A New Year
Welcome to 2018 everyone… the beginning of a new year usually gives us space to reflect on what we’ve accomplished, and what our new goals and aspirations are for the immediate future.
I recently explained to someone what I do for a living… and as is a typical reaction, they were shocked that such a company exists, as they had never heard of such a thing as Outplacement. It got me thinking about what a truly, strange business outplacement is! Most when they hear the details of our work, most will focus on the fact that we are charged with the difficult task of supporting and navigating emotions when someone is at often the lowest point of their careers, or lives in general. The point in time when they are told that their services at work are no longer required. Of course, that is a very tenuous time for both the employee affected and the managers who have had to make such a decision, but it is the other side of the business that is the catalyst of why we actually do what we do as outplacement consultants!
The fact is, given the experience we have developed in the industry over the years, we can confidently declare to our new candidate clients that termination and job loss is truly only a temporary situation. Everyone lands on their feet. Some may take longer than others. But the point is, if we work together, the last job you held is not the last job you will ever hold – although it may feel like it at the time! No matter what ones personal circumstance, there is always some way that one can contribute – a way to contribute that fills ones soul – whether that be to a corporation similar to the last, a different type of industry, a different type of position, a non-profit posting or volunteer work!
I believe that the goal of every outplacement consultant should be to help candidate clients first find their ‘contribution goal’, one that they can get excited and passionate about, and second to help them get there the most effective way they can. People often disregard the notion of personal passion and work combined… instead focusing on the mighty dollar, how they are going to make ends meet and how they are going to reach their financial goals. Don’t get me wrong, I know that making ends meet is a reality that we are all faced with. But, it doesn’t mean that we cant start by trying to mesh the two things the best way we can.
Someone who gets up each day, excited about the contribution they can make to their organization or their community makes life so much ‘more’. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be a change in position or career, it could be as simple as a change in working environment… a working environment where you are interacting with like minded people, people with a common goal, goals that you can all believe in.
This is a common belief at CMS, among the Program Coaches to work with our candidate clients. They are qualified life, strategic, career and high performance coaches, who look at our candidates from a holistic perspective. They understand that work is only a small part of ones life in the grand scheme of things.. but it is a part that affects the more important areas of life, especially family, dramatically. Our coaches get to know our candidates and what’s important to them quite well, and they do their best to get our candidates thinking more strategically about their next career steps and how they can positively or negatively affect the other areas of their lives.
This point of view is the catalyst then to the rest of the CMS program where we implement the most practical approaches to job searching – supporting each candidate every step. Besides offering meaningful and personal career coaching and job search help to candidates, at CMS we believe that everyone regardless of their title, age, education, or income level is entitled to the same generous support. We are all human beings after all. We all have responsibilities to our families, to ourselves and to our bank managers! We all need help at one point or another in this life and it is the objective at CMS to make our job search programs as accessible and cost effective enough that HR Managers in all sizes of organizations, can offer them to anyone that they have the unfortunate task of letting-go.
In case you didn’t know, CMS is a family owned and operated company, in fact it was my father who started the business in 1981. And although we have grown over the years, we remain a very hands-on, grass-roots management team who holds our corporate integrity close to our hearts. Our family’s name depends on it. My primary job is to ensure that we are providing meaningful help to people who really need it. Who may be really struggling after a termination. It is also my job to make sure that our HR clients are confident that the services that we are providing are effective, and that the prices are fair. We recognize that offering outplacement services as part of a severance package is not a legal requirement and we have a real sense of gratitude when one of our programs is chosen to be offered to an employee in need. Failing the candidate client by not supporting them sufficiently, or taking advantage of the generosity of our HR clients is not in the DNA at CMS.
Its my personal belief that working with HR professionals through difficult organizational changes, builds trust and bring us together as professionals and as human beings.. its my humble hope that you can think of us at CMS as branch of support to your HR team. Someone you can reach out to at any time to get a second opinion, to bounce ideas off of with no strings attached.
In closing, I wish to thank those of you who we have worked with in the past, for your continued support and for your insights in the improvement of our services for your employees, and to wish you all, a happy and productive 2018.
Louise Hack, President
