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We’ll get right to the point. If you are a small to medium size business you may be doing your company a disservice by not offering outplacement services.

Large companies that are forced to lay off a percentage of their workforce use, and depend on, outplacement services to help exiting employee’s transition to new careers. They understand that helping separated staff is good for morale, and that it’s beneficial to their bottom line. Helping staff members who are being let go will come back full circle in the form of brand reputation, positive feedback, and most importantly trust from the employees that survive job cuts.

Small to Medium businesses can benefit the same way, if not more. Within these smaller organizations there is a bond that forms among employees. You could even call it a ‘family’ of sorts. When a worker leaves the company for the last time, not only is that employee wondering what will happen next, but the remaining staff will also feel a sense of loss saying good-bye to a work family member.

Providing Outplacement services creates good will, as it shows that you are sympathetic to the situation, truly interested in the well being of departing employees, and are willing to go the extra mile to make sure everyone lands on their feet. Without this, in addition to the possibility of receiving bad reviews at online sites such as Glassdoor, your reputation can suffer within your community, and your remaining employees may lose trust that you have their backs.

In the end, using outplacement services is a win-win. Happier exiting employees, trusting survivors, and preservation of your brands character are all positives in a not so positive situation.

At Clearmont Technologies we are specialists in outplacement services. Our mission is to help you, as well as exiting employees, transition seamlessly and with a positive outcome for all involved. Contact us today to discuss your needs.

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There are some simple and effective strategies to help you get through this challenging time and come out feeling more confident.

First Things First

Don’t panic. Take a deep breath and be gentle with yourself. Even people that know their job is in jeopardy can feel a sense of disbelief when it happens. This is completely normal.

Take a Break

After you’ve found out that your position has been eliminated, the very best thing to do is pause and take a few days, even a couple of weeks if you are in a financial position to do so. This is not a luxury everyone has when they lose their job, but if the option is available to you, it’s a good idea to take it. You’ve left one enormous part of your life behind and you will need to figure out what you want to do next. Giving yourself some space can help you clear your mind and really identify what you want to do.

Your natural impulse when you first lose your job might be to jump in and start looking for another one. However, it’s best to let things settle and develop a clear vision of what you want to do next. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to rush out and tell everyone you know that you need a job. Letting your contacts know that you’re looking is something that is best done once you are crystal clear about your goals and how others can help.

Some things to consider: have you been thinking about a career change recently? What do you need to do to position yourself for that? What did you love about your job? What did you dislike? Take some time to write these things down and narrow in on what you truly love to do and what you do well. Getting clear on this will allow you to reposition yourself as you present yourself to potential new employers. In many instances the job you will go to next will be even better than the last job, provided you are clear on what you do and don’t want to do and what you need in terms of a compensation package.

Connect with Your Support System

It’s important to have a robust support system in your corner. That may be your spouse, other family members, sympathetic friends, or any other community organization that you may be a part of. Find someone you can share your concerns with and that can help keep your spirits lifted.
If you don’t feel that you have a good support system around you, this could be a great time to enlist the help of a therapist.

Shift Your Focus

Losing your job provides a perfect opportunity to tackle all of those projects you’ve been putting off. Have a home DIY project? Now’s the time. It’s also a great opportunity to read those books you’ve been wanting to read, spend time with your family, get more exercise and maybe even learn a new skill you’ve been wanting to learn.

If you’ve got insurance coverage paid for by your employer and you still have preventative visits to schedule, this is also an opportune time to check those off of your to-do list.

Balance Your Time

Once you embark on the new job search, it’s important to make sure you’re balancing job search time with other activities in your life. Searching for a new job can be a full-time job. Set up a daily routine and incorporate activities that you enjoy into your day. Perhaps you can dedicate your mornings to job searches and writing cover letters, then spend your afternoon working on home projects. Once you’re clear on what you want to do, incorporate some networking time into your week so you can continue to meet more people and make new connections that could lead to your next job.

In the meantime, focus on the positive wherever you can. Grab a journal and make a gratitude list on the days you’re struggling. Some professionals that are in between jobs find doing a daily gratitude list is a helpful practice to keep them in a positive mindset. Do the things you enjoy and cherish this time. Before you know it, you’ll be back to working again.

If you need extra help narrowing down the next steps to take in your job search, contact our Job Coach, Bonnie Brill and find out about our Job Search Consulting services.

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In the spirit of helping myself during these trying times, I have turned to The Five-Minute Journal to stay positive and productive.

The Five-Minute Journal asks you three morning questions designed to instill gratitude, set purpose for your day, and create empowering beliefs. When you start your morning off on the right foot, days actually seem to go by smoother.

You can find The Five-Minute Journal on Amazon.

Why am I loving this journal right now?

It really only takes 5 minutes.

Running my business, making sure my son is not playing video games during school time, and finding toilet paper is very time consuming.  Anyone, including me, can find 5 minutes to fill it out.  And, it is really worthwhile to spend a few minutes on my mental health.

It starts my day in a positive mind frame. 

Even if I wake up on the “wrong side of the bed,” writing 3 things I am grateful for helps me realize how lucky I am.

It helps me focus on productive to-dos that are in my control.  

The journal asks, “what would make today great?” I write down 3 things to accomplish for the day, such as writing this article. Check!

During the day, I notice good moments to write in my journal.

The elusive peanut butter was finally delivered!  The joy of “seeing” my clients and consultants with Zoom.  My son independently doing his schoolwork.  Previously these did not even register on my radar but are now noted, appreciated, and enjoyed.

It gives me a chance to do even better tomorrow.  

“How could I have made today better?”, the journal asks. I reflect on my day and decide what I would have done differently.

Since, I’ve been writing in my Five-Minute Journal, I’ve felt happier, come to better accept our present situation, and gotten more done.

I’m also limiting the news I watch.  I know what’s going on, and most of it is bad.  Why rub it in?

What are you doing that’s helping you?

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How Can Employers Benefit From This?

Putting employees through new training programs can be an expensive endeavor, however, proponents of the practice feel that it provides a worthwhile return on the investment. Employees are likely to feel a stronger sense of loyalty to the company and a renewed sense of enthusiasm and purpose. This can translate to financial savings by reducing the cost of recruiting new talent and the time it takes to get them up to speed, where a long-time employee already has that background knowledge.

Offering upskilling opportunities also makes the company more attractive to job seekers. NYU Professor, Ari Ginsberg shares, “Generation Z is already fairly tech-savvy and is more likely to be attracted and stay in a place where they can get technology learning.”

Why Is It a Risk?

Amazon recently made news with its announcement in July that it start a $700 million retraining program for its employees to help them further their careers at Amazon in other fields.

In an article published by UPenn., Wharton professor of management, Matthew Bidwell has this to say: “There is the concern that if you give people training in transferable skills, either they leave, or the threat that they’re going to leave means that they can demand much higher wages — and that eats away any of the returns [from the] training,” he said.

Investors and shareholders are more comfortable laying off workers who no longer have skill sets needed by the company and hiring newer, more tech savvy staff. Most don’t see the monetary value in investing in a complete training program for employees who may have capped out their salaries and could be replaced by better skilled talent at a lower overall cost.

To invest in current employees seems to be an open invitation for those employees to take their years of experience and newfound skills to another company, wasting the money spent on training them. Accepting upskilling as a standard practice will take time for shareholders and investors to embrace.

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal shares, “Cumulatively, firms spend billions of dollars every year on technology devoted to digital transformation, but executives admit to confusion and uncertainty about the impact. A recent Accenture survey of 1,200 executives found that, while nearly half say skill shortages are a major concern for the future of their firm, only 3% said they will significantly increase their training budgets over the next three years. In a separate survey conducted in 2017 by consultancy McKinsey & Co., 35% of U.S. executives said they believe they will realize their digital goals mainly or only by hiring new talent.”

How to Make Upskilling Work

Can upskilling benefit your company? It’s easy to say that upskilling is a win-win for all involved, however the truth is that upskilling is not a one-size fits all answer. Each company has to evaluate the pros and cons to determine if it would work for them. However, helping employees develop a logical career path with the appropriate training can certainly help with retention, employee engagement, and job satisfaction, if done correctly. Watching what other companies, like Amazon, are doing with their upskilling initiatives can help you determine if this is a path that will benefit your company in the future.

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More Connected Than Ever

With electronic devices attached to most of us 24/7, it’s no wonder that many workers report that they find it hard to disconnect from work. It used to be that you would go to the office, do your job, and when you left the office, aside from a phone call that might detail some urgent matter that needed addressing, you were done. Then came email, and not far behind smart phones and with them a way for us to check our work matters anytime we wanted. Day or night. While this can be great, and in some jobs it may even be a necessity, for many workers it’s unnecessary and can be counterproductive.

The constant connection to work and feeling the need to be on call for every little matter that arises is quickly leading employees to experience burnout and work fatigue. It’s no secret that technology and social media are making us as a society more anxious. Psychology Today reports regularly on the connection between technology and anxiety. When you add the weight of worrying that you might lose your job if you don’t respond to messages outside of the workday, technology anxiety can reach a whole new level. Many proponents of the bill cite burnout and sleep disruption as symptoms of the need to be always on.

What’s the downside of such a bill?

Part of reducing employee burnout and managing mental health, includes helping employees manage a work/life balance. Critics of the proposed law though, state that managing such a balance is the onus of the employee and not the employer. One vocal opponent of the bill is Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of Partnership for New York City. In an NBC interview, she referenced the bill as a “naïve response to the notion of a work-life balance.”

Will such a bill even make a difference? Many workers don’t seem to think so. In fact, 22% of respondents in an OfficePulse.com survey reported they do not think their boss would respect such a law. To be clear, the law does NOT stipulate that employers cannot contact you after hours–it simply gives you protection if you choose not to respond to your employers after hours calls, texts, or emails.

Many questions also arise regarding the Fair Labor Standards Act, and how that would be impacted or utilized if such a bill were to pass. The Fair Labor Standards Act requires that companies pay employees for all hours worked. How are employees going to track these hours, which can sometimes amount to just a few minutes at a time? And if a company is already complying with the Fair Labor Standards Act, why would there even be a need for a bill stipulating that employees can disconnect after the workday?

Employment attorneys, Paul Castronovo, ESQ & Tom McKinney, ESQ both bring up a good point regarding the complexity of trying to govern this bill. In a recent blog post they share, “Today is an age of constant communication, and while not all situations may be deemed serious, things happen suddenly a lot more often than they used to. This promises to create much confusion over just what an emergency is: when does an event become ‘sudden and serious’ enough? Definitions are sure to differ from employer to employer, not to mention from employer to employee.”

The proposed bill exempts small companies with fewer than 10 employees, as well as employees that have jobs that specifically require in the job description that they are available off hours. However, for those that are paid hourly and find themselves spending the better part of their evenings responding to emails and putting out fires on their bosses behalf, this bill could be just what they need to ease the fear of losing their job if they set necessary boundaries.

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Lauren Young, writer for Reuters.com shares, “A recent survey of more than 2,000 managers and employees in 10 different countries found that employees increasingly depend on technology to communicate with their colleagues, including email (45 percent), text messaging (15 percent) and instant messaging (12 percent).

Of those who cited email, more than 40 percent said they felt lonely always or often, were not engaged and had a high need for social connection.”

It’s also important to understand that it’s not only social isolation that remote workers can feel but other forms of isolation that are more impactful on someone’s career.

Laurel Farrer with Forbes.com goes on to say, “When telecommuting independently from home or mobile offices, workers aren’t just cut off from interactions that contribute to Maslow’s foundational need of love and belonging, they’re also distanced from the opportunities that being around other people provides. In other words, it’s not the break room parties and high-fives that the remote workforce misses—it’s the causes for these celebrations.”

Farrer goes on to describe other types of loneliness or isolation that remote workers have to cope with. Feeling cut off from being able to use the same resources that those working in the office use and feeling like you are missing out on opportunities for promotion and rewards, due to being out of sight are two of the most impactful.

“Without the visibility of a co-located environment, it’s hard to achieve the top-of-mind status that is so beneficial when a promotion or roundtable review is due.

Being engaged in a workforce allows employees to continually compare output, compensation, and goals with others to ensure future growth. Team members are able to silently observe the strategies and successes of others—which in turn inspires individual growth and development. When working independently and focusing only on personal productivity, remote workers run the risk of career stagnation.”

Sophia Bernazanni, with OwlLabs.com, says, “The number of remote workers has increased dramatically, but this physical separation of coworkers has led to more people feeling like they don’t have friends at work, and that they’re less loyal or connected to their company because of it.

For remote workers, loneliness leads to poor outcomes for physical and mental health and productivity. For employers and team leaders, strengthening bonds and connectedness between remote team members and co-located team members can help reduce turnover and improve team collaboration by building relationships.”

For employers looking to keep a remote work staff, be sure to find ways to keep them engaged. Regularly hold video conference based meetings, schedule onsite events quarterly, and do what you can to include the remote workers in any decision making processes. These steps will go a long way towards combating any isolation they may feel and will increase their productivity and loyalty to the company.

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Companies are beginning to understand that stress in the workplace cannot be overlooked or considered just part of the job. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that depression and anxiety disorders cost approximately $1 trillion in global productivity losses per year. Getting in front of this and proactively providing for their employee’s mental health needs benefits everyone involved.

Sophie Downs, writer for Inc.com, shares “today’s top employers are embracing a broad definition of ‘wellness’ and viewing stress as a health concern rather than just a cost of doing business.

They’re organizing group sessions with social workers, subsidizing employees’ therapy bills, and granting workers no-strings-attached stipends to use on massages, life coaches, vacations, and even essential oils. Some are even offering paid sabbaticals to long-serving employees.”

Angelica Levito, with CNBC.com, expands on this, “Some employers are making the treatment of mental illness a top priority — on par with combating cancer, diabetes, and other chronic ailments… Stress can cause people physical harm. Constantly worrying about work can lead to erratic eating habits and cut into exercise routines, which can lead to weight problems, high blood pressure, and higher cholesterol levels, according to the APA.”

Attending to employee’s mental health needs proactively also means likely preventing thousands of dollars in medical care for chronic illnesses that are exacerbated or caused by stress.

Employers are getting creative in their offerings and trying to meet people where they are, understanding that many of their employees may not take the initiative to schedule counseling appointments or see a psychiatrist for fear of coworkers and managers learning about their struggles. To this end, companies are starting to offer a variety of benefits that allow employees to discreetly and privately take small steps to improve their stress levels. Some employers are paying for subscriptions to apps that help with relaxation or meditation.

Telehealth is another option that seems tailor-made for addressing mental health concerns in the workplace. Employees can at their convenience “meet” with mental health providers in a chat setting or using FaceTime, never needing to take time off of work for a traditional therapist appointment.

Heather Huhman, a writer for Entrepreneur.com, says, “Offering telehealth not only provides more options regarding mental health treatment but also limits the uncomfortable explanations employees must give management about their absence… Offer counseling — online and offline — to everyone on your team. “

For great examples of employer’s that are doing big things to help their employees live a more balanced life you need look no further than companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Samsung, who have been offering wellness benefits for years, providing everything from gym memberships to wellness coaching and in-office massages.

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Unlimited vacation time is surely gaining the attention of many; critics and supporters alike. “The 2017 State of the American Workplace Report from Gallup showed that 53 percent of employees say it’s “very important” to have a job that allows them greater work-life balance and personal well-being. Unlimited vacation time could help achieve both of these, by offering what is still a somewhat unique opportunity in the business landscape,” shares John Boitnott, writer for Inc.com.

We decided to do a deeper dive into this newest trend and see if it’s really as great as it sounds. Here’s what we found.

Unlimited doesn’t always mean unlimited

Sure your employers may not track your days off, but you can’t just take off on a whim. Most of these policies (and even the ones that don’t have this in their policies) are not going to permit you to take days off if it’s impacting the work that you need to get done. You still have to meet deadlines, and you still have to make sure that your days off don’t mean more work for your coworkers.

Stacy Lastoe with TheMuse.com says, “While your boss may not be keeping tabs on how many days you took off last month or year, that doesn’t mean you’re at liberty to take off as much time as you want. After all, you have a job to do. You’re getting paid to do said job—not go on vacation.”

Some people feel that even though the policy may be for unlimited time that they will still somehow be penalized for taking time off. If you work in a high-stress environment or one with many deadlines, you may never feel that it’s an okay time to take off, even if the policy permits it. Co-workers may frown on using too many of the days off you’re allotted, and it could essentially end up costing you opportunities to be promoted, in this type of environment.

Look for flexibility

There are companies that have mastered this unlimited vacation policy and are doing it well. Most of these companies understand the importance of flexibility for their employees. And the type of employees that they look for are those that don’t necessarily want to spend three months a year lounging on a beach but instead want to be able to work when it’s best for them. In some cases, these employees have family obligations that may require time off occasionally. In other cases, you may have someone in a project driven job that works best later in the day than they do in the mornings and doesn’t want those unlimited vacation days as much as they want to be able to come in when they’re most productive.

Is it achieving the benefit that everyone hoped?

There are also some companies that have reversed their decision to offer unlimited vacation time. However, the reason may surprise you. Instead of employees abusing the benefit, more and more companies are finding that employees are actually taking less vacation time than they did when they had limited vacation days.

Todd Wasserman with ADP.com shares, “One of the bizarre things about unlimited vacation policy is that it seems to have the opposite effect of what’s intended. For instance, when British photography equipment company Triggertrap began offering unlimited paid time-off (UPTO) in 2015, the average employee took less vacation than before the change, according to Slate.”

Unlimited vacation time can be a great benefit when managed properly and when there are clear guidelines on how it should be used, but it’s not always as clear cut as it seems. Be sure to clarify with your recruiter or human resources manager what those guidelines are and even find out how many people utilize the unlimited days and if they’ve seen an increase or decrease in time off since offering the benefit. You can also check their employee turnover, which is sign if policies and procedures are working.

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