PHILADELPHIA, April 22, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Data collected by global outplacement firm Careerminds backs up similar findings from a recent report by Harvard Business Review that details why a holistic, contemporary approach to outplacement and offboarding is necessary to retain and improve brand during reductions and exits.
The report, Turn Departing Employees into Loyal Alumni by Alison M. Dachner and Erin E. Makarius, explains that proper, well-planned offboarding is no longer a mere compliance issue – it's an important step in the employee experience for companies that value their future brand and culture.
"The lack of attention to the exit process is a mistake. Even before the pandemic caused millions of job losses, the labor market was in a state of growing flux," they write.
"Average job tenure in the United States has shrunk to about 4.1 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and employee turnover is on the rise. It's time for organizations to think more carefully about offboarding."
Careerminds has been helping organizations with these exact areas for over a decade now by providing contemporary outplacement services that not only help displaced workers land new, meaningful roles outside of organizations, but also reduce survivor sickness, retain key talent, and help protect employer brands well into the future.
The Power of Alumni Networks
One of the biggest trends Careerminds has seen, which is backed up in the article by HBR, is boomerang employees, or employees that exit a company and then rejoin them in the future.
Talent, in other words, is circulating. To that end, companies that notice this trend and do something about it have better-performing brands overall. This is where alumni networks come into play.
Alumni networks are groups of ex-employees who remain in touch with each other and the company that they used to work for. This creates a specific talent pool that companies can draw from that is full of people already acquainted with the company.
"According to the report from PeoplePath and Cornell, companies with formal alumni programs are perceived more favorably by employees than other firms are; their Glassdoor ratings average 16% higher," HBR reports.
"Yet most firms seem to be missing out on this opportunity to bolster their brand."
In order for companies to take advantage of these networks, they need to ensure that their offboarding process increases or retains a positive outlook in a departing employee's mind even if their exit is involuntary due to a RIF or layoff.
The Impact of Holistic Outplacement on the Offboarding Process
So how are companies supposed to pull off the delicate act of offboarding staff while maintaining their brands and culture? Holistic, contemporary outplacement.
Careerminds has found that using contemporary outplacement services can help reduce the stress of talent transitions on both sides of the table – HR and the departing worker. Unlike outplacement services in the past, modern outplacement works with HR to prepare and plan the event by coaching managers and HR leaders through the process.
Once the RIF has taken place, holistic providers work with displaced staff immediately to help them land new, meaningful roles outside of the organization by pairing them with dedicated, one-on-one coaches, enrolling them into a next-gen outplacement platform, and working with them until they land a new role (no term limits).
By using this model, employers show how much they truly care about their staff even though they are departing. Careerminds has found that these services reduce survivor sickness, retain key talent, and protect overall employer brands well into the future.
Since this type of holistic offboarding helps smooth out the overall exiting process, it stands to reason that these employees leave with a higher opinion of the company, making them more likely to join alumni networks or boomerang back as an employee in the future, saving the company on talent costs and reducing the onboarding period for new hires.
HBR reports that companies who have and maintain their alumni networks score roughly 16 percent higher on Glassdoor than companies who do not. They also report that, despite these findings, only 15 percent of companies have 'formal' networks.
Even though the formal adoption of alumni networks by employers remains low, many employees take it upon themselves to make their own networks. HBR reports that a whopping 67 percent of companies studied had informal networks run by previous employees.
"LinkedIn hosts more than 118,000 corporate alumni groups, but most have no formal relationship with their "alma mater" firms," they write.
"The result is that many former colleagues connect in groups that are outside the control of the organization they once worked for."
The takeaway here is that employers should start their own alumni networks if they want to reap the potential benefits. If they do not, employees will likely seize the opportunity first and the company will lack control.
Not All Outplacement Is Made Equal
As mentioned above, contemporary outplacement is one of the most important services to include in a holistic approach to offboarding.
"Careerminds' holistic, contemporary approach to outplacement has enabled us to get workers placed in new roles nearly twice as fast as the national average even during the pandemic," said Careerminds' Founder and CEO, Raymond Lee.
"We're able to achieve this by combining people and technology to deliver an experience that not only helps displaced workers but also companies and departments that have had to make the reductions."
Lee recommends that companies look for providers who have a hybrid, contemporary model that utilizes dedicated, one-on-one coaches, no term limits, and next-gen technologies like AI and machine learning to quickly get displaced workers placed in a new, meaningful role. In fact, a previous study by Careerminds found that a bad outplacement experience is just as harmful as having no outplacement at all, further highlighting the need for people-first, strategic approaches.
In summary, by providing contemporary outplacement, companies showcase that they care about every step of the employee experience, including offboarding. While many companies focus efforts on recruiting, training, and retaining talent, those with the best brands cover even the often uncomfortable offboarding step, too.
ABOUT CAREERMINDS
Careerminds is a global contemporary outplacement provider that utilizes cutting-edge technology in multiple languages in over 50 countries around the world. Their personalized, one-on-one career coaching, allows them to deliver customized services to anyone, anywhere at a lower cost than other firms. http://www.careerminds.com
Media Contact
Aley Brown, Careerminds, +1 7852186623, abrown@careerminds.com
SOURCE Careerminds
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