The service has become closely linked to the long-term brand value of the company offering it. It is important to ensure that the basket of facilities offered is what adds most value to the outgoing employees. That being said, this basket has, over time, acquired a fairly standard shape.

What has become more important is the choice of the right partner.

What should the company look for when deciding upon a partner who will work with their outgoing employees and provide outplacement support to them? Of course, it is to be assumed that while scouting for a partner, the company has determined the set of services it is looking for.

Capability set

What are the services the prospective partner offers or has the capability to offer? Career coaching, interview preparation, job search resources, personal branding and networking are some of the common services on offer. Which of these are they in a position to provide effectively? More importantly, are they aligned to the set of services that the company needs for its employees.

Prior experience

Like humans, companies also learn and progress. Once the basic fit between services required and offered has been established, the prospective partner’s prior experience in offering them should also be ascertained, including references from their past clients. This is not to say that first-timers should be ignored. In some cases, prospective HR partners looking to create a new service will offer great pricing and value to clients. Of course, as a client, you will need to ascertain their skills-sets to satisfy yourself that they can deliver to your requirements.

Complementary products and services

We live in a dynamic world, always on the move, always changing. Outplacement is usually a one-time or periodic requirement. It is not a ‘business as usual’ activity. While outplacement services may be required at one point in time, you may require hiring and staffing support at other times. Mature HR services firms like Ushankk create value by offering a bouquet of services for which there is an ongoing need, whether outplacement at one time and staffing at another. In fact, offering a bouquet provides the ‘network’ advantage to professional HR firms that enable them to create value for clients.

Industry expertise

In a competitive world, any form of advantage is beneficial, such as industry expertise. If you are a bank looking for outplacement support from an HR solution provider, everything else being equal, it might be helpful to have a provider on-board who has prior experience of working with banks. They might be better equipped to understand the rhythms of the business and its requirements. They will also be better placed at supporting employees.

Human touch

While it may be difficult to specify and quantify, in outplacement, the human touch is critical, perhaps over and above the technical requirements we have discussed earlier. Employees who have lost jobs feel vulnerable. It is an unusual situation to be in. A friendly, helping hand can help them tide over the situation. As we know, such situations are usually temporary. Most people will move on to another assignment soon. But while they do not have a firm offer, they need support and guidance. With several decades of experience, the people of Ushankk have a long history of supporting people through such times. In fact, many such people become individual customers of Ushankk for support with their career moves.

In conclusion, we would add that in addition to the selection of a partner who fits the bill, it is also important for your HR teams to closely work with the selected firm to ensure that the services are set up in a way that will help your company meet its goals. This helps in ensuring that the goals and strategies of the two firms are aligned.

An equally noteworthy development is that more and more companies are choosing to outsource outplacement services to an external partner. What are the reasons?

Sensitivity is better handled with an external partner

The need for outplacement arises usually on account of terminations and redundancies. Both are sensitive situations for the impacted employees when they are likely to feel vulnerable. Outplacement and career transition related interactions between employees staying back in the company and employees who need to go, could be emotionally charged. An agency taking the place of continuing employees is likely to defuse this tension. In addition, departing employees may be more comfortable in such discussions with strangers rather than people who have been colleagues and possibly friends.

Draws a finish line for organizational responsibility

Outplacement is generally effort-based. Success is not guaranteed. One of the primary objectives in offering this service is the protection of brand-value. A transition may or may not be successfully achieved through outplacement. Or, it could take long. In either situation, lack of success or delayed results could rub off negatively on the company’s image. It is considered best to separate the company from the actual task of outplacement so that its results do not reflect on the company. It has done its best by providing outplacement support. Its role ends there.

Allows the company to focus on its business goals

And, of course, this is not the main activity of the company. It would not like to be distracted from its goals, especially during challenging times; redundancies and terminations usually happen when the business faces headwinds. At such a time, a company needs to maintain laser-sharp focus on its goals and ensure all resources at its disposal, including human, are doing the same. Taking on responsibilities such as outplacement on one’s own shoulders will detract from the sharp focus needed to succeed in challenging times.

Once the strategy of outsourcing the service has been established, it is equally important to ensure that the right partner is hired. It is a sensitive time in the lives of people and needs to be handled with care by a competent agency, such as Ushankk, who provides a comprehensive suite of services covering staffing and outplacement. With its reach across the industry spectrum as well as work with different organizational levels, Ushankk is well positioned to have a bird’s eye view of opportunities and enable people to make the transition from one role to another, one company to another and even one industry to another.

As usual, numbers reveal a lot, but often hide the most important parts.

What do these numbers hide?

That from 2020 onwards the world was in the vice-like grip of the Covid-19 pandemic that brought life as we knew it to a screeching halt and sent all corporations, large and small, looking for answers to the situation to enable them to stay afloat.

That the lockdowns and shelter in place requirements clamped down by governments around the world led to many companies searching for digital solutions to stay alive. This acted as a fillip to the demand for digitisation and software development.

That the Great Attrition was triggered which led to a large number of software employees evaluating their work-life balance and taking unprecedented steps like leaving their job without another one already in hand.

That with work from home becoming an accepted norm, while many left their jobs, a larger number got engaged as freelancers and consultants who, without being employees of the company they were working for, were able to contribute to the efforts of that company as subcontractors.

How did these subcontractors help?

Subcontractor costs may have gone up as revealed by the article, but in doing so they enabled these companies to collect much more as revenue from the contracts they helped in delivering on.

They also helped these companies bridge the manpower gap created by the departure of a part of their workforce.

Over and above bridging the manpower gap, they enabled these IT leaders and many others to cater to the increased demand for digitisation.

Who is a subcontractor?

The same article defines it as “those hired by IT firms through staffing agencies. It’s a contract-to-hire service where staffing firms vet prospective contractors, process their payroll, offer insurance coverage, and other benefits. The staffing agencies also provide performance guarantees.”

It quotes an industry leader as saying, “subcontractors are used to bridge skill gaps, meet unusually high demand or strengthen rapidly-depleting talent bench.”

IT staffing is a friend for IT companies

This defines the business model of IT staffing companies such as Ushankk to a T. IT staffing is one of the unsung heroes of the pandemic. Seen and heard but rarely acknowledged. They have continued to serve the major, and not-so-major IT companies during the most difficult conditions, come rain or shine, hell or high water. They have continued to enhance their skills to keep pace with client requirements.

As work from home gains greater acceptance and as employees start factoring in a work-life balance, staffing solutions providers such as Ushankk will have a major role to play in the days to come.

Many people in possession of hard skills tend to look down upon the relevance of soft skills, only to discover the truth at a critical juncture in their career.

What is a hard skill?

A skill that can typically be quantified and measured is considered to be a hard skill. Programming, mathematical ability can be considered as examples. They can also be developed through a regimen of coursework and practice.

What is a soft skill?

While people have tried, and measures created, a soft skill is considered to be difficult to measure and quantify. Empathy could be considered as a soft skill. Soft skills are famously difficult to develop even though many programmes and courses have been created with a view to developing employee soft skills. They are typically slow to develop, and when they do, it is mostly as a response to life situations and experiences.

Why soft skills are important

Hard skills being measurable and well defined, in a competitive world, all participants make an effort to upgrade them and be among the best. What this results in is a lack of differentiation on the basis of hard skills. It is becoming something like a commodity. Everyone has them. How does a professional differentiate himself/herself from the crowd? Or, how does an organisation differentiate between employees? Or, with comparable hard skills, what enables an individual or organisation to perform better than others? Right, through soft skills. Employees possessing soft skills and organisations recognizing their need will have an edge over their lesser soft-skilled competitors.

As we have seen, hard skills, if absent or deficient, can be developed through the right strategies. Hence, increasingly, modern organizations are less concerned about the deficiency of hard skills required for a role, as they know they can be developed. Soft skills, on the other hand, either being difficult to develop, or the process being slow, are seen as more critical to be present in employees. Hence, even though difficult and less precise, organisations are making greater efforts to evaluate the soft skills of target hires to ensure that they have the goods to be effective in their situation. If a person is hired with inadequate soft skills, upskilling could be an uphill task.

Established staffing companies, such as Ushankk, who have worked with multiple employers over several decades, understand the importance of soft skills and ensure candidates they provide possess the right balance of hard and soft skills.

What soft skills to focus on

While the list of required soft skills is endless, in a workplace situation, here are some that assume greater relevance:

Empathy

All work gets done through people. Even where machines are doing the work, somewhere there is a human hand either in its creation or in monitoring its performance. For two people to work together harmoniously, it is important to understand each other, not only in terms of the spoken or written words, but also from their unique perspectives. In other words, the ability to place oneself in another’s shoes is called empathy.

Communication

Almost everything gets done as a result of our ability to communicate. While verbal and written communication is what is mostly used, there are many other ways in which communication takes place. A nod of the head or a roll of the eyes can be communication. Making someone wait for a meeting can be communication. And it is not merely the ability to transfer your message effectively to another person that is communication; it is also your ability to interpret the messaging directed towards you.

Selflessness

Selfishness might be a necessary skill at times, especially when one is in a dangerous situation. However, organizations are anything but. They require quite the opposite skill, that of selflessness. One needs to be able to identify with the larger organisational goal and direct one’s energies towards its attainment, rather than the focus narrowing down to one’s own goals. As they say, “a rising tide lifts all boats.”

In conclusion

To ensure you get the right balance of skills, trust IT outsourcing companies like Ushankk. Their exposure to multiple client requirements and work environments enables them to offer best-practice based solutions.

Often, there could be a mismatch between the requirements of industry and the output of the academic world, requiring industry to step in and fill the gaps.

The search for the right skills combines injecting fresh talent and upskilling and reskilling of employees. Of course, it is assumed that the same is done with the consent of impacted people.

What is reskilling?

Reskilling is used to refer to skilling employees to perform jobs and roles that are significantly different from the ones they have been doing. The need for reskilling arises when a job or role-type becomes obsolete or redundant. Rather than losing employees who possess valuable knowledge about the company, and have been doing a commendable job, the company invests in equipping them for other that require skills different from the ones they possess. Effectively, from one specialized job, employees move to a different specialized job.

What is upskilling?

Upskilling could be viewed as a less dramatic change. Though it is possibly a response to developments in the world and the workplace, upskilling is required to equip an individual to perform the role he/she is doing, in a more effective manner. It might result in improved productivity and might also be positioned as a positive career development, being asked to do more. Through upskilling, employees are equipped to cover a wider range of tasks and expectations.

How do they help?

Initiatives like upskilling and reskilling help a company cope and compete. A changing world cannot be controlled by an enterprise. What it can do is keep is make efforts to keep pace with them, either in advance, or after they become embedded.

They create a set of loyal and committed employees and help in reducing attrition. Not everyone gets to work for an organization willing to invest in the development of their employees. Often, it results in employees gaining relevant skills which makes them more valuable and competitive.

The organization is able to buttress its reputation as a company willing to adapt and change and learn, with its efforts at identifying trends and upskilling and reskilling employees. Effectively, it results in a dynamic, forward-looking environment within the company.

Implementation

While many corporations swear by the need to upskill and reskill, they often struggle when the time for action approaches. They find it difficult to identify the roles and employees that need to go through this process of change. Even the shape of the future organization is, sometimes, not very clear.

Leveraging the specialist skills of staffing companies like Ushankk can significantly aid companies’ efforts in this direction. Ushankk, through the manpower support it provides to Fortune 500 companies and many others, has been engaged in the reskilling and upskilling of employees to cater to the evolving needs of its clients.

In many ways, there is some truth in this statement. Even a company that, prima facie, appears to be traditional, or bricks and mortar, will place significant reliance on digital tools for their work, from the basic communication services such as email to the more complex and business-specific digital applications specific to their industry.

Have you ever wondered how these companies are able to operate, mostly without glitches, despite relying on software tools and computing devices?

Most people who work in these companies are experts in their area of work. A real estate company could have designers and landscapers, as an example. While they are expected to possess the smarts to be able to use the tools required for their work, they do not know much about the many moving parts that keep it all together.

What happens when the network goes down?

Or, when a virus attacks?

Or, when a website has to be white-labelled?

Or, when the Active Directory needs to be updated?

This is where the IT team of the company comes in. And, along with the IT team, the desktop support technician. He/she may not wear a cape, but, for users, the desktop support technician is the superman, or woman, who helps them do their job by ensuring that the digital tools placed at their disposal perform to their potential.

So far, we have discussed a technician’s role in the context of a company. However, the job is much wider.

How is that?

Each one of us use devices and software applications in our daily lives; in fact, many of them have now become indispensable. Many situations that can affect technology in a corporate setting, also impact all of us as individuals.

The network may go down.

The device may get afflicted by a virus.

An application may start misbehaving.

What do we do?

We reach out to a help desk, usually provided by the manufacturer of the device or application, to ensure that users can have an uninterrupted, positive experience. These desks are managed, again, by the supermen and women who help us navigate through the issue and resolve them. In some cases, a physical inspection or site visit may be needed but, thanks to the growing capability of the desktop support technicians, these are becoming rarer.

While acting as an extension of the company’s brand, these technicians are carrying out a multi-dimensional task, and marrying technical skills with communication and customer-handling skills, to deliver. After all, people seeking support from a help desk may have limited technical understanding and often need patience and understanding while handling.

The desktop support technician’s role has gradually become portable. That is the reason many companies prefer to hire partners who specialize in this activity, instead of hiring inhouse technicians. Established staffing companies like Ushankk are a preferred partner for organizations for IT Infrastructure Support services.

Ushankk is able to attract the best talent as it is well placed to create career paths for technicians to keep the IT Infrastructure up and running in a variety of streams such as database administration, IT security and network administration, among others, based on the area of interest of individuals.

Outsourced staffing is the service you need when your company is seeking talent. An expert provider helps you find that talent.

Outplacement, on the other hand, is a service through which your company seeks help from an expert provider to support the process of transitioning out excess staff. In the increasingly dynamic world we live in, it is no longer unusual for companies to shut down businesses or drastically curtail investment, often triggering the need for releasing at least a part of the workforce. While some companies do it inhouse, the preferred model for most is the retention of an expert provider to handle it for them, as it has really nothing to do with their existing business.

What services are included?

While the range of services included in the package could vary from one employer to the next, the objective remains the same – to achieve a successful, frictionless career-transition for the impacted employees.

The benefits usually include:

• Enabling the individual to evaluate his/her knowledge, skills and competence and identifying the type of opportunities that would be most suitable.
• Recommend suitable training interventions to augment skill gaps, or to build skills demanded by the new workplace which they are deficient in. Some training interventions could be included in the sponsored programme.
• Helping the individual navigate the employment ecosystem and its participants such as job boards and recruiting companies and equipping him/her to interact with it to one’s advantage.
• Creating the required artefacts, such as resumes, cover letters, recommendation letters, etc. that prospective employers will be interested in.
• Equipping him/her with the ‘moment of truth’ skills such as interviewing and negotiating compensation.
• Other tips and tricks that could be useful, such as networking.

Outplacement – benefits to the company

Outplacement programmes are sponsored by the employer. The question is, why would a company that is trying to save money by releasing employees no longer needed, at least for the foreseeable future, spend on sponsoring an outplacement programme?

As an ongoing enterprise, while the current need may be to reduce staff, the company may well have a need to hire people at some point in future. Hence, it cannot afford to be seen as an insensitive employer. Supporting employees not currently needed through outplacement support is seen as necessary for the maintenance of its brand value and appeal. Some studies show an increase in productivity and loyalty in the employees who remain in companies who provide outplacement services.

Everyone wants to work for a caring and sensitive employer, is it not?

Getting the right outplacement partner

Ushankk provides a comprehensive suite of services designed to support employees across varying skill and seniority levels, designed to provide satisfaction to impacted employees and empower them to transition to a new tomorrow. Ushankk’s own staffing projects often have the capacity to provide new opportunities for some of the transitioning staff members.

As the sponsoring company, you receive regular updates on progress for each individual. Ushankk’s leadership team works closely with you to ensure that you retain your goodwill in the marketplace.

The use of on-demand engineers is fast gaining popularity, with a large number of global corporations employing them in one way or another.

But not every company is the same. You need to ascertain that the use of on-demand engineers will add value to your business before you venture into that territory. Here are some of the benefits you could expect from going down this path:

Cost-effectiveness

It works out to be a cost-effective solution in the long run, even though the resource cost might be the same as your hired staff. This is because the on-demand engineer does not need to be paid when there is no work. The engagement is contract or assignment-specific.

Better quality

Though some companies have a concern that freelancers, since they are not invested in the company, may do a shoddy job, the opposite may actually be truer. Freelancers need to build a personal profile so that they can get the next job and the next. This can only be done through references of clients which, in turn, they can only get of they do a good job. Hence, there seems to be more interest for them in doing a good job than a bad one.

Network of resources

The use of on-demand engineers enables a company to expand its resource pool. This can come in handy when they need to balance out the peaks and troughs in the volume of work. They can staff for the troughs but access the larger talent pool when peaks arrive.

Faster execution

As most engagements are based on tasks, and not time, engineers operating in this manner have an interest in completing the task and moving on to the next. Delaying it is of no interest. For hired resources, there may not be any incentive to complete a task fast.

Specialization

Freelancers tend to develop their skills and profile around one or more areas they are good at, and move from one company to another, gaining experience and further improving their skills, executing jobs around those areas. This model, then, is likely to fetch the most qualifies engineers in the area of requirement.

Employment related issues

While some people count this as a benefit of the on-demand model, if not structured correctly, issues can arise in these contracts as well. Of course, since the commitment on both sides is perhaps lower, the issues might also be of a lower intensity.

In conclusion, with a bewildering array of engineering specializations, it may not be possible for one company to hire all types. Staffing companies such as Ushankk often have many of them on their rolls and can be a useful partner in giving companies access to a wide spectrum, as well as number, of engineers, who are available on an on-demand basis.

Of course, it has some benefits for both the employer and the employed, which is why it has grown and established itself, even though the final push may have been given by Covid-19. Companies have found an opportunity of reducing real estate cost by allowing people to work from a place of their choice, usually home. In some cases, they may also have been able to negotiate the compensation package downwards for the flexibility offered. Employees are saving on commute time, a killer in most big cities, get to spend more time with loved ones, and take on family duties and help out in the chores, important for nuclear families. They are also able to look for employment anywhere in the world where the company permits remote work.

Other developments, like the growth of the gig economy, with freelancers available for short periods and specific assignments, have further fuelled the movement. Staff augmentation providers like Ushankk, already familiar with remote work over several decades, are helping companies and jobseekers make the transition.

However, behaviour and mindset changes are needed, both in managers as well as in the managed, to ensure that its full potential can be realized and it becomes an ongoing, sustainable trend.

Confidence building measures

There can be questions in the mind of the manager regarding the sincerity and commitment of people working from home. Is she putting in the hours required? Is she doing something else at the same time, that is not company work?

The employee in question needs to maintain utmost transparency, perhaps more than needed in an office scenario where there is general visibility of people around you. She should be visible to the manager on a video tool, if that is the policy of the company, and be willing to provide an update on her work whenever asked, to demonstrate progress.

For people interacting with clients, similar levels of transparency will be needed when interacting with them.

Clear definition of roles and responsibilities

The more specific expectations and roles can be made, the more effective remote work will be. In the absence of a line of sight, doubts and hesitation can creep in. Should I take a break now or later? Will my manager think I am always taking breaks? If possible, build breaks into the schedule that is created between an employee and manager.

Communication is key

Whether interacting with clients or colleagues, if you are stuck you cannot simply tap on someone’s shoulder for support. Remote workers need to be able to communicate in a manner that promotes clarity and removes doubts and grey areas. Further, their personal and physical presentation needs to be professional. Working from home does not mean you appear unkempt in your interactions. If you are on a call, as far as possible, try to eliminate background noises such as the TV blaring in the background. Of course, it is understood that not everyone will have the space or setup at home which will come across as a totally professional workplace.

Time commitment and hours

This is perhaps an offshoot of the transparency and definition needed for such an arrangement to work smoothly. It will help to operate on a schedule that mimics the workplace schedule. This way, the team that worked together in the office, will still be able to do work together remotely. It will be difficult to do so if either everyone operates on a different schedule or the schedule is either not known or keeps changing.

Onus is on the manager

We all want to belong. When we work from office, we are surrounded by the symbols and brands that refer to our employer. We are also in the physical company of others like us, which builds relationships and bonds, and helps people in backing each other when needed.

In a remote environment, all this goes missing. It is easy to feel alienated. One of the challenges companies have been facing with remote work is that attrition levels have shot up. Managers need to step up and ensure that remote workers continue to feel wanted and a part of the bigger picture. They should take help from others, such as HR, in this exercise, if needed.

Managers and organizations can take help from established companies in the staff augmentation solutions space, such as Ushankk, who have been working with remote staff much before Covid-19 happened.

When businesses encounter uncertainty, or reach a point different from what was planned, leaders need to step in and take decisions in the best interest of the company. One of the key decisions always pertains to human resources. How to keep them motivated and engaged, while ensuring the business is not paying more than it needs to.

Flexible resourcing has addressed these issues for many organizations, with the help of creative staffing solution providers such as Ushankk.

Signs that you should look out for

There are some signs that your company will do well to recognize and investigate. Some of these could well be your business indicating the need for help from a staffing augmentation specialist. Some of them are:

• Attrition is spiking up. People are leaving the job they said they liked. Some may ask for help while some may not.
• Employees are being required to work in roles they are not skilled, trained or suited for.
• Errors and rising, as are quality related issues and timeliness of delivery. Commitments to clients are becoming difficult to meet.
• You are turning away business because of capacity constraints and your uncertainty if your company will be in a position to take it on.
• You find that you are spending a lot more of your time in handling employee related issues as opposed to customer and product related issues that you were focusing on earlier.

How will the staff augmentation solutions provider help?

First and foremost, a partner like Ushankk will provide flexibility to your business. It will take over the burden of finding fresh resources and do so in timeframes much shorter than what you would normally take. They will match resources to your requirements, ensuring that you do not pay for resources that are no longer needed.

They have a repertoire of creative solutions up their sleeve, one or more of which are generally able to meet each client’s requirements, such as:

IT Staffing – technically qualified resources are engaged on suitable, agreed compensation.

Professional staffing – experienced professionals in multiple fields are made available.

Direct hire placement – traditional hiring for employers.

Recruitment Process Outsourcing – taking over the complete recruitment function, sometimes including related functions like onboarding and background verification.

Payrolling – taking over statutory responsibilities related to manpower.

In conclusion

Millions of corporations have found value in engaging staffing solution providers such as Ushankk. Not only does it address their employment challenges, it also frees up leaders to focus on business related activities.

If your company is showing signs of employment related stress, you should act now.