How to use an Outplacement Company

Ten tips for using an outplacement company when you’re made redundant

I have recently had chats with a few ex-colleagues who have spent 15 or more years in one organisation and now find themselves in the position of leaving the company they’ve spent a long time building their reputation and career in. Some have had the benefit of outplacement programmes, and others have only the benefit of friends and colleagues to rely on. The questions I get asked are remarkably similar and so I thought I’d share my pearls of wisdom on outplacement as a fellow Secondhalfer and also as someone else who thought they’d work for the same company until they retired.

Hopefully you’ll have a few months between that fateful day where you agree it’s time to move on and actually leaving, because there’s a lot to consider, but even if you don’t have long, don’t rush the process. As a Secondhalfer, your story matters and there are many moving parts to it.

I’ve shared a tool I developed with Kay here called the Identity Wheel, but as a one line summary unless you have no family, friends or others to consider then they are a key part of your decision making. You may fancy swapping your job where you travel three weeks in four, but others around you are used to that pattern and being around every evening takes time for everyone to adjust to. The strain is even harder the other way around where you suddenly start travelling, and so you need to be very aware that your decisions don’t exist in a vacuum.

So, my strong advice is to start with your own Identity Wheel and take a baseline of where you are at with your health, family, friends, money etc. This provides a set of lenses through which all of your decisions can be seen. If you don’t, you’ll almost certainly have an ‘uh-oh’ moment later in the process.

Once you do that, there are two key questions to consider above all else, which we’ll deal with first.

The first decision shapes everything. It’s almost so big that you can’t see it and it sometimes needs someone else to call it out for you, but will you stay in the same field? If you’re a long serving project…

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