At Career Horizons, we specialize in providing organizations with an expert outplacement resource they can call upon to assist with workforce transitions — helping reduce the individual/organizational turbulence that occurs when employee terminations or reductions in force become an unfortunate, but necessary, business reality.
For over 25 years, we’ve supported employers throughout Seattle, Bellevue, Washington State, and beyond who are seeking to provide paid career assistance (outplacement) as a severance benefit to departing executives, managers, individual contributors, and employee groups. Our key point of pride? Our services are extremely hands-on, customized, and much more advanced than the generic, cookie-cutter support offered by most firms in the industry — involving techniques few career counselors have mastered and that are far more specialized than the traditional career advice available on the web or via AI.
If you’re an HR executive or business owner looking to provide outplacement support to your employees — or an individual job hunter going through a layoff/termination and possibly eligible for outplacement assistance — please contact us here and we’ll be happy to share more about our capabilities!
Outplacement is essentially corporate-sponsored career transition support. Unlike privately-paid coaching assistance, it is a severance benefit provided by companies to assist departing employees in getting their job hunting efforts off to a smooth and successful start following a corporate restructuring, layoff, or termination event. Typically, upon notification of a layoff or termination, an employee will be informed that they are eligible to receive this kind of support and will have access to a certain number of hours, or months, of assistance to help get their job hunting efforts off to a smooth, successful start.
While there are many different approaches to providing outplacement — with some firms emphasizing low-cost group workshops and online learning modules — at Career Horizons, we’ve always insisted on providing these services via a customized, high-touch 1:1 approach. Essentially, once an eligible individual contacts us, we’ll set up a meeting to explain the services in detail, discuss the individual’s situation/goals, and immediately begin mapping out the game plan we feel will most likely help the person find new employment quickly if that’s their primary goal. From there, we’ll schedule a series of follow up meetings, calls, and/or deliverables (depending on the individual’s program parameters) to get the process underway and assist the client in successfully working through all of the moving parts needed to get a successful job search campaign underway.
At Career Horizons, we keep the options pretty simple and straightforward. In most cases, employers can choose to provide just a set number of coaching hours (frequently 3-7) for each eligible employee that can be used to get help with any aspect of the job hunting process they feel would be most useful. Alternatively, for executive-level employees and longer-tenured staff, a full monthly “retained” outplacement program might be appropriate where we would provide unlimited help with all aspects of the job hunting process during the contracted period of time. For a complete breakdown of these program options, please contact us here and we can send you a brochure outlining the various tiers of services and associated pricing.
While admittedly, we might be a bit biased, we feel that our outplacement philosophy is significantly different than the models offered by many other firms — and many of the clients we work with, in fact, praise our approach as being far more beneficial than what they’ve experienced working with other “traditional” outplacement providers whose services they’ve found to be generic, impersonal, and underwhelming.
For starters, all of our coaching is delivered by individuals with 20+ years in the career coaching, resume-writing, and job search support field – not adjunct consultants or contractors with only a few weeks/months of training under their belt. Secondly, the services are all conducted on a 1:1 basis and tailored to the specific needs of each client; there’s no formulaic approach or A-Z model that has to be followed if a client doesn’t need help in certain areas or is already highly familiar with certain aspects of the job hunting process. And lastly, given our action bias and emphasis on career-related technology usage, we’re able to serve as a force multiplier to professionals/executives who might already know quite a bit about the job hunting process. No matter how much experience a client might have with resume writing, LinkedIn usage, or the recent wave of AI tools, we are able to show them new techniques and approaches they simply have never encountered before.
Again, our goal isn’t just to revisit all of the standard job search and resume advice available on the web at large. It’s to show people innovative new ways that they can use to promote themselves, track down relevant leads, gain a competitive edge, and accelerate the process of finding their next great opportunity.
Generally, once a person has been impacted by a layoff or separation event at a company, they will be informed (typically by the HR department) if the company will be providing them with any paid outplacement assistance — and normally the departing employee will receive written documentation in their severance packet about the services and how to get them started. In some cases, however, an employee who will be leaving a company (either voluntarily or involuntarily) can ask their company if they’d be willing to provide such assistance and the organization might agree to do so. Many companies are simply unaware of the outplacement support option and may not realize that this type of assistance can be very valuable when it comes to personnel changes. So it never hurts to ask and inquire as to whether your employer might be willing to sponsor this type of support, should you find yourself facing a layoff or termination situation!
Essentially, in going through an outplacement program with Career Horizons, we’d be able to provide you with assistance and expert advice on virtually any facet of the job hunting or career management process. The most common areas that people request help with include resume development, LinkedIn profile improvement, new career exploration assistance, interviewing, negotiation, and advice around all aspects of job lead generation (e.g. networking effectively, working with recruiters, identifying new potential target companies, uncovering published job leads, etc.) and how to go about the process in the most efficient, effective manner.
If helpful, here are some of the questions that very commonly come up in our outplacement sessions and that we can provide candidates with very specific advice around:
• What is the current state of the job market and where do most of the opportunities lie?
• Should I hunt for the same kind of job I just left or is it time to consider a career change?
• What resume & cover letter formats are employers responding to most positively these days?
• What are the keys to optimizing my LinkedIn profile and using that site most effectively?
• What other websites and tools are the most useful for professionals in transition?
• How is AI changing the job market and what tools should I be using to improve my odds, if any?
• Are staffing agencies and recruiters a useful job source, and if so, how do I find and contact them?
• What are the keys to networking and uncovering leads/referrals through personal contacts?
• How do I find the companies that fit me best and are most in need of my skills?
• How can I improve my interviewing skills to gain a competitive edge for top positions?
• What negotiating techniques can help me ensure that I get paid what I’m worth?
Absolutely. Whenever a professional goes through one of our outplacement programs, they’ll have the peace of mind of knowing that all of their discussions with us are 100% confidential — not only due to the emotional turbulence that often accompanies job changes, but also because we want them to have the utmost confidence that we are fully present and working directly, on their behalf, to help them reach their goals. Once an outplacement program commences, the only information shared with an individual’s former employer is confirmation that yes, the individual has contacted us and is taking advantage of the benefit in question.
The short answer is yes — in addition to the core of the service, which is built around customized 1:1 coaching, all outplacement recipients will also have ongoing access to the wealth of resources in our “Client Resources” website area. This password-protected section of our site contains a full 25-chapter job hunting workbook, extensive examples of effective resumes and cover letters, detailed interviewing advice, and numerous other handouts and materials to help job hunters achieve success. Clients of the firm will also receive our monthly newsletter and be eligible to join or Career Horizons LinkedIn Group, encompassing a large network of former clients who are willing to share their experience and assist others currently going through the transition process.