I was on City Talk Radio this morning, talking about how the recession can have a personal impact on people. I talked on two areas.  What to do if you lose your job, and also the sorts of things you can do to keep your job, to help ensure you aren”t the first one to be made redundant.

These are available for download on the City Talk web site:

http://www.citytalk.fm/Article.asp?id=552594

and you can download them from here:

How to keep your job | If you lose your job

The current economic climate means that, if you are faced with redundancies in your organisation, providing employees with outplacement support is vital, says Denise Taylor. 

Outplacement is the process by which a company meets a duty of care to its employees facing redundancy. It helps people to come to terms with the shock of losing their job, to focus on what they want to do next and get them interview ready so they can get a new job, and maintain levels of self confidence through the inevitable rejection they are likely to face. 

Some people need to take the time to understand themselves, and to use this as an opportunity to consider career options. Other people may need to take time to talk through their feelings. Ongoing support and motivation is vital in helping people to find a new job, offering people just help with rewriting a CV is insufficient. There is a need to consider options, plan a strategy and get ready to present themselves well through all aspects of the application process.

This article has been published on the HR zone web site and you can access it here.

If you are not happy in your job, redundancy might seem like a great option.

But what are you going to do? With the recession there are less jobs available, and many good people looking for jobs. 

So first of all think carefully about the sort of work you want to do, getting coaching if needed.  You can then see how well you match up and how best to market yourself in your application.

Then find out how much your redundancy payment is likely to be. It could be anything from the statutory minimum to a years pay or more depending on length of service. Three months pay sounds great, but it could take you longer than that to get a job and you do need to eat and pay the bills. Find out what you are entitile to by using this link.

With the current economic climate you must be very careful before leaving a job, and if it pays reasonalby well, best to stay there until you have worked out a strategy for getting a new job.

More possibilities of redundancy, how safe is your job? It might not be directly to do with your industry, but the knock on effects could make things less secure. You could do nothing and wiat and see if the redundancy notice appears, or start giving it some though now.

According to city experts, thousands of people will lose their jobs over the next two years with the numbers increasing over time.

None of us know if our job is safe, but there are things we can do.

• Make sure our CV is up to date
• Be clear on our strengths and what we can offer another company
• Make ourself indespensible so that if some people are made redundant it won’t be us
• Keep our skills and knowledge up to date

And beyond our career we can work towards reducing our debt by being more careful with money.

Now may be the time to talk with a career psychologist, if I can be of help please let me know

Just yesterday in the newspaper I read of 3 companies planning large scale redundancies - BP, the BBC and probably Royal Mail. Companies talk about efficiency savings but the bottom line for staff is uncertainty of their future - what will they do next?

If the jobs are to go, the staff may get an outplacement package and this can be really helpful. I’m currently working with a company offering a supportive one to one service to help the staff who have been made redundant move on from the redundancy with a great CV, support to find a new job and interview training. Not everyone is so lucky. Some people get nothing, and others may have a half day group programme which is really just playing lip service to supporting staff.

No one is secure in their jobs any more. We never know what might happen so here are a few tips to ensure you are marketable:

• If you enjoy your work and want to continue on this sort of work make sure that you do a good job so if some staff have to go they are more likely to keep you. It is not just doing a good job but letting other people know you are doing a good job.

• If you enjoy your work, keep your skills up to date.  Don’t just rely on previous experience but seek out training and other ways to develop yourself.

• When you need to apply for jobs you will want to have examples of what you have achieved to enhance your application so make a note of new things you have done and problems you have overcome and keep this list updated.

• Think through where you want your career to be in the future- 2,5,10 years on and look for how to develop yourself for the future so you know what would be a good next step to aim for rather than to be willing to take whatever you can get.

• Use the information to create a CV and keep it updated so it is ready.

I hope this doesn’t happen to you, but if it does do ask your company about outplacement support.

If you have gone through redundancy I’d be very interested to hear your story, so please get in touch.