Flexible Career Transition

Following the recent take over of an Ipswich based technology company, some rationalisation of roles took place with the result that around 15 people faced redundancy. Akenham was asked to step in and provide outplacement support to those affected who included a variety of technical staff as well as a small number of managers, including HR. It was important that each individual was given one to one support, as their needs were quite diverse within this highly intelligent and IT literate group.

Our aim was to meet the needs of these individuals by:

  • Tailoring outplacement services to the leavers in a supportive, proactive yet sympathetic manner

  • Drawing on our knowledge of the local area and in particular of our contacts within local industry

  • Providing efficient project management to ensure quality and value for money

  • Providing information and reporting throughout the project to monitor each individual's status and progress

We responded by designing a flexible career transition service that gave individuals the opportunity of creating their own outplacement programmes.

The sponsor set the budget ad decided on the number of modules to be allocated for each individual but each candidate was then free to decide how to ‘spend’ their allocation on the options that would best satisfy their particular needs, putting them in the driving seat.

Everyone was invited to a familiarisation session and we listened as individuals voices their immediate concerns before reassuring them that support was available for each of them. Every candidate then had an initial meeting with one of our outplacement consultants to assess their specific needs and help them decide what to include in their programme.

Once the programme got under way, individuals were soon finding success in the market place for those looking for similar jobs. There were one or two individuals who had strong project management skills and found it slightly harder as the market now is very keen on specific qualifications, but even they were successful in securing a new role.

Many of the group were highly entrepreneurial in outlook and there was a great demand for advice on starting up their own business. One candidate went on to develop a very neat software programme to solve a common problem and others went into technical authoring and IT support for small businesses. The senior consultant on the programme was confident that their strong sense of purpose and intellect would help them succeed.

By creating a flexible service , Akenham was able to meet the needs of each individual and provide them with tailored support to help them achieve their objectives.