The Hindu Business Line : ‘Career transition services yet to take off in India’

Chennai, March 4 Even when the job market is busy fighting the war for talent, after a few hundred people were ‘disengaged’ by companies such as IBM and TCS early in February, the question in many minds is how far are the hiring or HR companies in India geared to offer ‘job outplacement’ services to companies and employees involved.

Unlike in the countries such as the US, Australia, Canada and the UK, there are no companies in India that provide the service exclusively, says Mr E. Balaji, CEO, Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd.

In those countries, the service is referred to as career transition services — CTS — or outplacement services —OS. Explains Mr Balaji, there are three parts to it — emotional counselling, financial counselling and career counselling. Placing the candidate in another organisation is a part of the third component in career transition services.

Specialised companies in that segment track all the vacancies in the market (from portals, company Web sites, newspaper advertisements etc), position the candidate in the organisations and help them find a job.

Typically the company that engages a career transition service provider pays for the service.

However, in India, organisations do not yet feel the need to go for an exclusive service provider and tend to refer such candidates to staffing service providers.

Since the organisations here are still hiring, such candidates do find placement without an active support from a specialist firm, he adds.

According to Mr Anand Varadarajan, Partner, ESP Consultants, another HR company, enlightened companies today put such people into outplacement. Simply put, the employees are given three to six months of hand-holding while helping them in moving to a new opportunity.

Services provided

The outplacement company or agency provides the retrenched employees a place to continue to operate in with a cubicle, a computer with Internet connection, printers, and so on. This is both a practical and psychological support since it gives such people a feeling that they have an office to go to the next morning. The single biggest psychological impact of not having anywhere to go to work the next day cannot be understated, says Mr Varadarajan.

Training

That apart, the agencies also give them some training on how to write better resumes, how to prepare for interviews and how to network. It may even include some mock interviews. It may advise them on how to start their own private enterprise and how to approach venture capitalists.

The client company pays a fee to the agency to provide the services. The costs are part of its lay-off costs. This fee is normally a monthly charge and can be for three to six months. It is assumed that the ex-employee will use this program to find another option.

During the post dotcom era in the year 2000-01 there were a few HR firms offering CTS to their clients. Once the economy picked up there is limited need for this service, says Mr Balaji.

impact of US economy

He says, “In the current scenario, it all depends on how deep and prolonged the slowdown in the US economy and its impact on India is.”

How well is Ma Foi prepared to offer CTS? “We have a HR consulting division which focuses on psychometric tests and counselling services, which can assist any retrenched employee to map the competence and identify suitable career options,” he said.

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