Philippa Flowerday, Career Transition Partner

For those working in the corporate world today, to not experience redundancy at some stage, will be the exception, not the norm. Following on from the GFC and as technological changes have impacted on almost all businesses dramatically, it is not unusual for organisations to recruit and retrench at the same time. Compared with over 20 years ago when it was almost synonymous with perceptions of low skills or performance (at least from a recruitment point of view), redundancy is seen as business as usual and a symptom of the times.

As a coaching business we see clients that have been impacted by redundancy not once, but sometimes two or three times. So if redundancy is so commonplace is it not easier for people to navigate through this process? Not so, for a number of reasons; our ‘wiring’ and our environment. Without a doubt we live more complex lives today that we did even just 20 years ago. We know that the ‘busyness’ of our environment is having a detrimental effect on us both mentally and physically (despite that paradoxically we are living longer). One in five people in Australia will experience mental illness in any one year (Black Dog Institute, 2018). The most common illness are depression, anxiety and substance abuse, often in combination.

Change is now constant and we humans are just not that comfortable with change; we are wired to avoid it, even the most ‘adaptable’ amongst us have to work on accepting change. David Rock’s “Managing with the Brain in Mind’ talks about the human brain as a social organ. When we feel rejected or experience an attack on our sense of self, our body responds the same as it would with a physical attack. While a business need drives redundancy, it still impacts the individual on a personal level. Redundancy is a big change event, uncertainty reigns supreme and we experience a loss of control.

Interestingly changes to career transition delivery over the last few years do not help support good transition. Much program content is being delivered online and is highly depersonalized, exactly the opposite of what an individual needs. This is not an approach we support at ALCHEMY and we have deliberately gone against this trend, even with large projects. It is our belief that everyone deserves full support and the best way to do this is via one on one coaching, human to human. Anyone can go online and google information on career transition but the value is in support provided by an expert.

Our research backs this up. Surveyed ALCHEMY clients rate the one on one support provided by their career coach as the most useful aspect of their program.

100% of ALCHEMY clients rate the following aspects of their experience positively:

ü Their ALCHEMY coach

ü The quality of the advice

ü The level of support

ü The flexibility of support

For further information on how we can support redundancy processes in your organization please go to…. https://www.alchemycm.com.au/career-transition/