Outplacement Career Transition Counseling Helps Displaced Workers Improve Job-Search Skills 650%

December 12, 2012 – After receiving outplacement services from OI Partners, more than six times as many displaced employees reported having excellent or very good job search skills than before they entered the programs.

OI Partners has released the results of its survey on the effectiveness of outplacement career transition counseling.

According to the survey of outplacement candidates OI Partners has assisted during the past two years:

• Six-Fold Improvement in Job-Search Skills: After receiving outplacement services, more than six times as many displaced employees reported having excellent or very good job search skills than before they entered the programs. Only 12% of terminated workers rated their job-search skills as excellent or very good before receiving outplacement compared with 78% who ranked their abilities that way afterward – an increase of 650%.
• Good Or Average Not Good Enough: Displaced employees who rated their job-search skills as merely good or average before receiving outplacement upgraded their knowledge after obtaining assistance. 78% of candidates reported they had only good or average job-search skills before receiving outplacement, compared to just 21% afterward – a decline of 73%.

“With a persistently high unemployment rate and slow job growth, displaced employees continue to enter a very challenging job market. Some terminated workers have not looked for new employment in several years and their job-search skills are rusty or outdated. Other former employees are experiencing their first reduction in force and need additional resources and support to cope with the stress and anxiety” said Patty Prosser, chair of OI Partners, a leading global coaching and leadership development/consulting firm.

“In such a competitive job environment, it is not good enough for displaced workers to only have ’good’ or ’average’ job-search skills. Their job-search skills must be equal to or exceed their career knowledge and experience in order to be able to successfully compete and gain new employment” Prosser added.