Support during an 80 person redundancy programme
Posted on 11th September 2017 at 10:09
Emerald Starfish was asked to support staff through the closure of the Corby KP Snacks site to ensure that all candidates were “fit for interview” with interactive CV and interview workshops delivered on site.
The Challenge
Emerald Starfish was asked to bring their expertise from the recruitment field to help with the outplacement redundancy programme of 80 staff from KP Snacks as a result of the planned closure of the Corby production plant.
Many of the staff had been there for many years and hadn’t had to properly apply for a new position at all.
The Background
KP Snacks approached Emerald Starfish as a result of a recommendation. The needs of the project were very varied, with a wide range of workers from factory floor workers, through to administration staff and senior management. The workforce consisted of many candidates who had over 10 years service, whilst others had more recently joined. Not all candidates had English as their first language. Emerald Starfish worked with the management team to devise a programme that would be most appropriate to all staff members.
The Solution
Emerald Starfish offered support to the candidates which was tailored to their individual needs. This support included:
1. Psychometric testing of the workforce to help individuals identify their personal strengths to enhance their CVs and to determine their skill base.
2. CV writing workshops to ensure that every individual had the best CV for their chosen career path by the end of the session.
3. Interview skills workshops to enable candidates to have the confidence at interview to secure their next position.
4. Interview practice sessions in a one to one environment for candidates to be able to practice their interview answers and interview performance.
5. LinkedIn workshop sessions to help applicants build their on-line profile and gain endorsements and recommendations.
6. Career counselling sessions for senior management tailored to their specific requirements.
The result
Candidates were asked for feedback at the end of each workshop session. They were asked to rate the sessions based on the following criteria:
Quality of the speaker
Relevance of the workshop
Pace that the information was presented
Knowledge of the speaker
Overall score
All candidates (100%) found all the workshops either very good or excellent, across all measured aspects.
What the Client said
"We used Caroline to support staff at all levels when we made 80 redundancies due to closing a site. It was clearly a sensitive time and we chose to bring Caroline on board to carry out a range of training including CV writing skills and interview techniques. Caroline was excellent at tailoring the content and style to suit each level. At the front line she taught basic, but important skills and spent time with people who hadn’t applied for a job for 20 years. She also worked with senior managers on a totally different level, taking them through a program of marketing themselves through CV’s, interviews, on-line, with recruitment consultants etc.
Our staff survey asking people to rate the training scored the highest amount of “very satisfied”. This was particularly an achievement given the difficult circumstances of the site closure. They found her knowledgeable, dedicated and really easy to learn from.
"I would highly recommend Caroline"
Sam Thain – Multi Site Factory Manager
Tagged as: Outplacement, Redundancy
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