Career Doctor Articles

With the kind permission of the Career Doctor, jfo is able to bring you a series of articles to help you in your work situation and longer term career management

Strategies & Tactics After Redundancy

I’m not sure who is kidding who about the employment situation, and we all know that statistics can be manipulated to show a rosier picture than reality, but we are still getting significant numbers of people seeking our career consultancy help after they have been made redundant. If the employment situation is allegedly improving, then it must be missing Berkshire!

In one of my earliest articles “Coping with Redundancy” I outlined what you could do to help yourself if you have been made redundant. The concept of self-help appeals to many people, but self-help only works best if you are an XXX and you want to find new employment as an XXX. This should be a fairly straightforward challenge.

But what if you want to take the opportunity that redundancy has presented, by using your enforced unemployment as the chance to try and change career. You may have never really liked working as an XXX, so why not now use your redundancy as an opportunity to change career.

There was a recent article on TV which reckoned that as many as two-thirds of employees are unhappy in their present job and would love to change career. I think that is a conservative estimate, for about 90% of the people who visit my consultancy want to change career.

So what are the first things you should do when your manager tells you that you have been selected for redundancy?

ASK QUESTIONS

The first question I would recommend, is to ask your manager what is the reason why you have been selected for redundancy. Enquire if they will put that reason in writing. You may have a case for “unfair selection for redundancy” and this could form the basis of such a claim at an Employment Tribunal.

The next question I would recommend is to ask your manager if the company will provide outplacement support. Some companies will organise and provide their own outplacement support, using in-house facilities (their own HR staff) or commission an external outplacement consultancy. For example my consultancy is regularly used by a number of companies in this area whenever they have to make one or more people redundant. “Go to Milverton Career Solutions and we will pick up their tab”.

Other employers will give you a lump sum of money for you to find your own outplacement company. Regrettably many companies will just give you the bare legal minimum redundancy payment and that’s it. You are on your own.

The more enlightened employers will provide or pay for outplacement support, in recognition of the past loyalty and commitment you have given the company. Also, of course, providing outplacement support to those being made redundant is a good way of maintaining the morale of the remaining workforce. The lucky ones who avoided redundancy will inevitably be worrying about the stability of the company, and wondering whether it will be their turn on the next round of redundancies.

By providing professional outplacement support, the employer is effectively saying to the remaining workforce that “we are a caring company and will look after you, should there be more redundancies”. Such a gesture goes a long way towards restoring morale amongst the remaining staff after other employees have been made redundant.

Another important question to ask your manager is “as you are making me redundant, will you provide me with an open reference?” A promise by your manager that they will give you a good reference in response to any future reference requests from potential new employers is not reliable enough. Yes your boss may respond positively to such a request, but what will happen if, in six months time, say, he has also been made redundant or left to go to another job because he saw the writing on the wall? Who will be left who remembers you?

I am a great believer in “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” and if you can get your boss to write you an open reference …. “to whom it may concern” … before you leave your job, then that is worth more than all the promises.

THINK STRATEGICALLY

The first thing that most people do when made redundant is reprint their CVs and send them or take them to the local High Street employment agencies. Wrong! First of all is the CV the best it can be? A CV is your marketing message, does it do you justice? In one of my earlier articles “Crafting the perfect CV” I outlined how to write a better CV. But a CV is part of your tactics, you should firstly be thinking about your career path strategy.

So you are an XXX and about to be made redundant. Do you want to continue as an XXX? You might get a job quicker if you apply for XXX vacancies, but can you see yourself remaining as an XXX for the next ten years, or until you retire? If you answer “yes” to that question you are indeed a fortunate person, and your strategy will be simple: continue to market yourself as an XXX.

But most people, if they are honest and can get past the financial aspects, will say to themselves: “I wouldn’t mind moving my career on, especially as there are limitations to continuing as an XXX. Perhaps there are no real promotion prospects, or there are severe salary limitations. Perhaps continuing as an XXX is quite a boring prospect.

So being made redundant could be the shot in the arm you need to do something positive about your career. The kick in the pants that you know you need, but have never bothered to do anything about as you have felt resigned to the comfort zone of working as an XXX.

Here are your strategic options: continue as an XXX, seek new employment as a ???, or try self-employment. Perhaps your redundancy pay-out could be the key to starting your own business?

ACT TACTICALLY

Assuming you have made your strategic decision, the next step is to find the right tactics to help you achieve your chosen strategy.

If you want to continue as an XXX because you enjoy it and feel warm inside at the thought of working as an XXX until you retire, then your tactics will be straightforward. Throw your old CV away, and rethink how you will market yourself to prospective employers. What are they looking for? What are your strengths? What is your Unique Selling Point? Why should an employer offer you an interview?

Remember that most CV readers will only spend between 5 and 20 seconds reading your CV before deciding whether to reject your application, or examine it more thoroughly after they’ve looked at the other CVs. So you have to get your selling message across very quickly. What is your selling message? That 20 years ago you passed History at GCSE level? I think not!

Now you have rewritten your CV then you can get it out to the employment agencies. Make sure you read all the local / national press and reply promptly to any adverts that appeal. Squat on the internet every day. Read some books about self-marketing.

But what if you have decided that continuing as an XXX is not so appealing, and a change of career is what is needed?

You now have two options: self-employment or finding a new career path as an employee; a career that is more suited to you and your career needs and limitations. This is the point where most people give up, as they cannot envisage what else they could do, other than continuing as an XXX, or as some simple derivation, such as XXY.

Some of my previous articles have dealt with franchising and self-employment and so I will skip those subjects in this article.

Finding a really suitable and realistically attainable new career path is not an easy task, but is the starting point for 90% of our clients. We help them identify optimum new careers and then give them the self-marketing tools to generate interview invites and then offers of employment - in a new career where, by definition, they have little or no relevant experience.

To achieve this career transformation you have two options: do-it-yourself, or get some professional help. The former will save you the consultancy’s fees but will take you a long time to achieve, whereas the latter will cost you the consultancy’s fees but will speed up the process immeasurably. What else you will gain if you get professional help, is a definite increase in self-confidence and the warmth of the feeling that you are not alone in this quest, you have someone at your side, supporting and guiding you.

So, dear reader, if you have been made redundant, or are facing that likelihood, then don’t over-react or panic. Sit down and think about your strategy and then your tactics. But don’t waste time, act decisively. Every week you are out of work you are loosing quite a lot of money, so whilst it might be nice to take a couple of months off to redecorate your lounge, think of how much potential salary you are loosing. The cost of the consultant’s fee perhaps?

Good luck!

The Career Doctor is Eric Hearn, Chartered MCIPD and Managing Director of Milverton Career Solutions Ltd, Ascot, Berkshire, UK.

Contact details:
Tel: 01344 624383
Email: milvertoncareers@btconnect.com
Website: www.careerdevelopment.co.uk