Day Surgeries - Career Transition in the City

Career Transition in the City

When one of our long-term clients - a medium sized City Insurance and Reinsurance Broker – had to reorganise recently, with the result that over 20 staff from a variety of functions would be facing redundancy, they turned to Akenham to provide them with outplacement support.

The HR Director was in conversation with us for some months before the actual reorganisation was announced and we spent time with her working out the right approach for these particular individuals.

At an early stage in the proceedings, our operations manager met with the HR Officer who was to manager the process and this helped to cement a close working relationship for the duration of the project. We also introduced her to the senior consultant who would be delivering most of the support and managing the project on the ground. He was chosen particularly for his specialist knowledge of the sector as well as his considerable experience in helping individuals make successful career transitions.

In the event – the approach we adopted was to provide one to one support on an on-site day ‘clinic’ basis. Each individual received the support they needed to develop their CV and hone their interview skills and self marketing techniques. Some also needed early retirement advice or to explore self employment options. As a result of our close knowledge of the insurance sector we were able to help a number of people directly into new jobs via our preferred agencies or through personal contacts with other Brokers. All also had access to our online Careers Centre which provides links to a number of useful databases and other information sources.

All 19 staff who took up the service secured new jobs or new career directions within a couple of months. In all, the consultants spent 10 days on site and because we were so closely involved in the whole operation, and the HR function was so helpful throughout, the project was achieved with the minimum of disruption to all involved.