In today’s ever-evolving world of work, selecting the right career transition partner is vital for your organisation’s employer brand and for the outcomes of employees departing your organisation.
Your why for sponsoring employees with a career transition program is to get them on their feet again, provide a framework and resources to enable a high momentum transition, to help them recover from their unique transition experience and feelings, support them to flourish, mitigate any wellbeing risk, to build their career resilience muscle for the short and long term, and elevate your employer brand.
Here’s five must-haves for choosing a career transition partner:
1. Tailored Experience and Empowerment:
Cookie-cutter solutions don’t support diverse and meaningful transitions. Your departing employees are unique and so are their needs. While many will be in job search mode, not everyone will want to find another role. Some may be considering a career change, taking a break, exploring a business option, retirement or something left of center.
Explore how your provider supports diversity, choice options, pathway alternatives, content variety and blend, and the level of participant empowerment.
Empowering choice is critical to employee satisfaction outcomes and your EVP. Ensuring an empowered career transition solution, enhances career transition outcomes for individuals.
2. Employee Wellbeing and Support:
Multi-stage life transitions are a sign of the times. Every transition has its story and has the potential to derail, unhinge, and bring us to our knees.
Redundancy is a heightened time for wellbeing risk. If you’ve ever been in the redundancy seat (as I’m sure you have based on the statistics!) you’ll understand the vulnerability and courage needed to pick up the pieces and create your next new beginning.
There is a duty of care for the mental health of departing employees that extends beyond their day of departure from your organisation.
Given that life is all about managing multiple transitions with courage, resilience and empowerment, wellbeing really does need to be woven into the support we provide our departing employees, ongoing.
Explore how providers are building the longer term resilience of people, beyond this transition.
Look for a partner who places employee wellbeing at the forefront by providing access to counseling, psychologists, and holistic support. Explore how they provide wellbeing support, how they facilitate whole of life reflection and support participants to connect the dots for supported insight and goal setting.
3. Value-Based Cost Structure:
Traditionally, the career transition industry comes with a whopping cost per program, by fixed program duration. In today’s world, a great career transition program should not cost the earth and should not be driven by duration. Gone are the days of an exorbitant program fee and limited periods of support. Ensure there are budget friendly program options for you to choose from.
Gone too are the days of a one size traditional program structure. A great way to better manage your career transition cost is to partner with a provider who offers a combination of fixed and variable program features, such as credit option for departing employees. Opting for a variable credit option as part of your program offering empowers with choice for a more holistic and individualised program experience, and caters to your career transition budget. Be mindful to explore what happens with unused credit. You don’t want to waste a cent.
Talking all things value, open-ended programs are the gift that keeps on giving. They’ll ensure your departing employees are supported with their unique needs on their terms, ongoing, during this transition and beyond. Look to sponsor your departing employees with the gift of a career transition program for life, enabling life long resilience and support. There should be no extra cost associated with this.
There is a value perception by HR that utilisation and landing outcomes are the primary indicators of program efficacy. It’s actually not as straightforward as you may think.
The outcome of landing another role is certainly important when an individual’s transition goal is aligned to finding another role, asap. It’s a less reliable value indicator where transition goals align to alternative pathways such as taking time out, transitioning to retirement, reskilling or upskilling, different ways of working (such as contract or freelance), business start up, and more.
Furthermore, traditionally we’ve judged the efficacy of a program based on how many program components individuals engage with (and give them a fixed number of months to take advantage of support). The thing is, if we’re talking value and unique transition journeys – value looks different to each and every program participant and is not time bound.
Some people are hungry and ready and dive right in, taking advantage of everything on offer. Others will be slower to engage or have a preference for how they engage (check in calls, one on one, group, video, tools, etc).
HR leaders want visibility on utilisation and want to be assured of value for money. Utlisation metrics are interesting, however are not the driver of efficacy. Think twice about programs driven by duration. Programs by duration do not necessarily meet the unique transition needs of people. Transition is not time bound, nor should the support that is being provided.
By focusing on the value provided, opting for an unlimited duration (at no extra cost), and providing a blend of fixed and variable program features, you can guarantee comprehensive support throughout the entire transition journey and beyond. Your employer brand will thank you.
4. Strong Provider Relationship:
Choosing a career transition partner should go beyond a mere transactional association. Look for a partner who establishes a meaningful connection with your organisation, demonstrating empathy and understanding rather than adopting a hard sell approach.
Long-term partnerships offer invaluable insights into your organisation’s unique needs, allowing your provider to offer add value, mitigate risk and align with your company culture and values.
5. Prioritise Employee Data Security:
In an era where cybersecurity is a top priority, safeguarding employee data during a career transition is crucial. Ensure that your chosen provider adheres to the ISO-27001 Standard, meeting the highest industry security standards.
Trust is paramount when dealing with sensitive employee information, and complying with these standards ensures that data remains confidential and protected from potential threats.
Written by Kirsty Turnbull, COO, Career Money Life. If you’d like to explore partnering with Career Money Life, we’d love to understand your unique needs and share more about our award winning Career Transition Program. Please be in touch for a chat and demo.
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