Recent economic conditions have forced many business owners/leaders to scale back operations and/or restructure their workforce. This process often involves letting employees go. If poorly handled, this situation has negative impacts, diminishing brand reputation, resulting in litigation, and/or weakening the morale of remaining employees. Post-employment services may be of assistance.
What are Post-Employment Services?
Post-employment services are aids provided for a company when an employee leaves his/her position with the business (voluntarily or fired). These services assist in reducing negative impacts, including diminishing brand reputation, the possibility of litigation, and the weakened morale of remaining employees. Post-employment services may include career transition assistance and/or exit interviews.
- Career transition assistance, sometimes called outplacement, is a service given to a departing employee(s) to help smooth the transition to a new position or retirement. This service generally includes career counselling, cover letter and resume development, career search strategies, interview training, and networking assistance. The employer pays for these post-employment services.
- Exit interviews are undertaken when an employee leaves a company. Employees are encouraged to explain why they are leaving, what they value about their employment, and what changes may benefit the company. An exit interview gathers information about the workplace culture, management solutions, day-to-day processes, and employee morale. Feedback received identifies opportunities to improve employee engagement and retention. Exit interviews can effectively address an employee’s issues, reducing the possible need for an external investigation, bad publicity, and/or litigation. They foster a good working environment, encourage positive work relationships, and communicate gratitude to the employee.
Why Provide Post-Employment Services?
There are several common reasons for using post-employment services.
- Protect and/or enhance brand reputation: How you treat employees affects your company’s reputation and bottom line. If an exiting employee feels unfairly or harshly treated they’re likely to use social media platforms and/or employer review sites to let the world know their negative opinion. 91% of applicants for a job seek out one or more online/offline resources to evaluate an employer’s brand before applying for a position. 82% of consumers claim that how a company treats employees affects their purchasing decisions. It’s in a business’s best interests to use an exit interview to allow an employee to feel heard/valued and career transition services to enable the employee to have successful outcomes, thus reducing the likelihood of negative reviews.
- Reduce legal and financial risks: Terminating an employee can result in legal action against your company. Litigation is costly and time-consuming. The likelihood of a lawsuit is reduced when an employee feels supported, respected, and heard. An exit interview and career transition assistance help an employee deal with severance and reduce the occurrence of litigation.
- Maintain company clients: If outgoing employees feel disrespected and treated harshly, they may take clients with them. Supporting employees through the severance process with career transition services and an exit interview improves the relationship and reduces the likelihood of losing clients.
- Maintain employee relationships: Colleagues of an outgoing employee become aware of how the transition is handled. Outplacement services and an exit interview give remaining employees a sense of respect and security, promoting loyalty and gratitude to your company.
- Obtain constructive feedback: A departing employee will likely be forthcoming about their concerns/issues, allowing the employer to learn and the worker to leave feeling positive. A candid evaluation of your company’s culture and environment provides insight for future hiring, training, and onboarding. An exit interview gives insight into ways to improve retention.
People facing career transition experience uncertainty that can impact their financial, personal, and professional lives. Offering post-employment services benefits your company and departing employees. Consider hiring a company that provides post-employment services. They have the knowledge and experience to smooth the transition for you and the leaving employee.
Are you looking for post-employment services? Need help with exit interviews and providing career transition services? Contact Equation Staffing. We’re a dependable, innovative, collaborative, employment agency. We can speed up and smooth the process of employee departure.