Resilience in the face of rejection

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Looking for your next career move when facing redundancy can be hard. Regardless of your level of experience, industry knowledge or even your latest job role, there is a high probability that you will receive at least one rejection letter when you are looking for your new position.

Sadly, given the volume some companies receive, you may not even receive an acknowledgement of your application, let alone obtain a notice of rejection, which can be even more difficult when you have spent time and energy on applying for the role.

This isn’t an indication of anything that you have done wrong, or even that you weren’t suitable for the role you were applying for. With many other people also looking for their dream job, it is a statistical probability that you won’t always be successful, and a large proportion of people’s applications can leave them being made to feel ‘ghosted’.

However, in the face of rejection, it is important that you are resilient. The right job is just a successful application and interview away, but maintaining a sense of self and your self-confidence is imperative to enable you to perform well when the opportunity comes along.

Resilience is how well you can deal with – and bounce back from – challenges. Resilient people tend to maintain a more positive outlook and cope with stress more effectively. It can mean the difference between accepting rejection and being overwhelmed by it.

Although some people are naturally resilient, resilience can be learnt, and you can build resilience in a number of ways.

Set your goals – what are you looking for in your next role?

The threat of redundancy can be extremely daunting. However, setting yourself some reasonable goals can be the first step towards bouncing back. Those goals might be to revisit your CV, update your LinkedIn profile or reach out to a former boss, colleague or business partner for a coffee and a catch up. Whatever it is, setting and then achieving simple goals will help you start to work out – and work towards – what you want in the future.

Once you have set your goals, working towards them will also help you feel more in control of your situation. Finding a new job won’t happen without effort on your part, but breaking down the work that needs to be done and tackling it in a manageable way is important.

A sense of purpose

Redundancy is hard, but it can also be seen as an amazing opportunity to find an exciting new role or even change direction completely.  With a defined purpose, you’ll be more motivated to learn from your past experiences and keep going.

Outplacement is also a highly effective tool which your employer can provide to help you in finding your next career move following redundancy. Our team offers tailored outplacement to assist with this process, to help identify your options and transferable skills which could open new doors to your next role.

Believe in yourself

During a redundancy process it is important to retain confidence in your own abilities. It would be easy to start doubting yourself, but self-confidence is an important element of resilience. Listen out  for negative comments in your head. When you hear them, practice immediately replacing them with positive ones. Research has demonstrated that your self-esteem plays an important role in coping with stress and recovering from difficult events. Remind yourself of your strengths and accomplishments – and if you identify areas for improvement, take time to develop them too.

Develop your network

Your business network can play an important role in helping you find your next role. Reaching out to former colleagues, bosses, suppliers and other industry contacts can yield impressive results. It can also help your resilience, as having a network of supportive individuals is so important. Your personal network is important too, as we all need our champions and supporters cheering us on.

Embrace change

Flexibility and optimism are essential parts of resilience. By learning how to be more adaptable, you’ll be better equipped to respond when faced with a difficult life experience like redundancy. Change is difficult, but with a resilient mindset, you can come out of it stronger and happier, and with a new career.

 

Contact us today and see how our Consultants can help with Outplacement support and our Career Coaches can help your team build resilience.

 

Outplacement: helping create positive change

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It’s not just the New Year which sees many seeking pastures new. The financial year-end can also bring about many changes for individuals and companies too. Sometimes welcome, sometimes not. However, this chance for change can bring many benefits, and these can be fully realised through outplacement.

Why outplacement?

It is in a business’ interest to offer outplacement to its team if it is making significant structural changes. One of the biggest advantages of outplacement is that it gives an individual the opportunity to stop and think about what they really want from their career and next job move. They might be happy to find a similar role or the next step up in the same sector. Or, they might decide to focus on achieving something entirely new and different. It might be something which aligns more with their goals, on a totally different path. Through outplacement, a Career Consultant will work with an individual to help them identify what they need to do to get to where they want to be.

What is outplacement?

Outplacement can be hugely beneficial. However, the individual has to fully engage with it, to get the most out of it. There are many stages, which will come in a different order for each individual depending on their personal circumstances. The main areas include identifying options, preparing a CV, updating LinkedIn and putting a strategy in place. This is followed by interview training and check-ins.

Outplacement is not a linear process. Some might need to start from scratch, especially if they have been out of the job market for a long time, and should begin with writing a new CV. Others might need a tailored approach which reflects their more recent job search experience, such as just tweaking and updating their LinkedIn profile. Outplacement can help an individual make sense of what needs doing, in what order, without it becoming overwhelming.

Making it work for you

One of the key services offered by Career Evolution is outplacement. Having one of our professional and highly skilled outplacement Consultants working with the job-seeking individual will help ensure that they stay focused and accountable. Whatever the time of year, individuals job searching will be competing against other people looking for their next career move too. However, through their outplacement commitment, and with Career Evolution’s support, this will help them to find their next career move. When they find it, our Consultant will continue to help them prepare for the interview and achieve the role they want.

Speak to us to see how we can assist you.

What an exit – how to enhance an employee’s departure

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The loss of an employee can be a difficult time for a company, especially if they are exiting from a senior role and have been with the company for a long time. Either of these elements can have a detrimental effect on staff morale.

As they leave it is essential that HR’s off-boarding process manages their exit effectively, not just for the employee involved, but also as a clear message to the rest of the company, and potentially for new hires, that the business will continue to look after its staff, even when they depart for pastures new.

While this can be easier for an employee leaving of their own volition and are departing on good terms, this is also important to manage for an employee who might be begrudgingly handing in their notice if they were unhappy in their role, or because of a company decision, such as redundancy. This can ensure that the company can retain some good PR, even out of a negative situation.

Sweeten the deal

There are multiple ways you can enhance an employee’s exit at an executive level.

Retaining some of the perks which the employee enjoyed for a short period of time after their departure, will help smooth their transition from the company and should be looked upon favourably from the remaining staff.

Offering such things as being able to keep hold of the company car, work mobile or laptop for another month for example, or extending their healthcare, will be sure to be appreciated, especially if their move is a geographic one as well as a work one.

Organising a moment of farewell, allowing other members of staff the chance to wish the exiting employee well in their next role, will provide all involved with a positive and lasting impression.

A small gift can act as a token of appreciation, and could take the form of company-branded merchandise, to continue to keep the company’s name in the leaving employee’s mind, especially if the door remains open for their potential return in the future.

Room to improve

One way to get a true measure of a company is to look at how they treat their departing staff, and, whatever the circumstances of a member of staff leaving, if they are treated with respect and made to feel valued, this can only lead to more positive reflections for the business.

Learnings can also be gained from the process, and used to inform future recruitment strategies and improve staff performance and retention, to assist with the growth and reputation of the business.

A good send-off

In order to retain a positive relationship with the exiting employee, providing support and assistance would not only be beneficial to them, but also the company. This can help to create a potentially beneficial connection, with the greater likelihood of new talent being referred, and enhancing the company’s appeal to attracting and retaining staff.

Offering coaching or outplacement support to the exiting employee can demonstrate how they are valued as a person as well as an employee, and can go a long way towards thanking them for their years of loyalty and service to the company.

We can offer a personalised approach for employees at all levels, providing a tailored package to suit the individual, demonstrating consideration and aiding towards a genuine, positive, beneficial and effective employee exit experience.

Get in touch to see how we can aid your staff leaving strategies.

Making the right decisions

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As an HR professional, choosing an Outplacement company to work with can be a difficult decision. It’s very dependent on what your company is like and in which areas it needs guidance. As the commissioning client, you should be given the opportunity to get to know your chosen outplacement Consultant. In turn, they should take the time to ask you about the issues and individuals involved, as well as giving a full explanation of the process and how they treat people. Knowledge and experience are crucial, and a good consultancy will have accrued a great deal of both over the years. Selecting the outplacement company that is suited to your needs is one of the biggest challenges facing HR professionals. You don’t want to find yourself wasting time and money, so choosing one that is a good match is paramount.

Mapping the road ahead

A good approach to outplacement is to allow a Consultant to initially spend some time with the company or individual, so they can get to know each other and discuss how to work together. We offer outplacement recipients an introductory session, lasting up to a hour, to explain what we do and importantly talk through their career to date. The process is two-way, so it’s worth communicating from the outset, openly and honestly. Once you’ve found an approach that will work, outplacement programmes have a variety of collateral benefits that are part of the discussion and coaching process.

To give just one example, if an individual is assessing where they currently are with their career and where they would like to be, it’s a good idea to build and strengthen their CV and LinkedIn profiles. These are useful tools in making someone more attractive for employers and allows the showcasing of strengths and knowledge in a positive way. It’s also worth taking time to map out some other areas that will be looked at, such as opportunities to practice interview skills. It might be that the Consultant also explores further avenues, including self-employment, contracting, interim and perhaps Non-Executive Directorships. Strategy and review are vital ongoing components to ensure an individual keeps on the right track and feels supported while they are doing it.

Getting along together

One of the most gratifying aspects of being a Consultant is when clients realise how much they are getting out the process and relationship. The ideal scenario will result in the candidates getting on well with their Consultant on a personal level as well as a professional level, thereby building a rapport. At Career Evolution, we have always worked on a holistic basis, to help support our clients and ensure that our outplacement candidates not only get the right job, but also one that will suit their preferred lifestyle.

This is where getting to know your clients will really pay dividends. As times and work patterns have changed, we have all realised that the daily commute and  9-to-5 work patterns needn’t be the norm. Many factors have changed people’s expectations of work-life balance and what they hope to achieve to fulfil their career. A good relationship between Consultant and client will enhance this – so it’s all about making the right choice in the first instance. That initial decision can make all the difference in the long run.

If you’d like to learn more about outplacement and how it can help your business, then contact one of our outplacement Consultants today. [link]

 

Can you read your CV?

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Our CVs are one of those aspects of our personal profile that are often the last to be amended. This is perhaps because these days we are more likely to update our status on social media, or our job status on LinkedIn instead. As a result, we are more up-to-date in our profiles in some ways, but less so in others. We have different priorities and often something like a CV is only refreshed when we need it, to send out to prospective employers.

The story so far

If you are working with an outplacement Consultant, they will help you get your CV in shape. It’s worth remembering that a Consultant will not write your CV for you. They will help you to look at career/role/sector options through discussion and then point you towards how your CV can best display you and your skills. In this way your CV will speak to your selected readership or audience. This guidance is a reliable way of honing your CV towards sectors you would like to work in. It also helps you identify where your strengths and weaknesses lie, in relation to where and how you see yourself. All you really want from a CV is a true reflection of you, your career and experience thus far, and your ambitions and career goals – your story so far.

Cut the jargon, having read your CV

Your Consultant will be well versed in working with people at all levels, in multitudinous roles and sectors. They won’t understand the jargon necessarily, but they can challenge what you have put down, ask what it means and help you construct and articulate your skills and achievements. If you cannot explain what the jargon means, it’s probably best to take it out, as if you’re pressed on it in an interview, you’ll be caught out. At a push, if you think the jargon is justified for the sector – some digital abbreviations if the role is in IT for example, a sector littered with technical words and acronyms – then by all means leave them in. But in the main, aim for a general readership and an accessible tone.

The silence of print

My ‘go to’ when working with clients, usually after quite an amount of work, is to ask them to read their CV aloud to themselves. Speaking out loud changes the tone of the words dramatically from the silence of print. A good sign is if you simply write the way you speak. For someone who does this instinctively, there will be little  discrepancy between the written word and the spoken one. We all have different styles of writing and language that we use. If it sounds stilted, then it isn’t you and you should correct it. Always aim for plain English when you’re assembling a CV – the more straightforward the better. Again, your Consultant will help you recraft until you’re happy that the tone and content reflects the true you.

Outplacement leads to brighter future for wellbeing consultant

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Director Sue Thomas is absolutely delighted to share this story and would like to express her appreciation to Sam for this article, which describes her new business and the part played by outplacement with our new principal consultant Margery MacKellar.

Samantha Langford set up her health and wellbeing consultancy, Gaia Workplace Wellbeing, in October 2022. Now, having almost completed her first year, Sam has a busy order book and plans for business development. Once just a dream, her business became a reality following redundancy and outplacement support from Career Evolution.

When the company Sam had been working for as a Health and Wellbeing Advisor for 18 months made her redundant, with one month’s notice, on her return from her honeymoon, she was understandably shaken. However, her employer offered her outplacement support and despite initially being unsure whether to take it, decided to give it a go.

A winning pair

An important part of working with Career Evolution is the skills and experience of its Consultants. Sam was paired with Consultant Margery MacKellar, who worked closely with her to rebuild her confidence and help Sam recognise where her strengths were. Sam explains: “Margery was incredible. Without a doubt, without her support, I wouldn’t have got to where I am today.”

Thinking big in outplacement

Sam added: “Margery was so encouraging. She made me realise that the world was my oyster. I am passionate about reducing mental health stigma, promoting workplace health and wellbeing and ensuring staff feel comfortable to bring their whole selves to work. Setting up Gaia has enabled me to do this and help more people. I have also been able to focus on areas I feel particularly strongly about, such as Menopause, Grief and Bereavement and Trauma Risk Management.”

With initial plans to set up as a sole trader, Sam ultimately opted to set up a limited company, as well as offering some associate training work. She focuses much of her energy on working with SMEs and not for profit clients. Through coaching conversations, Margery was able to support and encourage Sam to think big and pursue her dreams.

Wellbeing expert

Sam is a Mental Health and Suicide First Aider, Trauma Risk Management (TRiM) and Sustaining Resilience at Work (StRaW) Practitioner and Invisible Illness Advocate. She also holds a NEBOSH Certificate in Managing Health and Wellbeing in the Workplace, as well as a Masters in Workplace Health and Wellbeing with Distinction.

Sam commented: “One of the things Margery helped me with was providing coaching but then also settings tasks to keep me focused on what I was trying to achieve. She made me write a bio statement that I felt really sold me and what I could offer. She encouraged me to turn my passive statements into strong statements that showcased what I was capable of. The support from Career Evolution and Margery has been life changing, and I am so glad I took advantage of the outplacement.”

For further information on outplacement, visit https://www.career-evolution.org/services/one-to-one-executive-outplacement/