Author: Pamela Mendels
Source: Business Week, June 2001
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| Gone But Not Forgotten |
| Business Week on how Stybel Peabody Lincolnshire assists key executives during the first one hundred days of a new assignment |
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Executives facing the corporate ax have come to expect a number of palliatives to blunt the initial pain of job loss: one-on-one career counseling, resume editing, and the use of company equipment, among others. Not nearly as well-known but growing is a nontraditional form of outplacement help. "Assimilation" consulting provides downsized execs who were high in a company's pecking order with several months of counseling -- -- at their former employer's expense – on successfully settling into a new job.
Stybel Peabody Lincolnshire Associates added what it calls its "First One Hundred Days" assimilation-counseling program to its standard outplacement package last year. Lee Hecht Harrison, has been offering three-month assimilation coaching in outplacement programs for senior executives for about two years. "The principle benefit is that it gives the individual a resource to navigate the new waters," says Bernadette Kenny, executive vice-president of Lee Hecht.
"VALUE-ADDED." Why would an employer go this far for people it no longer wants -- even, in some cases, ensuring they do well at a competitor? One reason may simply be that outplacement companies have persuaded them to do so with clever marketing. Assimilation counseling has been around for years, but it really began to catch fire about three years ago, says Michael Giuffrida, executive director of the Association of Career Management Consulting Firms International, a trade group in Washington, D.C. A roaring job market had lessened the need for career services, forcing companies in the competitive outplacement business to find ways to distinguish themselves. Assimilation consulting seemed a good "valued-added," Giuffrida says.
The services differ in such details as the duration of the counseling. But in general, the outplacement company pairs the executive with a coach, often a business veteran who has executive-level experience. The coach doles out advice on such matters as sizing up an unfamiliar corporate culture and prioritizing assignments, and also helps solve problems that emerge on the new job.
GOOD ADVICE.
"It was very helpful," says the president and COO of a Boston-area technology startup who used Stybel Peabody Lincolnshire's outplacement services after he lost a top job at a larger company last year. The man, who asked not to be identified, says that after he joined the new company, he would speak to his coach, Stybel Peabody Lincolnshire President Laurence J. Stybel, for about a half hour every week or so on the phone or over breakfast. The executive says he received good initial advice: Stybel urged him to ask for a clear understanding from his bosses -- the board of directors and company investors -- about their expectations for him. The result, he says, was a frank discussion about projects and employees they considered untouchable.
Stybel's guidance also came in handy when the new CEO needed to decide whether to fire several executives whose performance he considered only average. If he handed out pink slips at once, he risked scaring off about-to-be-snagged investors who would be concerned about holes in management. He weighed the pros and cons with Stybel, ultimately decided to keep the executives -- and won the financing.
Assimilation counseling "gives you a better opportunity to understand what the road in front of you looks like and to help you steer the car down the middle of the road," says this COO. Better that, former employers no doubt reason, than causing yet another wreck on the career highway.
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