Managing Workplace Downsizing

Help people to quickly come to grips with anger and/or grief so they do not get stuck in a state of limbo not knowing what next steps to take. If individuals lose their jobs for cause, or quit, there is not the same shock about the situation, and more a call to action to quickly find something else to do. In a downsizing situation people feel trashed and unwanted, when in reality it is a numbers game and they just happen to get the short end of the deal. It is important to acknowledge the shock and grief while you try to coax individuals to take the next step carefully – to consider what kind of job they would like, rather than to take just any job at all. This is not the time to reconstruct steps leading up to downsizing, what actions the individual might have taken to hang on to their job at the expense of another worker, but one of the factors may be that technology changes drive out any workers that are not up-to-date on the technology being used.

Study, Planning, & Budgeting Skills

It is important to ascertain if people are qualified for the jobs they really want. What may happen is that technology changes create a need for further education that stands between the person and their past job. Of course we do not want to repeat this situation by that person trying to find another job in the same field where they face the same risk that due to technology upgrades they would still be out of work. People tend to dismiss this notion of study skills – fact is that they may be better off identifying what is preventing them from hanging on to their career and then asking government help (like 2nd careers) to explore specific training courses. We believe that this is a viable strategy so long as people can pick and choose the courses they want, rather than having to sign-up for a complete program of study. In this stage of the career coaching process you may have to build a plan for the candidate who is unable to take charge of their own options.

Professional Job Search Skills

Short-term focus is important for people that need to find a source of cash flow, even if the opportunity is not the best that they might qualify for. The goal is to get the resume in front of qualified job interviewers interested in the skills these people can currently contribute. It is not important what the theory says: what is important is to make them see this as a “full-time job” for as long as it takes to get a suitable position. Once a candidate has exhausted what they can learn to be more efficient in the job search process they can move on learning about career planning, because it may involve a greater amount of preparation. When we teach people how to go through these steps in our focused training programs they develop a sense of the many different options that are available, whereas being pressured to do something now does not leave much energy to start thinking long-term.

Career & Employment Strategy

A significant aspect of this focus is how you interact with people to sell yourself. Once people are able to pump out their application and resume to whatever job opportunity they are interested in it is time to explore how they come across in interviews and how they are able to sell themselves. This is also a time to evaluate jobs that are desirable but call for skills the candidate does not possess at the moment, but in specific cases they may be able to take the appropriate training from our self-study program in order to quickly get up to speed (it depends on how wide the gap in prerequisite skills actually is). Working with a client on career strategy may continue even if they land a job, especially when it is clear there is a risk that long-term layoffs will again be in the works for people who are less qualified. It is important to be able to continue with a candidate even if the job search is not as productive as you want it to be, because it provides them with some sense of stability when everything else seems to be falling apart.

Professional Workplace Behaviour

This is something that unfortunately gets a lot of press at the moment. The big challenge is that in order to help people you cannot express judgment about their reported behaviour. Ignorance is no excuse, but it is nevertheless a factor in creating a bad vibe in the office or other workplace. The best option is where an individual seeks help (or gets referred to you) before the behaviour reaches the point that an employer is obligated to take strong action. The worst option is when that is the reason for termination that haunts the individual trying to find work somewhere else where they are not keen of introducing that behaviour in their workplace. It takes a lot of self-control to remain neutral about the situation in order to be able to help a client come to grips with what is acceptable in order to prevent an actual workplace intervention that can ruin their career.

Learning Formats       SECC_CCB

This course is currently available in a classroom setting (public or company private) with approximately 15 contact hours in addition to the prerequisite training in the individual subjects.

PDF – Certificate Of Completion

Each course offers a certificate of completion that identifies the course, the student, and a brief description of the course. To receive a certificate the student must have attended at least 80% of the course sessions. This personalized certificate is forwarded to the student by Email.

PDF – Course Notebook

Each course includes a notebook in PDF format that provides the minimum knowledge the student must master in order to obtain the certificate. In the notebook you will find references to other study materials. Students receive the notebook by Email when their registration is confirmed.

PDF – Program Overview

An overview of this study program can be downloaded from the website by right-clicking on the program link on the enquiry page.

PDF – Current Training Schedule

A list of upcoming training sessions can be downloaded from the website by right-clicking on the schedule link on the enquiry page.

Registration – Service Providers

To register for any training course please look on the enquiry link page of your service provider (from where you accessed this website). On the page you will find a registration request form where you can order the course that you are interested in. The availability dates will be provided to you, along with payment instructions if you decide to go ahead.