Outplacement as a way to solve the problem of staff reduction

Under the term outplacement are activities aimed at reducing staff while helping the laid-off employee find a new job. Sometimes this new workplace is linked to the existing company. This happens when an employee is allowed to set up a self-employment business in the form of a satellite company that provides services to its parent company. More and more often, moreover, it so happens that certain spheres of activity are moved outside the organizational structure of the company, which will allow the company to reduce its own costs. This applies to such spheres as, for example, employee catering, transportation, facility security. Financial or organizational and legal support is also provided to employees who will deal with such activities.

Outplacement, which has been successfully used for about 20 years in the United States, has recently become a way of solving the problems of personnel reduction in Poland as well. These activities, due to high costs, are most often applied selectively only to senior management. However, there are cases where outplacement is applied to all employees, not excluding laborers. However, such a wide range of conduct is always associated with a huge financial undertaking, which, as a result, few companies can afford. The company's profits from the use of outplacement, i.e. maintaining its current position in the market, must outweigh the costs of any activities associated with it. The process comprising outplacement includes such elements as:

• training and information on local labor markets. The company takes the responsibility to train employees on how to analyze the local labor market in which they will move. Training is concerned with developing skills for applying for a good job (methods of constructing resumes, cover letters, how to behave during interviews with a new potential employer), i.e. self-presentation. They can also include the abecadło of entrepreneurship, i.e. acquainting the willing with the principles and possibilities of starting their own business. In addition to programs for those laid off, companies usually prepare lectures or workshops for managers who remain with the company. At these, bosses learn how to inform subordinates that they will lose their jobs.
• assistance in retraining and acquiring skills to find a job. This involves acquiring knowledge, qualifications, skills, manual skills, etc., that will allow employees to apply for jobs other than those they worked at the company that is laying them off.
• legal assistance in concluding new employment contracts, and in registering self-employment.
• psychological assistance. The decision to part ways almost always causes employees severe stress. Psychological assistance helps to combat it, so that the whole process is as painless as possible. The employee is convinced of the necessity of such a solution, forced by the situation of the company, that this is not the end of his career, his strengths and untapped opportunities. Direct contact between the psychologist or consultant and the employee increases the chance of the employee reaching a state of equilibrium and encouraging him to be active. It should be mentioned here that the employee avoids, thanks to this assistance and these activities, the particularly stressful status of being unemployed.

Studies show that companies using outplacement have far fewer lawsuits related to layoffs. The employees themselves feel "taken care of" and have no claims. By deciding to outplacement a laid-off employee, we show that despite all the very difficult situation, we care about his fate and do not want to do him any harm. This boosts the morale of the organization's other employees. They can infer that if this were to happen to them someday, they can also count on similar help. All this together improves the employer's image.