Outplacement Process: Key Elements to Look For in Your Provider

When choosing the best outplacement provider, you need to understand exactly what you’re getting for your money. It’s crucial to understand the full scope of services and how they can support a smooth transition for employees during career changes. Outplacement offers invaluable guidance, helping individuals through job shifts while enabling companies to handle workforce transitions with care.

This article explores the key stages of the outplacement process, explaining what each step involves and why it matters. It also provides essential questions to ask when evaluating providers, helping HR teams to make confident decisions that align with their organization’s needs and ensure the best outcomes for transitioning employees.

First, let’s examine the stages of the typical outplacement process, based on your departing employees’ experience as participants of an outplacement program and the relationship between the service provider and your organization. Here, we’ll focus on the six main steps involved: needs assessment, resume writing, LinkedIn profile optimization, interview preparation, online resources, and reporting and visibility.

When departing employees begin working with their outplacement firm, the first step is a needs assessment – a collaborative meeting with their outplacement coach to explore their unique goals, skills, and preferred job roles. This assessment helps to identify areas of the job search that might need extra attention, setting the foundation for a more focused and effective job transition.

In the needs assessment phase, the career coach aims to understand the individual’s broader career aspirations, whether they wish to stay in their industry, explore new fields, pursue leadership roles, or simply relocate. This tailored approach ensures that the job search aligns not only with their financial needs but also with their aspirations for long-term fulfillment.

After the needs assessment, the outplacement coach works closely with the participant to ensure they have a fully updated resume. The primary goal in this step is to create a CV that quickly captures the attention of employers and leads to interview offers. Resume writing is a standard step in the outplacement process. Still, firms typically adopt various approaches: some demand multiple rounds of revisions, for example, while guiding participants along the process.

At Careerminds, we streamline this process by leveraging expert resume writers to either draft new resumes or enhance existing ones, ensuring alignment with the latest industry standards and job adverts. We also use specialized software to incorporate targeted keywords and optimize resumes for the Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) that employers use. This approach greatly improves the chances of our participants’ resumes being seen and securing interviews.

Similarly to resume improvement, LinkedIn profile optimization is central to modern outplacement services, as recruiters frequently search the social platform for candidates. As with ATS systems, LinkedIn relies on keywords to surface relevant profiles, making it key for participants to align their profiles with keywords tied to their desired roles and locations.

An effective outplacement program dedicates time to optimizing LinkedIn sections such as work history, education, and certifications. The often-overlooked summary is particularly valuable for allowing individuals to describe their skills and embed target keywords. Omitting this step could mean missed opportunities, especially for higher-level employees, since executive roles are often filled through direct sourcing and networking rather than job listings.

Writing a strong resume and optimizing a LinkedIn profile can create work opportunities, but interviews still are the decisive moment to secure a job offer. Without effective interview skills, participants risk facing repeated rejections, so it’s essential for an outplacement provider to offer the proper training and guidance from experienced career coaches.

An effective outplacement firm will provide extensive training, covering various interview formats and techniques, customized to each participant’s field and seniority level. This tailored approach ensures that individuals will be prepared to succeed in their search and find an ideal job.

As participants update their resumes and prepare for their interviews, they should also have access to eLearning software and materials to enhance their online job search skills. These resources, including seminars, webcasts, in-depth papers, and other materials, provide valuable insights and strategies for navigating the job market effectively.

With continuous access to online knowledge hubs, outplacement program participants can learn at their own pace and convenience, with guidance from their coach as needed. Offering these tools anytime, and from anywhere, makes the outplacement process more flexible and accessible, equipping individuals with the skills and confidence to secure a new position.

Modern outplacement firms must provide clear, detailed reports about their programs to clients, to keep everyone in the loop and showcase the value of their services. This practice is essential throughout the outplacement process but, more importantly, when participants secure new roles.

Careerminds delivers this level of visibility to its partners. Through our client platform, organizations can access real-time data on participant feedback, exit interviews, and overall program outcomes, offering meaningful insights into the program’s effectiveness and impact.

If your organization is seeking an outplacement provider, we suggest you look for six fundamental elements that any firm should include in its outplacement process: engagement, flexibility, personal approach, technology, proof points, and pricing. Let’s examine those elements in detail and consider the questions you should ask when assessing your options.

The wisest investment possible for your company and its departing employees is to seek a firm that boosts participant engagement. The best way to do it is to ensure their outplacement process is easy to navigate and understand. Some questions you can ask them:

• Do you proactively engage employees, both initially and on an ongoing basis, and how?
• How intuitive Is your overall outplacement process? Can you give examples?
• How easily will an employee know what to do and when?
• Do participants have access to guides through the outplacement process?

When searching for an outplacement provider, ensure they’ll be flexible enough to meet your needs. Your partner should be able to adapt and improve their approach according to your succession and workforce plan. Some questions you can ask them:

• Can you effectively meet our demands through the entire process?
• How flexible is the duration and timing of your services?
• Do you have any foregoing term limits?
• Do you provide unlimited support until placement?

In today’s job market, technology is vital to drive total efficiency and generate results. Partnering with a firm focused on the most advanced technology for their outplacement process will be an asset to your employees and the company. Some questions you can ask them:

• How do you leverage technology to support your services?
• How does your tech stack help accelerate a participant’s transition?
• Do you leverage modern technology, such as gamification and social media?
• How much do you spend on R&D?
• How frequently do you enhance and update your technology?

Leveraging virtual tools is always a good idea – as long as your outplacement partners maintain a personal touch in their career transition program. Successful providers have a people-first approach throughout their outplacement process, ensuring their offerings always have room for personal attention and customization. Some questions you can ask them:

• How would you describe the human element in your services?
• How often do your staff and collaborators communicate with participants?
• How does your use of technology help personalize your approach?
• Are your services personalized to each participant?

When considering a provider, look for verifiable data that proves their system works. Outplacement providers have different ways of doing that, with metrics, client testimonials, success stories, or all combined. Some questions you can ask them:

• What kinds of metrics do you supply to clients?
• How do you measure satisfaction and program success?
• What do your clients – current and former – say about your services?
• Do you have case studies and success stories to share?

As the saying goes, the devil is in the details. Outplacement service costs vary widely, so make sure to partner with a provider who’s willing to understand your needs and goals and capable of working under a reasonable pricing model throughout the outplacement process. Some questions you can ask them:

• What is your pricing model?
• What services are included in the pricing?
• Do you charge any kind of retainer fee?
• Do you charge extra to provide services until placement?

The typical outplacement process follows specific basic steps regardless of the provider. For example, elements such as resume writing and interview preparation are commonplace in the industry. Also, most outplacement firms leverage online tools these days – although some will use more updated tools and have a more digital-first approach than others.

However, some elements can make a huge difference to the services you’ll sign up for. One is proof points: the investment in an outplacement program demands that you choose a firm with a proven record of excellence and success in past jobs. Similarly, picking a partner with a transparent pricing model that offers no unpleasant surprises (like retainer fees) will ultimately pay out.

Take Careerminds, for example. We offer a people-first, result-driven approach that aligns with the latest technology and guarantees full support to departing employees until placement—in other words, until they land their next job. Some data points prove our model’s success:

• 80% participant engagement rate
• 99% participant satisfaction rate
• 95% placement rate

Are you interested? Contact one of our experts today to learn more about Careerminds!

Rafael Spuldar

Rafael is a content writer, editor, and strategist with over 20 years of experience working with digital media, marketing agencies, and Tech companies. He started his career as a journalist: his past jobs included some of the world's most renowned media organizations, such as the BBC and Thomson Reuters. After shifting into content marketing, he specialized in B2B content, mainly in the Tech and SaaS industries. In this field, Rafael could leverage his previously acquired skills (as an interviewer, fact-checker, and copy editor) to create compelling, valuable, and performing content pieces for various companies. Rafael is into cinema, music, literature, food, wine, and sports (mainly soccer, tennis, and NBA).