Canadian HR Reporter

Canadian HR RepoRteR april 6, 2015 16 FeAtures An 8 Day/7 Night HAWAII ESCAPE FOR 2 IN MAUI!! to your choice of four fabulous destinations: Las Vegas, Orlando, San Francisco or San Diego RENEW EA RLY TO WIN ONE OF 18 TRIPS FOR 2 A CHANCE AT OUR GRAND PRIZE: Contest Now Open! Renew your 2015 HRPA Membership Today for best odds: hrpa.ca/2015Renewal Additional Prizes Courtesy Of HRPA's Member Savings Partners YOUR CHOICE! SAN FRANCISCO LAS VEGAS SAN DIEGO ORLANDO PLUS 2015 HRPA MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL CONTEST * OuTpLACEMEnT New tools for virtual outplacement Innovations can both help and hinder transition services By Peter Saulnier t here have been some remarkable technologi- cal developments in the world of virtual outplacement over the last few years. ese innovations have been impor- tant for two reasons: they al- low support for employees in remote locations who have lost their jobs; and they provide a useful, supplemental form of support for individuals in ca- reer transition. New virtual outplacement devel- opments include such features as network tracking tools that are fully integrated with LinkedIn; job search engines that receive feeds from established job sites such as Indeed; research data- bases that provide information about a company or industry at the push of a button; and, of course, resumé management sys- tems that allow for the develop- ment and storage of multiple ver- sions of an individual's resumé. A useful new development is interactive online interview practice, where an individual can prepare and record her answers to sample interview questions in video clips. A career coach can then view the clips and give the individual personalized feedback on her interview technique. is is an invaluable part of pre- paring for an effective job search, and makes personalized coaching advice available to everyone, no matter where they live. An obvious use of any online career site is the administration of career assessments. Including them on a career portal makes them readily accessible and easy to complete, and it's easy to see the results. ere are a number of assessments used in career coaching, such as the Myers- Briggs, Birkman, Insights and the Strong Interest Inventory. Good outplacement providers will have all or most of these assessments available, as each tool has a dif- ferent area of focus that can be important for an effective, com- prehensive assessment process. One of the benefits of virtual outplacement is the ability to sup- port transitioning employees with consistent services even in other parts of the world. As an example, one Canadian-based internation- al software development compa- ny that was downsizing recently provided in-person services for Canadian transitioning employ- ees, all of whom were based in metropolitan areas, while select- ing online services for interna- tional employees, most of whom were salespeople based in remote locations around the world. Note that virtual outplacement doesn't always mean web-based. For example, one organization in the natural resource sector wanted to provide support to transitioning front-line employ- ees scattered throughout British Columbia. Most of them weren't comfortable with web-based services. The solution? Support by phone, including a series of cus- tomized job search workshops by conference call, supplemented by extensive one-on-one support for each individual with an experi- enced career coach. But any type of virtual outplace- ment has potential pitfalls as well. e most important factor in se- lecting an outplacement provider is "quality of consultants," with 95 per cent of companies saying this is important, according to Verity Filion's 2014 Survey of Termina- tion Practices in Canada. Virtual outplacement, while convenient, minimizes the oppor- tunity for an experienced career coach to support an individual with good advice at each step of his transition. At the outset of their career transition, many individuals don't know what they need and, frankly, the whole process of outplacement support is often a mystery to them. ey need close attention to make sure their next steps are the right ones. ink of the recently terminated individ- ual who tells all her friends she's now unemployed, and she thinks that's networking. Worst of all, she thinks this approach will lead to re-employment. With frequent, in-person ac- cess to an experienced coach, they can better learn the ins and outs of effective networking and develop a personalized plan that will work for their style and situation. Another example is the indi- vidual who uses a sample resumé from a career site and tries to make his own career history fit into that template. A person's resumé is a unique marketing document that should demonstrate the depth and breadth of his experience, and tell the marketplace about his unique value proposition. BeNeFIts > pg. 17

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