Evaluating Outplacement and Job Search Providers in Singapore

In the event that your company needs to retrench employees, you might consider providing them with outplacement support. Outplacement providers typically offer various career and job search services to help displaced employees find a new job. Different providers deliver the service in different ways and the prices charged can vary quite a bit. In this article we share the findings of a recent survey (Insala Outplacement Report 2010), which asked corporations who have used outplacement services, why they do so and what is important to them. This should help you picking a provider.

• The vast majority of executive respondents (93%) express that career transition services bring value to employees and organizations. 56% of respondents indicate that such services are “very important” and another 24% indicate that they are “important.” The majority of respondents thus view the existence of career transition services as a benchmark for healthy organisations with strong employer brands
• A small fraction of respondents (15%) indicate that they do not provide career transition services. When invited to explain why, executives reveal that they generally fall into 1 of 2 categories; either they believe that the service is too expensive (31%), or that their employees do not need it (44%). In explanation, one respondent indicates that their company is simply too small to necessitate service provision
• Executives who affirmed provision of career transition services were invited to explain further. 88% of respondents state that their organisations provide transition services for all employees and 6% provide them for executives only
• When asked which career transition services were most valuable to employees at their organisations, respondents chose “one-to-one coaching” (56%) and “networking groups” (44%) as the most valuable, while “office space” was the bottom service category with 9% of respondents. For non-executive employees group workshops and online self-service activities were also seen as important. Online services are seen as most effective and highly beneficial when used as a complement to hi-touch services. However, they seem to lose their efficacy as their usage moves beyond the scope of their limitations

Sources and references: Sandbox Advisor, Insala