'Outplacement Ensures Organizations Achieve Positive Outcomes After Layoff Impact'
Outplacement services are gaining a lot of traction with the $160 billion laying off more than 50,000 employees during 2017. The process of laying off people needs to be handled properly with sensitivity opening a huge opportunity for outplacement providers.
In an interview with BW Businessworld, Joel Paul, Director of Operations, India– RiseSmart talks about the opportunites for outplacement services, getting back to employment after layoff and the role of technology.
How outplacement services are gaining traction with the job losses in the Indian tech space?
We have customers in a number of industries, and the technology industry currently represents 23 percent of our business. We have seen that there have been redundancies in this industry, and also an increased interest among these companies to offer outplacement as a way to maintain a more empathetic and supportive exit process and a positive employer brand.
What is the future of outplacement services and how important is India as a marketplace?
Outplacement services have been a reality in the U.S. for more than 70 years and used by global companies with India operations for years. However, it is a somewhat newer concept for Indian companies, but growing in popularity as these organisations are starting to feel some of the challenges associated with unexpected redundancies that have been true in the rest of the world for some time. RiseSmart has had offices in Pune since the company’s founding in 2007. Today, the RiseSmart India team has expanded from a technology and operations center to providing RiseSmart’s contemporary outplacement solutions to Indian corporations from a local office.
Our expansion in the area is testimony to the viability of the market for outplacement and the growing need for our services.
How difficult is it for the employees to get back to employment after layoff?
It can be quite difficult for employees to get back to employment on their own after a layoff and many people need help through those difficult days just after an impact. It’s tough to get started writing a resume, looking through job postings, and creating a positive attitude when you feel discouraged and anxious. That’s why the first step of our outplacement programs begins with the employee talking to a career coach. Having someone who is trained to listen is often the most important part of getting back to work quickly for those who have been laid off.
How useful are outplacement services in helping the people find employment? Is the transition easy?
Transitioning to a new job, especially when you hadn’t planned on leaving your current position is never easy. However, we make it easier with a contemporary touch and tech approach to getting people back to work.
We begin my matching every program participant with three experts:
Every participant receives 1:1 coaching from an experienced industry expert. Our career coaches have industry experience in HR, recruitment, and coaching and know what hiring managers are looking for. They use their expertise to provide the advice and guidance job seekers need to establish a professional image and a strategy that will help them get hired faster.
We don’t simply teach people how to write a resume, or provide a template for them to write one themselves. Our professional branding experts write the resumes and digital profiles for our program participants. We provide the materials within a week of beginning our program, so each person can get started applying for jobs right away.
A personal job concierge is assigned to every one of our participants. This person not only sources jobs, but matches open positions to the job seeker’s ability, experience, and personal preferences. Our job lead sourcing has shown to shorten the time from exit to a new beginning because job seekers don’t have to spend hours sorting through jobs. Instead, they can spend their time working with their career coaches and networking.
The average time to land for our participants in India is 87 days and 73 percent of our participants land during program in typically 3 – 6 months. Our success rate for placing individuals into new jobs continues to grow and has risen significantly from 2016 to 2017.
How does the outplacement service function?
Layoffs are motivated by a need to create value for the organization, but they often create new problems that affect the company’s bottom line and brand reputation. Outplacement ensures that organizations, and their employees, achieve positive outcomes after an impact. By offering employees outplacement, companies can offer a more empathetic and supportive exit process, protect future talent acquisition, and protect the employer brand image.
How has the technology transformed the whole job search process?
Our service is designed as an integrated tech and touch model. RiseSmart has developed proprietary technology, Spotlight, to improve the job search process for our program participants. Our technology delivers relevant job opportunities through our SmartMatch™ engine – using semantic search that takes into account the job seeker’s intent and interests and ranks them by best fit. In addition, our Contact Discovery Engine facilitates networking for identifying professional connections within the job seeker’s own networks and identifying additional professional contacts they should know.
Our participant platform also includes messaging tools to keep participants engaged with their coaches, organization tools to help them manage their search, a content library containing best practices and resources, as well as an array of personal brand building tools.
