Career Transition Research
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The document discusses the challenges and trends surrounding career transitions and outplacement services in India following the global recession, highlighting the stigma associated with job loss and the importance of confidence-building for impacted employees. A survey indicated that 85% of laid-off employees successfully transitioned, with networking playing a critical role in job placements. Additionally, it emphasizes that offering career transition services positively influences employer branding and employee engagement amidst a talent shortage.
Career Transition Research
- 1. CAREER MANAGEMENT 21 Research Highlights Career Transition and Outplacement in Difficult times: The India Story Testing Times Ahead As we cross the half year mark of 2013, it is plain that the recovery from the global recession continues at a steady but frustratingly slow pace. Unemployment remains high in many global labor markets, and job growth seems stalled as employers continue to navigate an uncertain economic environment. With a mandate to do more with less, organizations are under severe pressure to manage/reduce costs. While at one hand investments and job creation has dipped, employees are also laid off. Landing jobs is also taking longer since employers are now cautious about who to choose and where to place them. But more so, how are we able to retain the employer brand and values? About Right Management Survey Right Management is a pioneer and a leading firm offering career transition and outplacement services. We work across countries with organizations to support roughly 100,000 laid-off employees across the globe every year to deal with the change and transition successfully. Given the economic context in India, to better understand the impact of this solution, Right Management India conducted a survey (June 2013) among three unique groups 1. Business & HR leaders 2. Employees who were offered career transition and outplacement services referred to as “Impacted employees” 3. Career coaches who coach impacted employees. We also compared the findings for trends from the previous global survey conducted in 2010. Key Trends for 2013 #1 Stigma associated with job loss. The propensity of impacted employees to advocate the services to others is at only 57%. When probed, candidates respond that they do not want to be identified as employees who were laid off. The employees believe that being identified as laid off employees could hamper their employability despite layoffs being mostly due to organization / business needs and not performance reasons. Our experience also suggests that prospective employers are reluctant to evaluate laid off candidates. Whereas what we have learnt from our past assignments is that non performers are not offered Career Transition services, but are put on Performance Improvement Plans (PIP). #2 Confidence building is key. Companies invest a lot in hiring the best talent in an extremely competitive talent market. Hence being well prepared for interviews is important. The Career Transition program aims at ensuring the employee is well prepared. The survey says that there was a 3x increase in confidence levels of employees after they took up the service. This also indicates a significant loss of confidence on being impacted as most of the times the news comes as a shock to the individual. Fig. 1.1 Key Findings from Impacted Employees
- 2. 22 THE RIGHT QUARTERLY #3 Job landing. Since Job search support is a key need for the employees, we reviewed the findings on job landing statistics. The survey shows overall 85% of the impacted employees have transitioned successfully, of which 70% have landed a new job, 12% have been rehired by their employers, and 3% are self employed. In the balance, 5% have retired and 12 % are still in transition. Fig. 1.2 Career Development Model Ending Neutral Zone New Beginning Shock & Stress Feelings such as anger, frustration and confusion Ambiguity and discomfort Creating a vision Acting Optimism Risk-taking Influencing New Ideas Acceptance #4 Networking through social, personal and online channels is the mantra. The networking approach works in the India Job market. We firmly believe job landings will be faster with networking, and this is a priority coaching area for us in the Career Transition Programs offered. This was confirmed as well from the survey, where it was observed that 43% of the employees landed jobs from networking (39% from traditional networking, 4% from online networking) and 18% from directly approaching companies. Also only 31% got jobs from traditional sources (agency recruiting firms (13%), internet based job boards (18%)). 8% of the employees secured a job from referrals and none (0%) from newspapers and periodicals advertisements. #5 Family ties. 48% of the employees relocated to another city for their new jobs. Career Coach Insights: • “Employees need emotional support in face of the company’s decision to layoff. Providing them a career coach allows them to vent out to a confidant, who is ready to listen to them and share an unbiased opinion (as a neutral third party) on how to move on, thereby driving acceptance of the decision.” • “Once the career coach has established a rapport with the employee as an emotional anchor, he/she is able to help the employee to identify their unique strengths and suggest a customized approach on planning the next steps.” • “Networking and negotiation skills are usually the most critical parameters which influence the employee’s ability to find a suitable role.” In our experience job landings could be higher if the employee was mobile. We understand that personal reasons including children’s education, working spouse, etc. are paramount. This delays job landing. #6 Flexibility is key. We coach impacted employees on how to leverage their transferable skills to increase the range of opportunities they can explore. Of the employees who took up new positions, only 35% of impacted employees changed their sector and only 22% changed their function. We often note that employees who have high adaptability and learning agility, are able to land a job into a new function, and importantly land jobs faster. #7 Layoff is not the end of the road. We build confidence and skill in employees on how to negotiate for the next role. Using these abilities, a good 39% of the employees were able to negotiate a higher position, while 57% were able to maintain the same position and only 4% had to take up a lower position. This clearly tells us how employees can get a role of their choice and liking, if they are able to showcase their strengths. #8 Offering career transition service preserves employer brand. We believe that given the shortage of skills and an extremely competitive market, it makes business sense to offer a Career Transition program. In the survey, 74% of the impacted employees view the previous employer’s brand as favourable on account of the career transition services provided to them despite having lost the job. Considering that these impacted employees will continue to be your organization brand ambassadors even after they step out, it is critical that they have a positive experience throughout.
- 3. CAREER MANAGEMENT 23 Triggers for Transition and Outplacement We had polled the sponsors of career transition program on what triggers career transition and outplacement activity in firms. The Top 3 reasons mirror economic sentiments. Reasons to Offer Transition and Outplacement Services #1 Companies offer this service for right reasons. 80% of the program sponsors agree or strongly agree that it is the right thing to do for a responsible employer – matching organization values. This mirrors our global research (2010) where 71% had agreed. Only 10% of the program sponsors agree or strongly agree that everyone else in their sector/ industry is doing so (peer pressure to do it), hence they must as well. #2 Engagement of retained organization is key 62% of the program sponsors agree or strongly agree that the outplacement program helps maintain the morale and sends positive signals to the remaining employees. Our global research reports 69% agreement. We note organizations we have worked with are able to also hire fresh talent for new technologies despite a layoff for this very reason. #3 Employee need skills to transition 62% of the of the program sponsors also agree or strongly agree that partner support ensures impacted employees receive necessary skills needed to transition quickly. Our global research reports 67% agreement. Fig. 1.3 Coach Insights: Skills needed across levels Reinvent themselves, introspect using psychometric tools Positioning in the job market, networking skills Exploring a second career with coach support Financial Planning Coaching on transferable skills (to explore wider options) Personal branding & Role Negotiation Reflection on leadership style Competency based interview practice More emotional anchoring to build back confidence Support with basic skills like resume writing, interviewing Peer Networking Senior Management Middle Management Frontline Effective communication Triggers for Downsizing Trigger for Rightsizing 48% 45% 21% Weak economic forecast and hence change in growth Product or service is no more competitive/relevant – leading to redundancy of skills Decline in business due to change in government and /or policy decisions 52% 48% 48% Rationalization of employee costs Reduction in product demand due to changes in market dynamics plans 62% 52% Global imperative to reduce costs /head count across the board (across locations and levels) Merger / Acquisition of Joint Venture Lead, e.g. industry consolidation leading to redundancy of positions 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% Trigger for Rightsizing Fig. 1.4 Triggers for Rightsizing
- 4. 24 THE RIGHT QUARTERLY Conclusion The Manpower Talent Shortage Survey 2013 shows that India is among the top 3 countries with a talent shortage. Despite the slowdown in hiring, talent shortage is actually up 13% from the previous survey. It is no surprise that the work on matching talent pools to jobs is a significant area for governments and companies. 1. Given the skills shortage, if prospective employers consider the impacted employees they can really overcome this issue. We are promoting inefficiencies in the job matching market by not considering a sizeable pool of highly qualified and employable talent pool of laid off employees or perhaps not fast enough. 2. Impacted employees need to deal with the change, show flexibility and willingness to relocate as job matches will take longer and be more challenging. 3. The survey indicates one of the top reasons to offer career transition and outplacement services is to retain engagement and retention of talent in the survivor organization. Given the skills shortage in India no organization can afford (a) of loss of employer branding and ability to attract talent and (b) leakage of critical talent. Importantly as the survey suggests, the employers see the best ROI from career transition “as the right thing to do for employees who are impacted as responsible employers”. As is seen in the client testimonial, acceptance of the practice over time makes it part of the corporate value of responsible business leadership. by J. Karthikeyan Vice President - Consulting Services Bangalore, India w We could have handled the outplacementprocess internally, but the employeesneeded an expert to build in them thecapabilities required to transition out w Partnership is key between the clientand a Career Transition partner. We wereable to speed up the landing process byproviding leads and connections in theindustry to our partner, and share skills andinterests of impacted employees. Regularreviews and support on progress helped usmitigate issues w The partner’s expertise in candidatepsychometric skills assessment andmatching this to job interests helped theprocess even more. w ROI (Return on Investment) is not so muchabout reduction in litigation risks andopportunity costs saved on ER (EmployeeRelation cases), we believe this is the rightthing to do as a responsible employer w In the first wave, managers said this isdesirable over and above severance, inthe second wave having experienced itmanagers said we need it. By the thirdwave it became institutionalized, witheveryone agreeing this best reflects ourcorporate values and culture. Krishna Bhagavan Director and Country Head HR Motorola Solutions Client Speak