Evaluate outplacement providers on six written terms: who coaches, when support ends, what HR can see, what happens to unused seats, how fast the program launches, and who owns the firm. Price comes after the terms are equal.
Outplacement is bought under time pressure, usually in the days before a notification, and proposals are written to be approved under exactly that pressure. The terms that decide whether the program works show up after signature: whether the coach is a person or a bench, whether support outlasts the search, whether HR can see anything while it runs. The method below puts those terms in writing before the contract, so the comparison happens on paper instead of in month three.
Ten questions to put to every finalist
Send the same ten questions to each vendor, in the same order, and require written answers. Compare both the answers and how quickly they arrive.
- 01
Who coaches each participant, and how are coach and participant matched?
Pooled benches and named coaches produce different outcomes. Matching by industry, function, and seniority makes the advice specific to the person.
- 02
What ends the engagement: placement, a calendar date, or an hours cap?
Support that ends before the search does leaves people without help partway through it.
- 03
What can HR see while the program runs, per participant, and how current is it?
A quarterly summary cannot tell you which of forty people never logged in during week one.
- 04
What happens to the fee for a seat that is never used or is declined?
Seats that are bought and never used are a cost to ask about before signing.
- 05
How many days from signature to a participant meeting a coach?
Notification day is when people need the service. A procurement cycle measured in weeks leaves people without support in their first weeks out.
- 06
What do participants, rather than buyers, say about the program in public reviews?
Buyer testimonials describe the sales relationship. Participant reviews describe the service.
- 07
Who owns the firm, and how does outplacement sit inside the wider business?
In a firm with many service lines, outplacement competes with the others for attention.
- 08
How is participant data handled, stored, and deleted after the program?
You are handing over names, titles, and personal circumstances of people you just let go. The answer should be specific.
- 09
Which parts of the program are human and which are software?
Both belong in a modern program. The failure is software presented as coaching.
- 10
What does the price cover per tier, and what triggers an additional charge?
Compare terms first and price second. A lower quote with a ninety-day cap is not the lower price.
Six terms to compare
Coaching model, duration, usage visibility, unused seats, launch speed, and firm structure. Together they predict the program your people experience.
| Term | Effect on outcome | A strong answer |
|---|---|---|
| Coaching model | Determines whether advice is specific to the person or generic to the population. | A named, dedicated coach per participant, matched by industry, function, and seniority. |
| Duration | Sets when support ends relative to when the search ends. | Coaching hours are published up front, and support continues until placement. |
| Usage visibility | Tells HR whether the money is being used while there is still time to act. | A live dashboard: enrollment, engagement, coaching activity, outcomes, exportable. |
| Unused seats | Seats that are never used still cost money unless the contract says otherwise. | Refunds on declined seats, with the terms written into the contract. |
| Launch speed | The service is needed on notification day, not after a master service agreement cycle. | Running within 48 hours of signature, with a matched coach for each participant. |
| Firm structure | Predicts how much attention your program gets after signature. | An independent firm where outplacement is the business, with owners you can call. |
FirstSourceTeam's packages meet every row in the third column: in-house coaches matched to each participant, coaching hours published up front with support until placement, a live employer dashboard, refunds available on declined seats, launch within 48 hours, and a family-owned firm where outplacement is the whole business. The full terms are on the pricing page, and a dimension-by-dimension comparison against the largest provider is in LHH Alternatives.
RFP checklist
An outplacement RFP needs the population, the timing, the ten questions, and a request for written terms on every item below. Same structure to every vendor, so responses compare line by line.
- Population: headcount, seniority mix, functions, and locations, so quotes are like for like.
- Timing: notification date, program start date, and any phased waves.
- The ten questions above, answered in writing, in the same order, by every vendor.
- Coaching terms: named-coach commitment, matching method, and coach credentials.
- Duration terms: the exact condition that ends support, written into the contract.
- Reporting: a live demo of the employer view, not screenshots.
- Unused-seat terms: the refund or credit policy for declined and never-activated seats.
- Launch timeline: days from signature to first coaching session, with the steps in between.
- Participant satisfaction evidence: links to public, participant-written reviews.
- Data handling: storage location, access controls, retention, and deletion on completion.
- Pricing per tier, with every trigger for an additional charge listed.
- References: two employers with a comparable population in the last eighteen months.
Red flags in a proposal
Vague coaching language, a program length in months, summary reporting, silence on unused seats, and buyer-only testimonials.
- Coaching described as "access to our coaching team" rather than a named coach.
- A program length quoted in months or hours instead of an outcome.
- Reporting offered as a monthly or quarterly summary.
- No answer, or a slow answer, on what happens to unused seats.
- A launch timeline that starts after an MSA rather than after signature.
- Buyer testimonials on the proposal and no participant reviews anywhere public.
Scoring the responses
Score each vendor on the six terms before opening the pricing page. Then compare price only between vendors whose terms scored equally.
A simple method that holds up in a procurement review: give each of the six terms a score from one to three based on the written answer, with three meaning the strong answer in the table above. Treat a low score on any term as a risk to raise with the vendor. Between vendors with equal scores, the lower price is the better deal; a lower price with lower scores buys a lower level of service. On pricing itself, a boutique carries less overhead, and FirstSourceTeam offers volume discounts on enterprise contracts. Get both quotes in writing against the same population.
Coaching consistency across a provider's network
Ask whether the coaches are the provider's own employees or affiliates and contractors, who trains and supervises them, and what the participant gets if a coach changes. Get the answers in the contract, not the proposal.
Large providers often deliver through networks: regional offices, affiliate firms and contract coaches. Quality then depends on the office your people are assigned to. Before a long-term contract, ask for the coach's employment status, the training and quality review every coach goes through, how coaches are matched by function and seniority, the cap on each coach's caseload, and a named escalation contact on the provider's side. Then ask for participant reviews from the last twelve months, which show whether the standard holds in practice. FirstSourceTeam's coaches work in-house, so the answer is the same for every participant.
Measuring outcomes you can verify
Track what you can check yourself: how many people activate, how fast they meet a coach, how many keep going, and what participants say. Treat a provider's placement rate with care: the definitions differ, and people who stop responding make it unverifiable.
Ask each finalist to report, per participant and live, the date invited, the date of the first coaching session, sessions used, and current status. Those numbers show whether the program is being used while there is still time to act. Engagement definitions differ between providers, so compare the definitions before the headline numbers; see outplacement engagement rates. For the business case, see the evidence on outplacement ROI. FirstSourceTeam's employer portal shows each participant's status as the program runs, and HR can ask Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot about it through FirstSourceTeam's MCP server.
