you’re going to learn and working 9–5 then going home might just be right for you. Some things to consider include:

Contracting is a lonely life after spending many years as an employee. You are excluded from most events that you just take for granted, so you need to adjust to that. However, your skills are current and valuable and sharing them with your client makes your social capital rise

Although the day rate as a contractor is attractive, don’t assume you’ll always be in work. Many contractors have come unstuck when assuming that their day rate should be multiplied by 5 then 52 to get their annual salary, but you need to take into account leave (5 or 6 weeks), training time, time between contracts and other time off you wish to have. It’s safe to assume that you might only work 40 weeks per year, so budget accordingly

If you have any health issues, or think you might then being a contractor puts all the risk on you

It sounds obvious but you’re responsible for finding your own work and ensuring that you develop your skills alongside you. There’s no corporate guardian angels there to give you ‘stretch assignments’ that develop new skills

Whoever is in government, the tax position of contractors will come under pressure, so don’t assume you’ll be swapping security for money

If you’re good, you may be asked to convert to staff. My company regularly does this, as we want to retain our talent and experience

You do however have complete freedom to choose your assignments!

Business

Setting up a business is easy. Keeping it running is not. I know, I’ve done it, with a score draw (one success, one not). Some things to bear in mind:

You have a choice between setting up a business where you are the primary earner and setting up one where you’re employing others. The latter is riskier but has more rewards — including the dream of ‘earning whilst you sleep’. That won’t happen on its own

You need to develop skills across the whole spectrum of running a business — sales, marketing, delivery, HR, accounting etc. That’s hard and you need to be prepared to work doing the weekday and do all the rest in the evenings and weekends. Your family needs to support you doing that too

It may be several years before you break even, so it’s not for the short term

You really need to have a good idea of why you want to run a business. If you’re curious, start by searching ‘Business Model Canvas’ and fill it in. It’s a great way to force you to think about all the elements of running a business without taking any of the risk. It has the added advantage that if you run out of inspiration you’ve saved yourself a lot of heartache and money

One positive thing is that starting a business later in life has a better success rate than starting earlier. That surprises me too, but read Range by David Epstein.

Once you have answered these two fundamental questions, you can go into your outplacement activities clear on your own direction, even if you don’t have a clue about the detail.

Most outplacement services will have sessions, materials and experts on each of these three categories and so by answering these questions first, you can make the most of your time.

For now, I’ll leave you with my tips for making most of whatever outplacement service you’re provided with (or choose to pay for).

Making the most of outplacement services — top 10 tips

Plan before you start and answer the first two questions ideally before your first meeting. That way, you can control the content and focus of the service. If you don’t you will use your budget just sampling lots of things and whilst that can be interesting, it won’t move you forward. Have a personal objective for each session you attend. Treat it like you’re personally paying and ensure that you go into the meeting, training session or webinar with clear objectives and outcomes in mind. Prepare before attending by reading around the topic. This will raise questions in your mind, which you can then ask in the session. Don’t worry about asking too many questions. Quite often you’re only asking what others are thinking anyway. Have realistic expectations on what you’re going to get. Outplacement services have great marketing but often don’t live up to it. You need to use them as useful secondary input into your new life plan, not as your saviour. Do the running yourself. If you find a ‘career coach’ useful, be proactive and make the appointments yourself. They have big caseloads to maximise gross margin, so the loudest voice in their caseload normally wins. Make sure that’s you! The sessions you’ll attend are quite high level and short on detail. It’s a bit like reading a novel vs watching the film. So set your expectations accordingly. Use it as a launchpad, ask questions and network but don’t expect an epiphany. You have control on what you use the service for so make the most of it, focusing on the areas you want to. It’s likely that you’ll be given ‘points’ to spend like a fairground prize stall, so use them wisely. You’re not the client. It’s hard to believe, but it’s true. Your company is the client and so the service is skewed towards giving the company a warm fuzzy feeling that they’ve helped you. So expect to be asked many times to rate the service. This is your opportunity to ensure that you squeeze all the value you can. You’re an individual, but the service is generic. So, ask lots of questions and use the face to face courses as networking sessions. If you don’t need it, don’t use it. Again, this sounds obvious but don’t spend your time using the service if it’s not adding value. If you’re clear on what you want to do next, then go and do it!

Finally, from this point on, cultivate your LinkedIn network. It’s still true that most work comes through your network and LinkedIn is the place to build it. Good luck!