December
1995 - Outplacement services
What happens to top executives
when they lose their jobs? At one time many of
them might have expected to have bounced back
very quickly working for a competitor or a business
in a related industry. Not any more.
In the 1990s redundancy is biting
as sharply at the top of companies as it has at
the bottom. 'Redundancy is no respecter of status
or position,' says Ian Bell, a consultant with
the senior directors' unit at Sanders & Sidney,
the outplacement specialist. It is Bell's job
to repair the wounded reputations of people who
may previously only have experienced success in
their careers.
Indeed their very success, not
to mention high salaries, may have been partly
responsible for their departures. As Bell points
out: 'It is the turkeys with the longest necks
that are the first to be plucked out at Christmas.'
Demand for outplacement - the
structured approach to finding new work - among
the most senior executives emerged at the beginning
of the 1990s. A number of the leading outplacement
companies created units designed to give a more
exclusive service for company directors. The Sanders
& Sidney unit caters for main board directors
or divisional heads in large public limited companies
earning gross salaries of more than £100,000
a year. The minimum fee is £20,000.
Executives are given their own
offices and secretarial support at the unit. Before
arriving they go through a self-appraisal that
concentrates on their strengths and achievements.
This is followed by a number of counselling sessions
and standard outplacement advice on how to compile
and present a CV, interview techniques and how
to network established contacts.
Chris Wright, who decided to
leave BP after 20 years with the company rather
than accept a move to Singapore, said: 'The mechanical
process concentrating on thinking of achievements
is important psychologically. I think that what
I am going through is actually a luxury because
it is a great opportunity to take stock. But it
is also desperately important to maintain the
rhythm of work.'
A package of career counselling
for a top executive on, say Pounds 150,000 - the
average salary among executives passing through
the unit - might cost his or her company Pounds
25,000.
This figure would be included
in the severance terms. Many of those who ask
for the service have seen how it helped other
individuals who lost their jobs in earlier redundancy
programmes.
Elizabeth Fagan, former managing
director of Sketchley Retail, now taking a course
at the unit, said: 'I used outplacement when I
had been making people redundant in the past because
of organisational changes, and I thought it had
been useful.
'It gives a fairly structured
approach to finding another position which is
no bad thing. When you are actually in employment
you are totally focused on the role that you are
fulfilling, and not actively trying to promote
your career by seeking other openings.'
Fagan spent much of her early
career with Boots The Chemist before joining Dixons,
where she was managing director of SupaSnaps,
the Dixons' subsidiary that was later merged with
Sketchley Dry Cleaners. At present she is treating
the severence as a career watershed and looking
for a position outside the retail industry.
About half the executives who
go through the unit use it to change their career
direction, while the other half go back into the
same industry. David Egerton-Smith, a former partner
and corporate lawyer at Linklaters & Paines,
is looking for something different in his career.
'If you have been doing one thing in one industry
for a long period of time, you lose sight of yourself
and how to market yourself,' he said.
This point was underlined by
Alan Sanders, now managing director of Golden
West Foods. He moved from a period of outplacement
into a new career after spending 30 years in the
pharmaceuticals industry. He said: 'They don't
find you a job. You prepare your own marketing
plan and the product is you.'
Sanders says that the search
is helped by a change in attitudes towards redundancy.
'Today the concept of redundancy is more acceptable.
When I started my management career if anyone
said they had been made redundant it was if they
had leprosy,' he said.
While executives at this level
tend to contact headhunters who are expected to
handle searches for suitable positions, the experience
is not always rewarding.
'You get through the headhunters
very quickly,' said Sanders. Details of those
undergoing outplacement are circulated among headhunting
firms. Additionally, executives are encouraged
to explore possibilities among contacts that they
may have made over the years.
In Sanders' case, his outplacement
contacts proved useful when, a few weeks ago,
he was looking for a logistics director. Although
he advertised he also called Sanders & Sidney,
and found that they had the ideal candidate on
their books.
The trawling of outplacement
firms for executive talent is still not as common
as it could be, perhaps because companies do not
realise the depth of expertise they can find there.
Bell says that finding work is not difficult for
these executives, but finding a job which suits
them best can take time.
The company stresses the amount
of effort needed in the search for a new job.
'The more you work at finding your next job, the
quicker it will come,' said Bell.
© 1995 Financial Times
Ltd. All rights reserved
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