Career Management Planning and Outplacement
by Michiel Van Kets
When meeting someone for the first time, one of the most frequent asked question is “what do you do’? Our work often gives us our sense of personal identity, providing us with self-respect and social status. Even though most of us say they don’t like their job, usually work is seen as a positive thing by others around us and if we didn’t have work to keep us busy us our lives would kind of lose a lot of its meaning. Good examples are the women and man that are a stay at home parents after they have worked their whole lives. They often say that they feel like they don’t belong to society any more. There are also people who see work as a feed of fulfillment in life, finding it a deeply rewarding experience and important for a successful society.
Years ago it was the norm to get a job at 18 or so and remain with the same company until retirement. Times have changed since then and with today’s technology and ever changing environment, this is no longer the case. Matching up jobs and people can be an extremely difficult task and in any work situation there are people who are misemployed whereby their jobs don’t make use of their talents and skills, and those who hold jobs they are no longer qualified to do due to reasons such as new technology. When an organization needs to restructure it has to deal with these people, either by finding them alternative positions within the company, retraining them to fit an existing position or make redundancies.
When it comes down to termination, redundancy, downsizing or outplacement, whatever you want to call it, it is extremely important that it is dealt with using tact, sensitivity and especially understanding. The effects, on such individual, of a job loss, will be of huge impact as all of a sudden life has to be looked at and planned without the habituate such as a regular pay-check, health insurance, company car, overtime and other benefits. Although the financial/material effects are a big factor to deal with, there are more important effects such as psychological factors to be taken into consideration, like stress, self confidence and the worry of their place in society. Companies also need to be concerned about the other employees not facing the same thing as they might feel guilty, fear for the foreseeable future and de-motivated.
With cut backs, redundancies and other economizing causes affecting both public and private areas, outplacement consulting has gone from being dealt with by the human resources department into a specialist profession. Career transition specialists work with organizations that are facing change either through closure, restructure or integration and help them decide on the best methods of dealing with their staff. There are a number of services available to the employees facing redundancy and also to the staff not affected by the redundancy as the change to the environment will affect everyone.
In order to keep up with competition and survive in the ruthless world we live in every company has to restructure at times. There are going to be decisions that some individuals will not like, but if you can make these people see that the company supports their staff through transition programs, it will reassure them and give a sense of security.
A career change can be scary and if you have had no choice or thought in the decision this can make it even harder. Sometimes though, we all need a little push to get us motivated in deciding on a new direction, a new job or a new career that will offer stimulation and challenge. If you do find yourself in this position then career management and outplacement consultants can maximize your chances of finding a suitable and exciting career, involving planning, preparing and even retraining and acquiring new skills.
If you are an organization or an individual, career management and outplacement specialists can offer an abundance of experience in a range of business environments to you. Experts in how to support a diverse variety of needs and they are the perfect specialists to consult if your organization is heading towards a change.
Michiel Van Kets provides articles for Diana Rickard, who is a Career Outplacement consultant
For more information, check out Career Management Planning and Outplacement.
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