Fear. Frustration. Anger. Grief. Guilt. Losing your job is a complex and often highly emotional process. For organizations, it can also be incredibly painful, causing disruption and impacting both morale and productivity. What’s more, job losses can cause huge damage to brand reputation – particularly if those exiting the business feel they have been treated unfairly. Their voices can quickly make an impact on social platforms, leaving businesses scrambling to recover goodwill.
At some point, every organization will oversee job losses and it’s vital to provide those exiting a business with appropriate dignity and support. Investing in your people, even as they are leaving your company, can help to reinforce a positive brand reputation, reduce the internal impact of organizational change, and enable you to continue to attract sought-after talent. For many, the key to delivering a great exit experience is a great outplacement service.
Let’s look at three important ways outplacement services can support brand reputation.
1. Boost external reputation
An outplacement service empowers an organization to offer dedicated support to the people leaving their business, providing a space for exiting employees to vent frustrations and plan their next steps with guidance from knowledgeable experts. This can have a positive impact not only on the individuals moving through the exit process but for the wider business. A strong, people-focused culture is an invaluable asset that has a significant impact on external brand and social reputation. Outsourcing is a win-win, providing structure and support for individuals during an uncertain time, while demonstrating the values and culture that underpin an organization’s wider brand.
2. Create brand advocates
Outgoing employees have access to a huge array of platforms to share their views – good and bad – from Glassdoor to LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social sites, not to mention conversations with family and friends. These act as company reviews, shaping external opinion and influencing potential future hires. A strong outplacement service can help to create a community of external ambassadors who are much more likely to shout about positive experiences than negative ones. Losing your job can be an intense, emotional experience, and by creating a structured process where people can come to terms with what’s happened and start to envision a path forward, businesses are much more likely to produce advocates than adversaries.
Attract great talent
Your employer brand matters. Your business needs access to great skills and talent to ensure you can meet your goals and – in a competitive hiring market – it’s vital that your organization is somewhere that talented people want to be. Reputation is a key component of candidate attraction and and investing in a comprehensive outplacement service can help to demonstrate that yours is a company that truly cares for people.
It’s important to remember that each organization and individual is unique, and that each outplacement service or experience needs to provide tailored and meaningful support. A poorly implemented or cookie-cutter style service can be worse than no service at all – particularly if an individual feels that a company is simply paying lip service to the process. This means that choosing the right outplacement partner is vital.
At The Ayers Group, we are dedicated to a high-touch approach that offers former employees the same courtesy and respect as they enjoyed when they came on board. Get in touch to find out more about our services.