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Outplacement Firms Struggle to Do Job

Source (publication name or URL): http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125069793645343423.html

Phred Dvorak and Joann S. Lublin

Publication Date: August 20, 2009

Subject / Main Ideas / Concepts of article:

This article "Outplacement Firms Struggle to Do Job" reveals a $4 billion-a-year outplacement business that many feel provide low-value standardized services. Yet, over two-thirds of 265 U.S. employers during the past two years have used these services, which cost an average cost of $3,589 and employee. Approximnately 40% of workers offered the outplacement services don't use them. The articles continues to give some hints of why this situation is happening.

First, the motives of why companies are using outplacement are often the wrong ones. It appears that some businesses are just looking at the issue from a public relations perspective where they want to look like the good guys after a layoff. Others say they offer outplacement to protect their reputations, forestall lawsuits and minimize unemployment-insurance payments. Certainly, the major motivator should be to help the former employee locate suitable employment.

Likewise, the primary motivator of the outplacement firm should also be to help the laid-off employee get a job. but, most of these firms don't even track how many of their customers actually get jobs or measure how satisisied clients are with their services. As customer complaints rise, outplacement firms state that their customers are just angry because of the stress of trying to find work during the downturn tather than acknowledge that their services may be falling short of customer expectations. One has to wonder whatever happened to the notion that the customer is always right, a rallying cry of most businesses in the increasingly competitive economy, but a concept these outplacement firms appear to have the luxury of ignorning. Further, outplacement firms have responded to the demands of a very competitive environment by lowering their prices along with the quality of their services.

With companies and outplacement firms not concerned about the right thing, clients are complaiming of mass-produced resumes, canned job advice, slipshod counseling and standard cover letters that don't show any personal interest in a job opportunity and that are often loaded with errors. One user of the service referred to it as "grief counseling." Certainly, the job seekers want more than a pap rally to aide their job search.