Outplacement: the professional support for career transition

Outplacement is a service that employers offer their dismissed employees to support them in their career transition. Traditionally, these programs aim to support those affected in their search for new employment. However, they can also be used as a stepping stone to self-employment. These programs usually offer:

• An in-depth career balance with skills assessment
• Training to develop new skills.
• Personal advice and support
• Resources for finding a job or setting up your own business

Why choose entrepreneurship?

There are several factors that motivate those affected by redundancy to opt for self-employment:

• Desire for autonomy: After working for a company, some people aspire to be their own boss and have more control over their professional life.
• Fulfillment of a dream: Redundancy can be seen as an opportunity to realize a long-awaited project of self-employment.
• Valorization of expertise: Some professionals choose to use their experience and expertise to develop their self-employment.
• Adapting to the job market: Faced with a sometimes difficult job market, self-employment is a viable alternative.
• Search for meaning: Starting your own business can meet the need to give your professional life more meaning.
• Work-life balance: Becoming self-employed can offer the opportunity to take control of your professional commitments and find a personal balance between your private and professional life.

Outplacement: the professional support for the transition to self-employment

Our special outplacement programs for business start-ups are designed to provide effective support for founders:

• Assessment of entrepreneurial skills: Identification of strengths and development potential to succeed as an entrepreneur.
• Training in business creation and management: acquiring the necessary skills in finance, marketing, business law, etc.
• Drawing up the business plan: Expert advice on how to clearly structure and present the project.
• Networking: Access to a network of professionals and entrepreneurs who can provide support and opportunities.
• Personal coaching: overcoming the stress and emotional challenges associated with the transition to self-employment.

The challenges of starting a business

Despite the benefits, this transition also comes with challenges:

• Financial uncertainty: Moving from a regular salary to a variable income can be stressful.
• Acquiring new skills: Becoming an entrepreneur often requires learning new skills quickly.
• Time management: It can be difficult to find a balance between the development of the project and personal life.
• Isolation: The transition from teamwork to individual entrepreneurship can be destabilizing.
• Pressure to succeed: The success of the project rests entirely on the shoulders of the founders.

OTP expertise for the transition to self-employment

As part of our outplacement programs, OTP supports a large number of people in Switzerland every year on their path to self-employment. From raising awareness of the topic of “self-employment” to drawing up a 3-year business plan, we accompany our clients through the various phases of the project. Most of our consultants have the experience of setting up their own business. This enables them to share their successes and difficulties with our clients. This experience is an added value for overcoming the challenges mentioned above.

If you are also considering the step into self-employment, please do not hesitate to contact us.

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What happened next? Read how he describes the process leading up to his dream job:

“When I was suddenly faced with the challenge of reorienting myself professionally after a long time at the same company, the uncertainty was great. The job market situation in Switzerland was difficult, competition was high and I felt overwhelmed and alone with the dynamics of the job market. During this difficult time, I decided to take advantage of the OTP outplacement program offered by my employer, and it was one of the best decisions of my career. »

My challenges at the time

The dismissal led to considerable self-doubt. I wondered whether I would be able to find a new job and to what extent my skills would be in demand. This uncertainty weighed on me emotionally and slowed me down from actively looking for new opportunities.

I wasn’t sure about current trends, digitalization, and requirements for applicants. My industry had changed a lot in recent years and I was struggling to find the right information to target my job search.

Creating a convincing CV and preparing for interviews was a big challenge for me. I hadn’t been actively looking for a job for a long time and felt unsure about how to present my experience and skills briefly and convincingly.

I had neglected my professional network. I knew that networking was important for job hunting, but I felt uncomfortable re-establishing old contacts or making new ones.

Solutions thanks to OTP Outplacement

Thanks to my outplacement coach, I was able to successfully overcome these challenges in the program tailored to my needs. The structured approach in determining my current position and the pragmatic support in my job search helped me to cut out old habits, see my situation from a different perspective and take targeted steps in a new direction for me.

Boosting self-confidence

My coach helped me to identify my successes and strengths, which boosted my self-confidence considerably. I became aware of my unique selling propositions and was able to present myself confidently as a result.

Developing a new perspective

My OTP coach motivated me to see my job search “with new eyes”, so to speak. Due to his international experience (he was an expat himself), he was an important source of inspiration and support for me in changing my entrenched perspective. Thanks to him, I quickly realized that the Swiss job market did not have to be the measure of all things for me, but that I would actually have a better chance of success with my profile on international terrain.

“Sticking to the plan”

Thanks to his help and that of the international OTP network of Career Partners International, I was motivated and supported to consider opportunities abroad. Defining the target companies and consistently sticking to my strategy (My plan) increased my visibility on the job market and ultimately led me to an international company in Doha, Qatar. They were very interested in my profile and, after an exciting recruitment phase, offered me my current position as Vice President Marketing and Communications. Six months have passed since then.

The result

My new role offers me daily opportunities to get involved and develop both professionally and personally on an international level. I am incredibly grateful to my family for supporting me and encouraging me to take new, unconventional paths.

I am extremely grateful to the OTP and its CPI colleagues from the Middle East for their proactive commitment and support.

If I had kept my search focus on Switzerland – without the support of the OTP – I would probably never have gotten this dream job. Inshallah!”

Are you interested in this topic? Give us a call!

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Executive-level managers – by contrast – are specifically distinguished by the fact that they have developed very diverse and complex skills and experience from working at various management levels within a company. In terms of age, they are often in the late 40s to late 50s with a correspondingly rich “job history”. They have helped shape corporate processes and usually have a complex set of professional qualifications, management skills and leadership competencies.

Our approach

With this in mind, executive outplacement is strategically oriented for executives when they lose their position: The next career step should be based on a clear understanding of the personal “career capital”, i.e. the skills, experience and networking potential that have been built up over the course of various leadership activities up to and including senior management. 

Reflecting on one’s own career history and exploring and evaluating career advancement is therefore the focus of executive outplacement.

Further development may mean seeking a new role, a more senior executive position, or even a move into a new field of activity that may lead out of management. Often, at this turning point in their career, executives also reflect on whether they have become “stuck” professionally and whether a fundamental change is now possible for them, which can also include greater life satisfaction.

OTP has many years of intensive experience in outplacement for executives at the highest levels of the hierarchy. They have worked in top positions and experience that even they are not immune to job loss. Triggering causes can be restructuring and strategy changes, shifts in the personnel portfolio of senior management or personal and conceptual disagreements with the previous manager. It is almost always a bitter setback for top executives, which often resembles a defeat and is difficult to cope with.

Our client

One of the clients we coached was the CEO of the Swiss company of a large international chemical company. He was unexpectedly dismissed from his position from one day to the next, his emotions alternating between anger, frustration and disappointment. It is not unusual for top managers to fall into a deep hole. Our client felt the same way as many managers: The termination was far more than just the loss of his job. Performance-oriented personalities like him define themselves by their professional position, their leadership actions. If they have to leave the company, this not only affects their self-image, but also – as in our case – has a drastic impact on their private life. Managers who are dismissed are seized by self-doubt, by a sense of shock that can reverberate for weeks, and by a depressed mood that also becomes a burden on their families and friends.

Our process

In a first step, OTP’s coaching process was aimed at absorbing the experience of loss and at understanding and reflecting on the constellation that led to the termination. 

In retrospect, it became tangible that there were own parts in the process that forced the separation. It also became tangible that there were structural changes that could not be influenced by the client. As a result, the client opened up to develop a new, forward-looking career strategy together with the coach. In the beginning, it was essential to create a new reading of his own “job history” as a manager and to develop a suitable brand that underpinned his attractiveness and competence.

The now initiated career transition turned out to be a time of reflection – of clarifying the client’s specific needs and requirements with regard to future activities. In a careful diagnostic phase, the individual competencies and “success stories” as well as the understanding of leadership were captured and identified in the perfected CV as the track record they represent.

The coaching used creative coaching techniques such as evaluation and decision matrices to evaluate variants of the future career path and to check their suitability for the client’s life concept. A continuation of the management position was considered as well as specific variants as a board member or interim manager. 

It was important for our client to understand that the classic application processes for top managers are hardly effective. Top positions, such as the ones mentioned, are rarely advertised in job portals.

OTP used its own network to open up discussions with private equity companies, board members and interim managers for the client. The end result was that the client decided to change direction.

The result

The analysis of his current situation had revealed an extensive national and international network in his industry, in customer companies and supplier companies. Intensified contacts in this network led to the fact that he was approached several times in his phase of reorientation from the network to support personnel search projects. Our client decided to work full-time in this field, which was new to him. 

Our coaching changed his character. The client was supported to take the first steps in an international consulting organization and to bring the broad spectrum of his management competencies into the HR business.

The client has gained a good foothold in his new area of responsibility and is very satisfied with his professional development.

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Until a sudden merger with an international pharmaceutical company terminated her position. Suddenly, as a “late-bloomer” in her early 50s, she was faced with change: a new employment or a risky new start with her own company?

We met with her for an interview!

How did the basic idea for your current company come about? 

It became clear to me during the last 6 months as an employee that I wanted to go my own way in the future and bring my know-how to the market as an independent entrepreneur in the field of clinical research. Although the termination came unexpectedly, it was a sign and encouraged me to definitely take my future into my own hands. Fortunately, I was able to use my previous positions for targeted networking, which also allowed me to plan my self-employment.”

What was important for you, especially during this not so easy time?

First and foremost, the valuable support of OTP, whose team brought me together with promising interlocutors and thus expanded my personal contact network. I particularly appreciated the structured and flexible coaching process, in which topics could be brought forward as needed. I got on very well with my coach and appreciated her motivation to intensify my contacts with potential clients in the pharmaceutical environment during the planning phase!

How did you experience the change from employment to self-employment?

In my “garden-leave” I was able to make an accurate assessment and also emotionally digest everything that was happening around me.  Especially in this not so easy phase, the support of my OTP coach was very valuable. The chance was presented to me to take on something new and to be active, in what I am good at and in what I find meaningful and fun.

Business plan? Financing issues? Competition? USP? In which way was your OTP coach able to support you and what did you appreciate most?

Especially as a “late bloomer” I was particularly grateful to be able to benefit from the experienced OTP coach at this difficult and decisive stage of my career. Her many years of expertise in supporting company founders was palpable and very valuable to me.

I greatly appreciated her dedicated approach. From the structured coaching and constant reflection, I always felt challenged and motivated at the same time. Also, the availability by phone between our face-to-face coaching sessions always helped me when answering time-critical questions. 

What were some difficult situations you had to deal with in the early stages?

Fear is always involved. But together with my coach, I found a way to motivate myself and reduce fears by using her mental training.

What is your formula for success in the start-up phase?

I think that it has helped me enormously to stay in the market and with my customers by means of consistent networking, thus building and consolidating trust. Acting, not reacting, being present on the market and proving that promised quality and deadlines are met!  

Ideas for the future: where would you like to be with your company in a few years?

This question will probably be answered by the future. Within a very short period of time, we have had success in acquiring various interested parties and orders are developing. 

Your conclusion of our coaching?

I found the coaching to be extremely appreciative and at eye level. Delicate topics and “off-topics” could be addressed and reflected upon. And it was fun to be accompanied throughout this process with empathy and drive. The OTP coach was able to attune herself to me very well; I am enormously grateful to her for that. I will never forget the first contract and the journey that led to it. 

What does the future hold?

The number of orders is good and when it comes to expanding, I will definitely come back to OTP. They will then be able to support me perfectly in the recruiting process with their TopScore® services. This, I am also convinced of!

Der Beitrag “Late Blooming”: After the outplacement success with the own company erschien zuerst auf OTP.

Together with our clients, we select the approach tailored to their specific needs, in order to fill the open position not only with the appropriate competence, but also with the right personality. 

A recent mandate

Our client, a US-domiciled foundation with a Swiss branch in Zurich, asked us to support them in the selection process for the new appointment to the position of the “Executive Managing Director”. Numerous interesting applications were received worldwide in response to their job advertisement. The assignment was to make a pre-selection from all candidates for our client, to propose 2 top candidates to the board of directors and to participate in the on-site interviews.

Our procedure

A structured initial interview with the current job holder led to the joint development of the candidate success profile, which defined the mandatory and desirable criteria for the selection process.

When reviewing the content of the application documents, particular emphasis was placed on professional experience, professional and personal competencies, language skills and the added value for the organization, as well as gaps and motivation to change jobs. 

After a careful analysis of the received dossiers, the selection was refined based on the candidate success profile and a pre-shortlist for the structured interviews with promising candidates was established.

The personal, competency-based initial interviews provided information about individual career steps with the acquired experience and competencies as well as the motivation for the advertised position. Structured reference checks were used to deepen collected impressions. 

The result

After the completion of the initial interviews, a definitive candidate short list of 2 top favorites could be drawn and presented to the American board of directors with a detailed report. On this basis, our client decided to invite these 2 candidates to an initial interview in Zurich. This interview was moderated by us and the impressions were reflected together.

After the interviews, the personality of the candidates was evaluated in an individual assessment in order to get to know their respective (leadership) competencies, value orientation and potential development areas better. These served our client as a valuable decision-making aid for his final choice. 

Topscore ® – the somewhat different approach

We advise you in all steps of the recruitment and selection process until the quick and successful integration into your company. We select documents of promising candidates with accurate statements based on structured clarifications as well as presentations of potential development fields. We relieve you from the analysis of the job profile to the finding and selection!

Talk to us 

Our services are modular. We advise you in all steps. Talk to us about the topics we can support you with and get to know our Topscore® approach. Expect a systematic selection process that produces well-founded decisions through proven selection methods.

We look forward to your non-binding first contact.

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Her clients appreciate her broad experience, her in-depth knowledge of the labor market and the application process, and her personal empathy. She is always able to motivate her clients to successfully take the necessary steps towards a fulfilling new job.

A lot has changed in outplacement coaching in the last 10 years. We have reviewed this time period together with Tessa Richter and looked back on her experiences and successes. 

Back then 20, today over 200 applications for one job

“The job market has become much more demanding. There are no more standard applications. Every application has to be tailored to fit the open position. Today, it is no longer unusual to receive more than 200 applications for a position. That’s why applications today have to fit exactly into the sought-after profile in order to be interesting and processed by recruiters and digital selection programs. Our goal with the client is not to find just a job, but the best possible one”.

Today, everything goes a little faster!

“In the past, you could assume that the recruiter would draw conclusions about suitability even for tasks you had never done before. Today there is no time for that! I have to clearly prove that I have the required competencies. What applicants might be capable of is quickly becoming secondary today compared to the past.” 

The Strategy!

“In the past, you were invited to an interview even without perfect documents. The “analog” job market functioned more openly back then. Today, the CV and the precise presentation of one’s professional career, showing all relevant competencies, have become central. Therefore, it is important to know your competencies and to present them in the best possible way. With this competence portfolio, a search area is developed together with the coachee and checked on the job market. This is the basis for the targeted application strategy. Today most applications only work digitally via online application platforms and social media. When we have revised and refocused the resume with our clients, they are suddenly invited to many interviews. This is where our comprehensive career review comes in handy, in which we reflect e.g. with managers on their leadership behavior and realign it, if necessary. Today, job interviews are also increasingly conducted digitally. You have to think about what is important for the interviewer beforehand and have practiced the new situation. Thanks to digitalization, up to 5 online interviews per job are no longer uncommon.”

No job application success without digital competence

“Automatic Tracking Systems (ATS)” are digital selection programs, which are now used by many, even medium-sized companies, for online applications. They form a new hurdle for the applicants, which they have to know! We pass on our know-how here, so that the application survives all “filters” and is apprehended.”

Networking is digital today!

“Thanks to LinkedIn, etc., we can now get and stay in touch digitally. This type of networking has greatly increased in importance, no matter at what level. Digital networking significantly increases the visibility of job seekers in the labor market. Nevertheless, these contacts must be regularly maintained and greeted – just as they were in the past.” 

Without social media, fewer chances of success on the job market

“The use of social media varies greatly – depending on how intensively job seekers have already come into contact with it in their work. It’s not always a question of age. Some people still find it difficult to use social media and only see the disadvantages. An optimal profile on LinkedIn and the continuous expansion of the professional network form an essential basis for success in job search.”

Job market for 50+ – yes!

“The opportunities of many aged 50+ years are often misjudged. I work with many clients in this age group who, thanks to my support, recognize their many years of experience and their advantages (e.g. breadth and depth of experience, different way of dealing with conflict or problem situations) and present themselves in a targeted way. The most important thing is to know your value yourself, to apply in line with the market, and not to want to compete with 30-year-olds.” 

Hurdle of digitization for over-50 job seekers 

“If you use technology the right way, you can always make it work for you. I recently assisted an over-60 client who was unfamiliar with social media. Thanks to my support and persistence, he quickly recognized the added value and found an exciting new job in record time for his age. This shows that digitalization in outplacement also brings benefits for our clients.”

10 years ago, there was no corona pandemic 

“Today, job interviews are increasingly taking place online, and that means new challenges: How do I best present myself in a video interview? What should be visible in the background? How long may my answers be and what signs in my counterpart should I watch out for? This is where our practical experience is a key factor for success in the interview.”

The “job for life” no longer exists! 

“Job profiles are changing and the time spent in a specific workplace is getting shorter. At the corporate level, we know about the fast pace at which people are willing to change today. It’s different at SMEs. There are still people who have worked in the same company for 20-30 years and then unexpectedly lose their job. Here, it is a matter of changing the negative self-image when leaving the company. It is important to note that today everyone changes jobs several times in his/her professional career. This belongs to our time and nobody is negatively branded because of it. On the contrary, today it is considered positive to change jobs again and again. It shows initiative.

The pressure is increasing 

“Due to the faster pace of change, digitalization and corona restrictions, there is much more pressure in professional life. According to recent studies (and also my experiences with clients) this leads to more psychological problems (burnout, exhaustion and anxiety). In my coaching, it has become very important to talk about these issues and include them in the process. It is more important than ever to find a new employment that really fits my person, skills, experiences and values. In this way, it is possible to reduce a significant amount of stress and pressure. This includes the topic: how can I better handle difficult, challenging situations in the future”.

Best-fit: A personal “success story”!

“The potential analysis of an engineer in the ICT industry revealed that he was not able to acquire the desired “more social” behavior after a personal oaching for several months. Soon, I noticed that he had a special ability to see both big picture and details of a situation. This did not make him popular as a project manager with his team at the time, as he also saw and pointed out all the mistakes directly. Together we elaborated a sustainable OTP Career Masterplan ©, which showed his development potential as well as his best-fit. It quickly became clear that he would be in the right place as an auditor in a consulting firm. Here he would be among like-minded people and could use his special skills in a meaningful and valued way. Within a few weeks of this insight, he got exactly that job. A few months later he contacted me. He was very happy to have found the best possible job and also new friends in the team. This thanks to our assistance. He is very grateful to his former employer for this support. This is an important added value for his former employer”.

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