outplacement success story: global investment bank invests in strategic career transition.

Company achieves 95% employee satisfaction rating with new outplacement program

• client
  a leading global investment bank and financial services company
• goals
  Given high dissatisfaction with its outplacement strategy, the company’s operations in India sought a new approach to help transitioning employees land their next roles.
• solution
  The company adopted the Randstad RiseSmart outplacement solution that offers transitioning employees access to coaching specialists, professional resume writing and a job concierge team.
• key results
  With its new outplacement program, the company helped 61% of participants get a new position during the program, while receiving an overall satisfaction rate of 95%.

the need for a agile, local approach to outplacement

For this multinational bank, helping its employees who are let go during downsizing is a primary concern, ensuring they receive the support they need to find new opportunities. But key to any successful outplacement program are two components: the ability to adapt the approach to meet each individual’s different needs and on-the-ground expertise of the local job market.

The company realized that its current outplacement strategy, however, wasn’t successful for its operations in India. As part of a large, global contract with its outplacement services provider, the company was subjected to procedural rigidity that couldn’t adapt to local needs.A lack of on-the-ground expertise with insights into the local communities made it challenging to truly address the needs of transitioning employees and set them up for future success.

Ultimately, the program left transitioning employees discouraged, left with unfulfilled expectations about what they thought they would get from outplacement and inadequate coaching support to help them during their job search. When efforts to create a solution to address these ongoing challenges didn’t work out, the company sought to work with an outplacement provider that could provide the flexibility and local expertise it needed.

meeting the unique needs of transitioning employees 

To transform its outplacement strategies in India, the company partnered with Randstad RiseSmart. Together, they created a new approach to address these challenges and provide the tailored outplacement experience the company wanted to give its transitioning employees.

As part of the program, each participant gets in-depth, holistic support from three different career transition specialists: coaching, resume writing and job concierge.

In regard to coaching, each participant receives a dedicated career coach to steer them through their job search journeys. Strategically positioned across India's various regions, RiseSmart harnesses a team of more than 75 certified coaches to provide participants with guidance on how to prepare for interviews, strategize exit statements and craft compelling professional value propositions to differentiate themselves from other candidates.

With the help of certified professional resume writers, the company’s transitioning employees benefit from resume creation support, which helps them optimize their CVs for contemporary applicant tracking systems. And with a local, dedicated job concierge team, participants receive personalized job search support. This involves providing tailored job leads specifically for each participant, based on their backgrounds, interests and goals.

The program also makes use of video interview recording software to conduct mock interviews that help participants refine their video interviewing skills. The mock interviews are reviewed with career coaches to help them enhance their communication styles.

Additionally, participants who complete the outplacement program gain exclusive access to the RiseSmart Alumni Program, enabling them to participate in annual career strategies, a specialized job portal, target job lists, career development content and participation in a LinkedIn alumni group.

As program participants receive high-touch assistance, the company’s HR team also enjoys the benefits of a dedicated strategic relationship manager. This resource remains closely aligned to the company’s culture and goals to ensure seamless delivery and ongoing support.

new outplacement strategy leads to high satisfaction

By leveraging Randstad RiseSmart’s outplacement solution, the company can provide transitioning employees with a comprehensive strategy to address each aspect of career transition.

Since implementation, more than 200 affected employees have benefited from the outplacement solution. As proof of the program’s success, nearly two-thirds (61%) of these registered candidates have landed their next role during the program. The program has also received widespread accolades, with an overall 95% participant satisfaction rating.

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