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Reducing the pain of redundancy
Sunday, January 11, 2009 By Alex Meehan
Faced with the unpleasant task of letting staff go, Irish companies are turning to exit counselling and outplacement to soften the blow. Once purely the preserve of US-based multinationals, outplacement services are now offered b y many Irish recruitment consultancies, and indigenous companies are finding that assisting redundant staff to transition out of their current jobs can help to send a positive message about the company.

‘‘Outplacement services have been available in Ireland for quite a long time. There have always been redundancies, even in the good times, but it’s changing now,” said Paul Mullan, managing director of outplacement consultancy Measurability. ‘‘Traditionally, outplacement was provided by multinationals and large corporates, whereas now there is an increase in smaller SMEs and Irish companies offering this support to their staff.” According to Mullan, outplacement can help companies through difficult processes such as downsizing or redundancy initiatives. Services are aimed at both employer and employee.

‘‘From an organisational point of view, these services help with things like educating management on how to break the news to the individuals and to the public, and how to manage the whole process,” he said. ‘‘From the individual’s point of view, [outplacement] helps people to transition from being let go into finding a new job, training or education. That includes everything from support and counselling to help overcoming the shock of being let go - because individuals react differently to this - to helping them move on.”

Practical help

The outplacement process can help individuals to come to terms with the practicalities of searching for a new job, according to Roisin Hartley of Hartley People. ‘‘For a lot of people, particularly those who have been in the same job for a long time, things like CVs and interviews can be quite foreign,” said Hartley. ‘‘It’s not unheard of for people to be employed for very long periods of time, particularly in manufacturing environments. They may not even have done an interview to get into their current job and, since they got it, the job market has changed. ‘‘Many people will never have used the internet to search for a job and won’t be aware of how important that is now.” According to Hartley, demand for the outplacement services offered by her company has grown significantly in recent months, driven mostly by job cuts and company closures in the manufacturing sector.

‘‘In the last eight months, we’ve seen probably a 35 per cent increase in the demand we’re getting for this, and that’s without us ever advertising the service,” she said. The outplacement services offered by Hartley People range from basic three-day programmes to longer programmes of eight-to-ten consultations of two-to-three hours at a time.

‘‘The idea is that we refocus [the candidates] to put the past behind them, to accept what’s happened, move on and see where they can go from here. For a lot of people, it can be a matter of not knowing where to start,” said Hartley. ‘‘We put them into a comfortable environment where they get a mix of classroom training and one-to-one consultation to help them build a CV and job application that communicates the vast experience they have but might not know how to present.” Hartley also coaches on interview skills, personal presentation and professionalism. ‘‘We help people understand what employers are looking for and we give them access to statistics on what types of companies are hiring, and for what kind of jobs,” she said. ‘‘We take away the concept that an interview is a big ordeal and make them relax a bit and be confident. At the same time, it’s also important to be real with people, to not lead them down the garden path.”

Benefits of outplacement

For employers, the provision of an outplacement programme for staff who are made redundant is not merely a courtesy. Specialists in the field point out that there are benefits for the company involved. ‘‘There are some employers out there who genuinely care about their staff, particularly in smaller companies where there are closer relationships,” said Mullan. ‘‘They don’t want to see people stuck out of work. They know that there is a difficult employment market out there and they want to give people as much support and help as they can in moving on.”

Positive message

There are other equally valid reasons to invest in outplacement, according to Mullan. ‘‘It sends out a very positive message to a company’s customers and shareholders,” he said. ‘‘It says ‘we’re a company that cares and we’re not just tossing our staff away when it suits us’. It also sends out a positive message to remaining staff. ‘‘If a company has 10 per cent redundancies, then that means it’s retaining 90 per cent of its staff. Redundancies can damage morale. Being seen to employ outplacement services can help to bring productivity back up as soon as possible and help the company move on. ‘‘Also, when there are redundancies, the survivors can get edgy and start looking for pastures new for fear they might be next.

Outplacement services can reassure people and help reduce additional staff attrition.”

Outplacement also has a longer-term role for employers who will not always be operating in a tough recessionary climate, said Mullan. ‘‘When companies make redundancies, they do so in order to survive - and in fact most companies will survive the downturn,” he said. ‘‘A time will come when they’re going to be growing and recruiting staff again and initiatives like this can help in attracting future staff. From a public relations point of view, it can have positive effects on how your company is perceived.”

Beamish & Crawford

The outplacement issue hit the headlines recently when Cork brewery Beamish & Crawford announced plans to close operations in March, with the loss of 120 jobs. As part of the announcement that followed the company’s acquisition by Heineken, staff were told they would be offered outplacement support, including career counselling, job search training and pension advice. Forty employees will be retained by Heineken Ireland. ‘‘If you look at organisations like Beamish & Crawford, you have employees who have given long years of service - 20 or even 30 years - so it’s a gesture of goodwill that their employer will help them cope with change and to find a new job,” said Miriam Magner-Flynn, managing director, Career Decisions.

‘‘Obviously, the company is also likely to be concerned with its own reputation and brand and will want to minimise any damage to those. The people left behind are going to see how the people leaving the business are treated and if they’re treated well, it’s going to send a positive message. ‘‘We work with a lot of blue chip multinationals, and it’s often the case that these companies put career support in place for the people remaining as well as the people going, as it’s the people remaining that they are counting on to help them pull through,” said Magner-Flynn.

‘‘I would argue that, for the people remaining in a company that is letting people go, there could be real opportunities to move into roles that may need to be filled again in future. It can allow people to change direction within a company or make promotional paths open up for them. Probably not in the short term, but it may happen in future.”

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