Evaluating outplacement providers: the questions, the terms, and the RFP checklist.

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. The answers and the speed of the answers are the evaluation.

1. 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 is the difference between advice and generic advice.

2. What ends the engagement: placement, a calendar date, or an hours cap?

   Most complaints about outplacement trace to support that stopped before the search did.

3. 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.

4. What happens to the fee for a seat that is never used or is declined?

   Utilization in the industry is far below one hundred percent. Unused seats are the single largest hidden cost.

5. 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 is a program that misses the moment.

6. What do your participants, not your buyers, rate the program publicly?

   Buyer testimonials describe the sales relationship. Participant reviews describe the service.

7. Who owns the firm, and how does outplacement sit inside the wider business?

   When outplacement is one line among many, it competes for attention. When it is the business, it does not.

8. 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.

9. 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.

FirstSourceTeam's standard programs meet every row in the third column: a dedicated in-house coach per participant on Extended and Enterprise, coaching until placed, a live employer dashboard, refunds on declined seats, launch within 48 hours, and a family-owned firm where outplacement is the whole business. The full terms are on the programs 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. A vendor below twelve of eighteen has a program your people will feel the gaps in. Among vendors at or above that line, the lower price is the better deal. Below it, the lower price is a lower level of service with a smaller invoice, which is a different purchase. On pricing itself, a boutique carries less overhead, and a FirstSourceTeam program is designed to come in around 30 percent below large-firm quotes for a comparable population. Get both quotes in writing against the same population.