Outplacement, both directions.
Five questions for you. Straight answers for the rest.
Family owned · Est. 2006
The questions
worth asking.
Five we would put to you about the program you have today, and straight answers to the ones HR leaders put to us. Receipts throughout.
Five questions for your current provider
What do your people rate the program you bought them?
Not the satisfaction survey your provider runs mid-engagement. The public number, written by participants, after.
Our answer: We are rated by the people who live it.
Buyer ratings and participant ratings are two different worlds in this industry. We publish ours and it comes from participants. Read our reviews.
What providers claim vs what participants rate them.
The four largest providers, self-reported satisfaction vs public participant ratings
Sources: provider marketing pages (claims) · Trustpilot and Yelp, June 2026 (ratings) · Google (FST)
How much of what you bought was ever actually used?
Our 2026 analysis of the $2.2B North American outplacement market found that roughly a third of purchased seats are never used at all, and under per-seat billing that money is not returned. The person the seat was bought for gets nothing, and you still paid. Read the analysis: The Value Gap.
Our answer: Unused seats come back to you, in writing.
We negotiate positive-decline refunds into our outplacement contracts: if a participant declines services, the seat is refunded and the decline is documented in your audit log. A seat you paid for cannot quietly become someone else's margin.
The same thirty seats under positive-decline refunds: every seat used or returned. Declines stop being margin and start being receipts.
Could you open a dashboard right now and see who engaged this week?
Most programs report quarterly, in a PDF, on their own numbers. 45% of HR leaders say they offer outplacement; 9% of employees know it exists.
Our answer: Yes. This one.
Every participant, every dollar, every outcome, live, with exportable audit logs. The demo here is the actual product.
Organization
Acme Corp
Import Participants
Upload a CSV with participant details
Drop CSV or click to upload
Columns: name, email, role, tier
How fast could a new program be standing?
The industry's procurement cycle runs MSAs, security reviews, and kickoff calls measured in weeks, which is how companies end up buying outplacement during the layoff instead of before it.
Our answer: Live in 24 to 48 hours.
Upload a CSV and your people meet their coaches within two days. No MSAs and no implementation project, so a program can stand ready in peacetime and activate seat by seat, only when used.
Upload the CSV
Today
Participants invited, coaches assigned
Tomorrow
First coaching sessions
Day two
No MSA. No kickoff project. Standing ready until you need it.
Who is actually coaching your people next Tuesday?
Five hours of coaching and a login URL is the industry's mid-tier reality. Programs expire at 90 days whether or not anyone landed.
Our answer: A dedicated coach, until placed.
Human coaches carry the person; CareerIQ carries the workload: per-position resume rewriting, live job matching, interview simulation.
Resume Agent Pipeline
Quick answers.
Can we set this up before we have a layoff planned?
Yes, and that is the intended way to buy it. A program stands ready with no ongoing obligation, then activates seat by seat when you upload names.
Do programs expire?
No. There are no 90-day cutoffs and no 5-hour coaching caps. Every participant keeps a dedicated coach until they are placed.
What do we see while the program runs?
A live dashboard covering every participant, every dollar, and every outcome, plus exportable audit logs. No quarterly PDF, no black box.
Is the coaching human or AI?
Human, led by a dedicated coach. CareerIQ, our AI platform, works alongside the coach: per-position resume rewriting, live job matching, and interview simulation.
The buying questions.
What HR leaders ask when they are comparing providers, not just evaluating us.
Cost
How much does outplacement cost?
Outplacement is priced per participant and rises with seniority. Group programs cost the least; dedicated 1:1 and executive programs cost the most. Providers rarely publish rates, so get quotes in writing and compare what ends the engagement: placement or a calendar date. FirstSourceTeam programs are designed to come in around 30 percent below large-firm quotes for a comparable population.
Is outplacement priced per employee?
Yes. The standard model is one fee per participant, tiered by level, with volume pricing for larger reductions. The participant never pays; outplacement is an employer-funded benefit.
What does an outplacement fee include?
It should include coaching, the career platform, and reporting for HR. Ask what is excluded: many contracts cap coaching hours, expire at 90 days, and keep the fee for seats that go unused. FirstSourceTeam includes unlimited coaching until placed and refunds declined seats.
Choosing a provider
How do I compare outplacement providers?
Compare six terms in writing: who delivers the coaching, when support ends, what reporting you see, what happens to unused seats, how fast the program launches, and who owns the firm. The full checklist is on our programs page.
What should an outplacement RFP ask?
Ask each vendor to confirm in writing: dedicated or pooled coaching, time caps or until-placed, live usage reporting or quarterly summaries, refund terms on unused seats, and launch time from signature. A vendor that will not answer plainly is answering.
What reporting should an employer expect from outplacement?
Live, per-participant reporting: enrollment, engagement, coaching activity, and placements, with exportable records. Treat a quarterly PDF summary as a red flag.
What are the alternatives to the large outplacement firms?
Boutique firms deliver the same category of service with dedicated coaches, faster launches, and simpler terms. The trade-off used to be global scale; for virtual-first programs, delivery is no longer tied to office locations.
Severance
Is outplacement part of severance?
They usually travel together in a separation package, but they are different things: severance is money that bridges the gap, outplacement is a service that shortens it. Most employers offer both.
Can outplacement replace severance?
No. Severance is compensation and often a condition of the release agreement. Outplacement complements it by shortening the time your people need that money.
Does outplacement reduce legal risk?
It helps at the margin. Departing employees who land quickly are less likely to pursue claims, and a documented support program demonstrates good faith. It is not a substitute for a properly executed separation agreement.
The fastest answer is a
twenty-minute conversation.
We built the outplacement firm we'd want to use, as an employer, and as a client: 100,000+ professionals placed over 20 years, rated 4.9 out of 5 by the people who live it.