People
Issue No. 18 - August/September 2004
Goodbye or See You Later?
In the old days, when an employer wanted to let go of a staff member they handed them the proverbial pink slip. Maybe in the pay envelope just before Christmas.
They were tough times.
So the world became a much more human place when someone invented a way to help people who had been discharged, often through no fault of their own. It was dubbed ‘Outplacement’.
There were community based assistance programs for the socially disadvantaged but, those others who had held good jobs were perceived as "not disadvantaged". There was scant recognition that executives also had to face the sense of rejection and loss that losing your job can bring.
With nowhere to turn for help, they faced the future with uncertainty, stuck with outmoded and slow job-search practices and techniques.
Outplacement came along in 1960. The person who invented it was James Challenger of the Chicago firm of Challenger, Gray and Christmas. Jim Challenger‘s initiative was to offer a service that dealt with one of the most difficult tasks an employer must perform, in a way that was sensitive to the employee and employer alike.
It represented a revolution in human resources management. It replaced the passive job-search techniques where people relied on external sources to help to seek out a new job.
Best practice is not about helping an unwanted employee to prepare a resume and sit by the phone waiting for calls, with an overall aim of helping the employer shed guilt. Nowadays, best practice has to deliver real benefits to the organisation, and to the released individual, into the future.
Consider the case of the released manager who ‘doesn’t need help’ and who wants the cash value of the program instead.
Why shouldn‘t you just hand over the money? Think of this reply: "First, let me give you the organisational reason. Your employer is investing in your wellbeing and your future, to see you get your career re-started succes...
