Why WPLC added Personal Career Management services
Nowadays it is an unfortunate fact of working life for most people that they are more likely than not to experience a period when they will not be working.
A quick show of hands amongst the Work Place Learning Centre team shows that we have all at some point in our career been in exactly that situation.
It is a question that led to a discussion of the different ways in which our employers had managed that process and the impact it had on us, and our careers, both immediately and in the long-term.
Of course, the good news is that no matter how devastating the experience might have been at the time, we all landed on our feet because regardless of when we had an enforced career change, we are all now enjoying working at Work Place Learning Centre.
We all agreed that the experience had been a great opportunity to learn.
It is all too easy to get into the habit of going to work at the same place every day, even though deep down we knew, with the benefit of hindsight that we were ready for a change.
Building on that idea of seeing enforced career change as an opportunity to learn we decided that outplacement support should be part of the Work Place Learning Centre catalogue.
We were pleased when our colleagues at Abeceder also agreed to build access to career management services into H2R their hiring to retiring employment management solution.
After investigating several options, the WPLC.co.uk team decided to ask Personal Career Management to be the outplacement service that we added to our catalogue.
We were very pleased when they agreed. There were several reasons why we invited Personal Career Management to join the WPLC catalogue of learning services.
EXPERTISE - After several conversations, mostly held over video conferencing we concluded that Personal Career Management really do know about career management.
Members of their team have written the UK’s number one selling CV book “You’re Hired! How to write a brilliant CV” and “Career Coach” a coaching book popular with both individuals and career professionals.
It’s not just our opinion, just like members of the WPLC team you’ll see members of the Personal Career Management team appearing regularly on the BBC and Sky News providing the expert commentary that these global news organisations need on career and workplace issues.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT - Just like the WPLC and Abeceder teams, Personal Career Management subscribe to the importance of continuous professional development and are continuously updating their knowledge.
CONNECTED - Sometimes, it is not what you know but who you know that is important. We were pleased to see that Personal Career Management is well connected within the recruitment industry so they can help clients identify which recruitment consultants and in-house recruiters to make a direct approach to.
Personal Career Management is also well connected to HR and professional associations helping them to keep abreast of how the expectations that employers have of different professions are changing.
PERSONAL - When we decided to add outplacement to the WPLC catalogue we knew that we did not want a provider that offered a cookie cutter approach that treated everyone in the same way regardless of what they needed.
We wanted to work with a provider who would listen carefully to both employers and the affected employee and create bespoke programmes that really met the unique needs of every situation.
Collectively the experience of the WPLC team means that we are very much aware of the importance of a positive, warm, and engaging approach because this is what helps people rebuild their confidence and capabilities through a challenging time.
We were pleased to see this in all our interactions with Personal Career Management.
ONLINE - With a global client base the WPLC team knew that we needed to work with an outplacement provider who could also work across borders and time zones, and a provider that had been coaching online for many years.
Travel restrictions during the COVID 19 lockdown meant that it was not possible to meet Personal Career Management face to face during our discussions about working together; so, you could say that the WPLC team have direct experience of the online abilities of Personal Career Management.
The Personal Career Management approach to online coaching includes live interactive and on demand webinars.
WPLC also experienced the icareercoach™ unique digital learning platform created by Personal Career Management.
COMPREHENSIVE HELP - When an organisation has to implement an outplacement programme it is not just the people who will participate in the programme that are affected.
The WPLC team know from personal experience of implementing decisions to terminate employment that the people who remain are also affected as are the people making and implementing the decision, the managers, and HR teams.
We were impressed by the resources Personal Career Management can provide for employee communication, on a wide range of associated subjects including managing employee well-being at what can be a stressful time.
EFFICIENT - When an organisation is implementing an outplacement programme it is important that they can be confident that the programme will run smoothly.
The WPLC team investigated the processes Personal Career Management have for managing their back-office operation and how they ensure that everything really will go smoothly.
We found systems in place that organised the outplacement itinerary for the affected employee, provided employers with regular progress updates and delivered timely and importantly accurate invoicing.
At WPLC we believe that in Personal Career Management we have found a supplier who shares our approach that everything must be in place, on time, on-budget and always handled with care and personal attention.
Members of the Work Place Learning Centre team are available to provide journalists and media organisations with expert comment on all aspects of learning at work.
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