Human Resources Outplacement Services Program

About the Program

Category: Personnel Management, Employment and Training (Best in Category)

Year: 2010

In 2008, the world-wide economic crisis resulted in declining county revenues, budget reductions and a large number of employees being placed on layoff. The Human Resource Outplacement Services Program was reactivated to provide needed assistance with the layoff process. The program was initially formed in 2002 to provide job reinstatement assistance to approximately 50 classified employees who were placed on layoff during 2002-2003 and to provide layoff related consultations to employees and management. Classified employees are employees who are represented by labor agreements or are non-represented employees who are covered by Snohomish County Code Personnel Rules. Four HR employees from the employment and benefits functions worked as a self-managed team in this program. They were called the Outplacement Services Group (OSG). In August 2008, when the outplacement program was restarted, a change was needed. A strategic decision was made to improve the administration of the program and to provide additional services and training. These were added to meet the needs of management and the needs of employees facing unemployment in a tough economy and in a county hiring freeze. With the well-being of the employees and their families in mind, the new services that were added included training classes on financial basics, job search skills, an outplacement webpage, e-learning classes and presentations on benefits and unemployment. A Human Resources Manager was assigned as program lead and a cross-functional HR Team of 12 was assigned to OSG in order to accomplish the increased complex workload. During the redevelopment and start-up phase, the entire HR department staff was involved in getting the program off the ground. Working in partnership with community resources and labor representatives, the program has provided service contracts to over 1000 employees, managers and labor representatives.