Job Loss: Outplacement Programs

Outplacement counseling (OPC) is a form of career counseling that organizations offer to displaced workers to help them deal with job loss, develop job search skills, and successfully transition back into employment. Despite the fact this is a multimillion-dollar business, little is known about its effectiveness, whose best interests are being served (the organization’s or the individual recipient’s), and the measures of success being used. This chapter reviews the history of outplacement; typical services offered by OPC firms; measures of success; individual characteristics that increase participation in and success with OPC; what helps, hinders, or would have helped individual recipients; challenges related to OPC; directions for future outplacement counseling research; where OPC stands today; and what is needed for OPC to help the vulnerable population it is intended to serve.