Measuring the Effectiveness of Outplacement

With a growing number of organisations opting to support their employees through redundancy with access to outplacement and career transition services, the need to measure the effectiveness of that support is increasingly front of mind. What does a positive experience look like for both the employee and the organisation, and how can a successful partnership with a provider be measured?

With some business leaders still resistant to the concept of investing in their employees once they’ve left the organisation, we’ve provided some guidance as to how you can measure the effectiveness of outplacement and how you can tell whether the commitment to support has been a worthwhile one in today’s market. Here are a few things to consider:

Employee engagement

The planning and communication phase of an outplacement project is vital. How well you and your team have scoped out the requirements and made your employees aware of how you’ll help them post-redundancy, is often the key to its success. The levels of take up and engagement of the services on offer will be a key indicator as to how well you’ve done on that basis and a good outplacement provider should be crucial to making that process work. By collaborating with HR and other internal stakeholders to ensure clear and effective project management, they should be able to provide timely and accurate reporting on engagement levels in terms of the appetite shown by your employees for that support by those who are eligible. If they’re reluctant to share the details relating to engagement, then something may have gone wrong up front.

How much support has been used?

The volume of the coaching and resources which your employees have made use of is one of the key indicators as to the effectiveness, value and flexibility of the support itself. Whilst every employee’s experience will differ and some will be inclined to utilise more help than others, a good outplacement provider should at least be able to provide some level of insight as to the average number of coaching hours that have been used or another pre-agreed metric to document usage levels. If they’re unable or unwilling to do so, then they may have something to hide.

Transition rates

The way that organisations identify and recruit talent in the modern job market, is increasingly sophisticated. Likewise, the steps that employees now have to take and the hurdles they have to overcome in order to be successful, can make the job search experience a highly demanding one in a marketplace flooded with applicants. Inevitably, the time it takes for an individual to make that next step can vary markedly. With all that said however, it should be reasonable to assume that for most employees, how quickly and easily they’ve been able to secure a new position, tends to be a good indicator as to how useful their outplacement support has been. The more transparent your outplacement provider can be in terms of providing you with sight on those timelines, the better.

Brand reputation management

Exceptional outplacement support can (and should) play an important role in protecting an organisation’s brand reputation during periods of change (and redundancy). Providing employees with access to Career Coaching in particular, can help to minimise the negative fallout that can arise from a difficult redundancy process and can also safeguard against an organisation’s ability to recruit new talent.

Getting your hands on qualitative data (testimonials and employee feedback) either directly from your employees or indirectly through your outplacement provider, should be the best indicator as to how well the process has been handled. With Glassdoor and Twitter providing easy platforms for employees to vent their feelings, a good outplacement partner can play a key role in minimising and addressing negativity and frustrations.  Ask your provider to collect as much feedback as they can throughout the employee journey and to share this with you in a timely manner.  

Value for money

Measuring the ROI from outplacement support can be difficult. Ultimately, how does an organisation truly measure the long term financial benefit of investing in a former employee? Whilst on a fundamental level, the cost savings associated with a reduced employee headcount can be measured against the overall investment in career transition services, an alternative indicator as to the value of providing external support, can potentially be seen in the impact it also has on those who are responsible for managing the process internally. Reducing the workload and burden on the business (and HR in particular), can be invaluable. A good outplacement provider should be able to take on the bulk of the ‘heavy-lifting’ on a project of this kind; the planning, communication and delivery of support, leaving employees feeling more secure and internal stakeholders more in control. Peace of mind is hard to put a price on.

Renovo are the UK’s leading specialist provider of award-winning outplacement and career transition support. If you have a need to support employees impacted by redundancy, then we’d be happy to see if we can help. Email us on: info@renovo.co.uk