Caring for your people doesn’t have to stop when they hand in their resignation or you ask them to leave. Most leavers will have likely given their all for the cause for a good few years. They deserve more than emotional distance and contractual formalities. That is why outplacement assistance is a genuinely worthwhile investment. Helping your people to make the transition to their next work family is the right thing to do, and there are many excellent outplacement providers out there. They will help craft a CV to be proud of, offer coaching when decisions loom, and a shoulder to cry on when ..read more

"Choose Your Own Content" for departing employees from the JobWords Outplacement Library. Pick from 100's of job search blogs - all written by leading HR Ghostwriter Paul Drury (42,000 followers on LinkedIn). HR teams choose only the blogs that they like - with permission to edit and amend. Share hand-picked employer branded content - make the blogs your own. HR can create eBooks, intranet resources, email campaigns and mobile content. JobWords blogs are not available online (apart from a few examples on each volume page). JobWords content is strictly for internal use only - not for online p ..read more

People say that creativity thrives when boundaries are blurred and thought processes are disrupted. As a writer, I know that my best ideas come when I am not trying to think about them. When my mind starts off elsewhere, it has every chance of bringing me to that place of “yes, that’s it, I’ve got it.” When you are open to a “messy” mental journey, there are all sorts of interesting tangents to explore. That is when the step-change insight has a chance of appearing. The link between a messy approach to life and creativity has been well documented. Just a glance at a picture of Einstein’s desk ..read more

“Your application has not been successful on this occasion.” As job seekers across the world read these sterile words in countless impersonal one-line emails, their hopes of a future that could have been fade away…. maybe never to return. It feels devastating. I have created an acronym to describe this: F.A.D.E. Failed. Applicant. Devastating. Experience. I instinctively want to use a stronger word than devastating. The strongest word. Depressing. I think that we have all felt that momentary crush of rejection. When you receive such a response, dark clouds gather. Discouraged applicants may n ..read more

The phrase “you can do anything you set your mind to” often comes with a whole heap of conditions that have to be met before it becomes your truth. You can do anything you set your mind to, if…. …. you have the mental strength to see it through. …. you have the required skills at your disposal. …. you don’t try to climb a mountain in ballet shoes. There are many more“if” scenarios in addition to the ones above, but the third example is one that is all too common in the entrepreneurial world. If we are woefullyunderprepared for the task at hand, we doom ours ..read more

You do not think that your successes were down to you. Your internal narrative tells you that you may never be that lucky again. You over-prepare for presentations and meetings in fear of being exposed for your lack of knowledge. You think that everyone around you is more qualified and secretly sense that they know it too. These feelings of self-doubt and inadequacy are debilitating, but for more people than we might realise they are very real. According to the International Journal of Behavioural Science, over 70% of us experience these feelings at some point in their lives. Imposter syn ..read more

No job search should be conducted alone. Yet, that is often the case. Somehow many job seekers feel that there is a such a stigma attached to looking for a new job that they would prefer to take on much of the heavy lifting themselves. They might mention to their partners and families, but they would prefer not to discuss it. They might give their friends updates, but they won’t share their fears. They will talk to recruiters on a superficial level, but they won’t reveal what they really think. The job search is on their shoulders and they will get through it on their own. Somehow. Job seeke ..read more

You don’t want to be searching for the right words during an interview. No matter how amazing you are at your job, it isn’t a good look. Yet, surprising numbers of job seekers find themselves caught out by having to talk about what they do. They go to work, do their job, but they rarely dissect their activity with the depths of scrutiny that an interview requires. Many aren’t in the habit of finding the words to do themselves and their actions justice. The box-ticking approach of many a bland appraisal process may shoulder some of the blame, and the fact that most managers are inordinately b ..read more

I believe that in certain stressful situations, our language reverts to a set of stock phrases that have carried us through life. If these patterns of our language tend towards pessimism and self-deprecation, it can cause issues. Particularly during a job search. During an interview, we know that we should choose our words carefully, but there are other distractions. We are so hyper aware of our body language and facial expressions, that we risk losing focus on what comes out of our mouths. We are so intent on listening to the question that we don’t always take the time to properly formulate ..read more

When I was a child, I was sledging down a steep hill on a crisp winter weekend. The snow was falling, and the flakes were getting in my eyes, so I didn’t see my dog standing right in my path until the last minute. I swerved, barely avoiding him, but careered into a huge bramble bush full of painfully sharp thorns. I luckily didn’t have a mirror at the time, but my face was covered in deep scratches and there was blood everywhere. It must have looked pretty dramatic and my mum ran towards me in hysterics. I still bear a couple of (miniscule) scars from that day, and somehow the event has burn ..read more