Outplacement and Restructuring Case Studies
People Function Development Centre
A large Central Government body needed to cut costs through downsizing, and as part of this, a new structure and new roles were developed within the HR and Finance Functions. All grade 6 and 7 managers were to be assessed against chosen new roles at these grades, through a process which needed to reflect the skills and behaviours required going forwards. A change in culture and behaviour was required, and it was not expected that all staff would meet these new challenges. BCL was asked to develop a 1-day development centre to be used as part of the selection process.
A new set of professional competencies had been drafted for the function and BCL worked closely with the client to refine these, as they were used as a basis for designing the development centre. We advised the client on how to integrate the 1-day development centre with other elements of the selection process, i.e. a technical job interview and review of performance management data, and worked with them to design a “day in the life of” scenario for the centre that mirrored many aspects of the organisation and its challenges. Timescales and budget were extremely tight; the first centre was to run 5 weeks after award of the contract. We designed variations of the centre for different levels of manager and at times ran a centre with staff at different grades participating simultaneously.
Participants came from many disciplines, including HR, Learning and Development, Diversity, Finance and Corporate Social Responsibility; the centre was designed to be equally relevant for all. All participants received a developmental feedback report, regardless of the outcome, identifying areas of strength and priority areas for development. This information was also fed to the steering committee, who used it to support their selection decisions, alongside the technical job interview and other resourcing needs and restrictions.
Participants found the centre was realistic, fair and, despite its sensitive context, enjoyable. The recommendations from the development centre were mostly reflected in the final selections. The directors of the function found the information proved really useful in distinguishing between different levels of potential for the future organisation. They also found the individual development reports and other briefing information from the centre to be invaluable in providing face-to-face feedback to participants. Individuals found the reports supportive and honest developmental tools. To receive such positive feedback for work within such a sensitive context was a real achievement for BCL and the client team.
Spending Cuts in a Higher Education College
Due to public spending cuts, this HE College had gone through a period of consultancy before reaching redundancy stage. After a level of voluntary redundancies a number of senior faculty staff faced compulsory redundancy, many who had been with the College for over 15-20 years.
These were high level members of the teaching and education departments who had spent much of their college employment working long hours, had little experience of unemployment and were now faced with real life change.
With a limited college budget to support the staff with outplacement, Sprint were tasked with meeting the needs of the college whilst offering real value for money.
Key to their career transition was to formulate a programme that met their practical requirements and training needs, whilst offering emotional and coaching support to enable each to see positive prospects for the future. In addition the programme had to go beyond the career advice offered within the College and allow each delegate to embrace new ideas and think outside the “education” box.
Sprint developed and delivered a number of Career Development Workshops with follow up one–to– one support aimed at:
- Assessing core values, goals, motivations, strengths and interests.
- Developing an understanding of their transferable skills outside of the education markets.
- Re-educating the delegates on CV writing, modern job search techniques, interview techniques, networking and assessing career opportunities.
- Evaluating their next steps; re-employment, re-training, self employment, consultancy, voluntary or charity work.
- Managing the emotional aspect of change and redundancy.
- Providing one-to-one support to improve CVs and offer information, advice and guidance, signposting delegates to the right resource based on requirements.
- Following up the outplacement support weekly, post workshop, for encouragement and progress reports.
Delegates were also given access to Sprint’s Career Resource Centre 24/7.
Outcomes
Delegates moved from a position of denial and blame to acceptance and optimism.
Each had differing views on the plans ahead and post workshop were working together to encourage each other and take responsibilities for their future career path.
Feedback forms from each delegate categorised the outplacement support as 4/5 and 5/5, 4 being very good, 5 being excellent, across all 10 assessment criteria.
Call Centre Outsourcer
Our partners Abintegro work with a call centre outsourcer providing jobs for unemployed 18-24 year olds across the UK. They selected Abintegro online service to support their career development and training programme ensuring they equip their employers with the necessary skills and expertise to secure sustainable long-term employment.
“The Abintegro job seeking tools are a fantastic complement to our personal coaching programme and enable us to provide employees with all the tools they need to develop and prepare for a successful career.”
Michael Anderson, Chief Operating Officer
For further information on our Outplacement and Restructuring please email simon.axup@berkshire.co.uk or call a member of our team on 0118 932 3580.
