OutPlacement News June 2023

OutPlacement News June 2023

OutPlacement-News.de reports regularly on everything worth knowing about OutPlacement, NewPlacement, career, professional separation, application process, graduation, onboarding and integration.

Questions to the partners of NewPlacement AG about advantages in OutPlacement consulting.
OutPlacement-News: Many applicants have a problem with their age, especially when preceded by a 5. How do you deal with this?

NewPlacement.com: When asked by a prospective candidate whether he will ever get an adequate management position again at the age of 58, we can only remind him that he has much more performance and experience to show than a 35-year-old. If a company is looking for a "storm-tested" manager, he can hold his own against anyone younger. Another prospect simply omitted his age from the application document, communicating "I'm afraid I'm too old." At the same time, any headhunter only needs a quick look at school and training data to estimate age by back-calculation. At the latest after requesting the certificates, the concrete age can no longer be concealed. On the other hand, some young professionals also struggle in the application process with assumed concerns about age and early responsibility. NewPlacement consistently focuses on achievements, experience, competencies as well as social intelligence and confidently handles any age.

OutPlacement-News: Applicant mobility is often limited due to family situations. What has been your experience with this?

NewPlacement.com: If you are limited in your mobility and flexibility with regard to a new job due to real estate, your partner's job, your children's school and social environment, parents in need of care and circle of friends, the job alternatives are naturally reduced accordingly. Solutions in the form of career setbacks, longer sabbaticals, weekend relationships or interim solutions must be weighed very carefully. A promised shift in the center of life after the probationary period also includes the family and is usually demanded. Our comprehensive NewPlacement strategy helps decisively in this situation, e.g. in terms of (inter)national positioning for the job application market, dealing with headhunters, own rejections (reasons), dream job outside the region with family re-positioning, interim activities and "secret" further search in your current region.

OutPlacement-News: A standard topic in job interviews is the motivation to change jobs. What should applicants keep in mind here?

NewPlacement.com: The testimonial formulation "The separation took place by mutual/best agreement" generates inquiries and the need for references in the previous company with every headhunter and decision-maker. Was there a company-side termination and a legal dispute? Why did they want to separate and why did they not try anything to keep the executive despite restructuring. Even if the separation was proactive on the part of the employee, was there an internal counteroffer? Why did the executive want to leave the company when he or she did not yet have a new job lined up? Questions upon questions that can easily lead to irritation and concerns in the application process or even termination. The current, but also the previous change motivations show an important career aspect for headhunters and decision makers. Therefore, the coherent success speech, which one develops with the NewPlacement coach individually for each project and each stage in each case, should consider the transitions professionally and comprehensively.

OutPlacement-News: What should one consider before applying for a job?

NewPlacement.com: More than 25 years ago, a job ad said "Please apply only if you understand this ad." Cheeky? No, even then it showed the problem that sometimes 50% of the applicants did not even deal with the "indispensable" demand factors. The succinct reply of the applicants "but I could imagine doing the job" is not target-oriented. In addition, a matching check should also be carried out with regard to the decision-makers in the company, corporate culture and the current situation in the industry. The more you as an applicant can convey matching certainty from your own background, the higher your chances in the application process and of being accepted. An experienced NewPlacement coach is very helpful in researching and extracting the demand factors. This is shown by the many successful application processes of our candidates.

OutPlacement-News: Some of your candidates apply from self-employment, why?

NewPlacement.com: We also use self-employment to improve our starting position in the job application market. A contradiction? In times of leave or after leaving the company, your thematic specification, with which you could currently help companies, is a professional door opener, which has already turned into years of permanent employment. The approach to make the professional competencies available to several companies is, after a successful permanent position, a (temporary) alternative to permanent employment or its initial ignition. However, the issue of cold acquisition and lone wolves is underestimated. Networks are door openers only to a limited extent, depending on their unsupported familiarity. Here the experienced NewPlacement coach with its 8 runway strategy can stand helpfully to the side. Together, an attractive offer is developed on the basis of the management balance sheet and launched via referral marketing.

OutPlacement-News: In your opinion, the leap of the applicants for the first time into the corporate body makes high demands. Can you elaborate?

NewPlacement.com: The first organ position should be held for at least 3 years to establish oneself at this level. Jumping into the organ position can also overcome a potential 50-plus issue. But beware of taking too big career steps without the appropriate preparation and basis. The following overstrain then often results from own micro-organization, lack of policy experience and underestimation of additional responsibility for new areas (e.g. CFO with HR and SCM). Although one is proud to be trusted with this additional responsibility, there is a risk of being caught between two stools if one fails. The return to the old level is no longer offered because of under-demand and the threat of a bore-out, and the higher level is no longer offered because of "proven" over-demand. The experienced NewPlacement-Coach supports situationally by a sparring, RescueCoaching or a NewPlacement. You can also find consulting examples on our website.

OutPlacement-News: We often read that cover letters have become obsolete. What is your opinion on this?

NewPlacement.com: Standardized cover letters with the usual introductory phrases "I have read your ad", "the position advertised particularly appeals to me" or "I am looking for a job" and the pure description of the attached background can be saved. However, if you use individualized cover letters for matching, objection handling, positioning, interpretive authority (including job hopping, apprenticeships, short stints, departures) of the career, proactive change motivation as well as important information on salary level, mobility and availability, the application receives a clear added value. Cover letters should be content-oriented and need not strive for a Nobel Prize in literature. As an e-mail text, they should fit on one DIN A4 page and must include name and contact details at the end as a brief imprint. Scanned signatures are suppressed as images in most inbox systems and displayed with a blank box. It is worth investing appropriate time for each project, together with an experienced NewPlacement coach. Often the cover letter decides on the opening of the attached pdf file of the career.

OutPlacement-News: What should an applicant keep in mind when canceling application projects on their own initiative?

NewPlacement.com: The following scenarios are conceivable: There are 2 contracts from new companies at the same time, there is a 1b contract and you are waiting for the advised 1a contract or there is only a 1b contract (bird in the hand). The NewPlacement utility analysis helps in the decision-making process. However, you should make sure that your own refusals are appreciative and comprehensible, should you want to come back to them again. If you have made the wrong decision and it comes to a separation during the mutual probationary period, you can then revitalize cancelled projects (avoid 2nd choice feelings at the company at all costs). General cancellations for reasons of lack of mobility with headhunters associates lack of flexibility and should therefore be designed differently. If one wants to continue searching after an acceptance or the dream job comes in the already running probationary period, this must happen absolutely covertly and be limited to individual projects. Should the new employer or the headhunter (3rd rate after probationary period) get to know about it, NewPlacement crisis management is required.

OutPlacement-News: Once the contract is signed, a lot falls off the shoulders of applicants. What should be considered in the subsequent onboarding process?

NewPlacement.com: After signing the contract, you have usually only won over 2-3 decision-makers in the company. The first 100 days should be used to win over committees, other managing directors, colleagues, employees, customers and external partners (suppliers, agencies). The 5:55 method helps, especially when getting to know each other for the first time, and at meetings the transformation into the previous career, instead of rash strategy proposals. It is also crucial to uncover the many red lines of relationships within and outside the company (who with whom and why), for understanding and political behavior. As a new executive, you also have to deal with turf demarcation or expansion from colleagues. Onboarding coaching by an experienced NewPlacement coach with preparatory organizational mapping and on-demand enables job insurance.

OutPlacement-News: What dangers must managers be prepared for during the probationary period? You also warn against micromanagement.

NewPlacement.com: Candidates who make the leap to the board often still tend to micromanage. The former finance director, even in his new role as commercial GF, continues to focus mainly on day-to-day financial operations and lacks balanced delegation and control. In his other areas of responsibility, such as HR, SCM and legal, he largely stays out of it. In his micro area, he restricts and demotivates his finance staff by constantly interfering in day-to-day business. This becomes all the more dangerous when they have good informal relationships and are pushing for his departure. In the other areas, he shows himself to be insufficiently informed and competent vis-à-vis owners or committees. In these cases, separation often occurs during the probationary period. However, before it gets that far, the experienced NewPlacement-Coach can defuse the situation by means of an early warning system and case coaching, among other things, and support the candidate in managing the company.

FURTHER INFORMATION IN PERSON

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Further publications are free of charge and must be made by naming the source. Responsible for the content in terms of the media law: Executive Board of NewPlacement AG, Bielefeld, Phone: +49 521 16444-75