Including outplacement as part of your employee value proposition (EVP) is a great way to highlight to future employees how well you look after your people, even during the most challenging times.
Employee value propositions
An employee value proposition is the unique set of benefits that employees receive in return for the skills, knowledge, experience and capabilities that they bring to the company.
It helps to define what is unique about your company, and differentiates your organisation from the competition.
An employee value proposition is based on your corporate culture and values. It shows how employees are valued and supports how the organisation goes about marketing itself as an employer to attract and retain the best employees.
Among the three most popular corporate values are:
- Teamwork
- Integrity
- Respect.
Behaviours that demonstrate these values include building great staff relationships, acting ethically even at a cost to the individual or organisation and treating employees fairly and with dignity.
Behaviours that demonstrate these values include building great staff relationships, acting ethically even at a cost to the individual or organisation and treating employees fairly and with dignity.
Events force redundancies
We work in an environment of constant change. For example, following the Coronavirus pandemic many organisations have had to make hard decisions regarding manpower planning and have been forced to make redundancies.
As a result many potential staff members may be feeling vulnerable and concerned this could happen to them again.
Obviously there are no guarantees in life. Many businesses need to make redundancies as business conditions and the political and technological environment changes.
However you can alleviate some of these concerns at the very start of a new employment relationship.
Why include outplacement as part of your Employee Value Proposition?
Protecting the company image and employer brand is also pivotal when HR move into recruitment mode. Supporting employees minimises the risk of disgruntled individuals airing their grievances, affecting organisational reputation and impacting future recruitment activity.
Outplacement services are a positive benefit that employers can offer employees when their roles are being made redundant. As part of your HR strategy, it can protect your EVP and promote it.
By being upfront and discussing your redundancy policy as part of the recruitment process you gain the opportunity to establish the employment relationship as an open, honest and realistic one.
Explain to a potential new hire that your organisation unfortunately may need to make redundancies in the future, depending on business conditions. However, if this was to happen happen, you offer a comprehensive outplacement program to help impacted people to transition to a new job.
Furthermore, outplacement provides more than just much needed support to departing employees.
Adopting this approach can demonstrate that the corporate values behind your EVP are backed up by corporate behaviours.
Outplacement can send a positive message to existing employees and the wider market. It differentiates your employment brand by providing evidence that your people really are your most important asset. It shows that your intention is to treat former employees with respect. In addition, demonstrating how you are a caring, responsible employer can also improve staff loyalty.