Outplacement for employers.
Family owned · Est. 2006
Outplacement questions
for HR leaders.
Five things to check about the program you have today, and our answers to the questions HR leaders ask us. Sources are linked where we have them.
Five things to check with your current provider
Does your current program have a public rating from the people who used it?
The public rating participants write after the program, not the survey your provider runs mid-engagement.
Rated 4.9 out of 5 on Google by our participants.
In this industry, the satisfaction figures providers publish and the ratings participants post are often far apart. Ours is the public one, written by participants. Read our reviews.
Satisfaction claimed by providers vs ratings from participants
Self-reported satisfaction vs public participant ratings
Sources: provider marketing pages (claims) · Trustpilot and Yelp, June 2026 (ratings) · Google (FST)
Was every seat you bought 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.
Declined seats are refunded, on terms in your contract.
Refunds on declined seats are available on every contract, with the terms negotiated per contract. If a participant declines services, the seat is refunded and the decline is documented in your audit log.
The same thirty seats with refunds on declined seats: each seat is either used or refunded. Illustration.
Could you open a dashboard right now and see who engaged this week?
Many programs report quarterly, in a PDF, using their own numbers.
Yes, on a live dashboard.
Participant status, spend, and outcomes update live, with exportable audit logs. The dashboard shown here uses sample data.
Organization
Acme Corp
Import Participants
Upload a CSV with participant details
Drop CSV or click to upload
Columns: name, email, role, tier
Could a new program be ready before you need it?
Outplacement contracts often take weeks of MSAs, security reviews, and kickoff calls, so companies end up buying during the layoff instead of before it.
Live within 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 or kickoff project. The program stands ready until you need it.
Does each person have a named coach, and for how long?
Many programs cap coaching hours and end after 90 days, whether or not the person has landed.
A dedicated coach, hours published up front.
A human coach leads the work. CareerIQ, our AI platform, handles per-position resume rewriting, live job matching, and interview simulation.
Resume Agent Pipeline · Product preview
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.
Reporting while the program runs
A live dashboard showing each participant's status, your spend, and outcomes, plus exportable audit logs.
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.
Cost, provider, and severance questions.
Questions HR leaders ask when comparing outplacement providers.
Cost
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 quotes per participant for your exact 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.
Items an outplacement fee should 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. At FirstSourceTeam, coaching continues until placement, and refunds on declined seats are available, with terms set in each contract.
Choosing a provider
Comparing 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.
Questions for an outplacement RFP
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.
Reporting an employer should expect
Live, per-participant reporting: enrollment, engagement, coaching activity, and placements, with exportable records. Treat a quarterly PDF summary as a red flag.
Alternatives to the large outplacement firms
Smaller firms deliver the same category of service, often with dedicated coaches and simpler terms. Confirm both in writing. 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?
Outplacement is a support service, not a legal safeguard, and it is not a substitute for a properly executed separation agreement. Ask your employment counsel about legal risk.
Talk to our team.
Family owned for 20 years, with 100,000+ people helped and a 4.9 out of 5 rating on Google.
Insights
Research for employers on outplacement and transition.
OutplacementThe case for buying outplacement before you need itThe case for standing a program up before you need one: survivor productivity, hiring costs, exit economics, and the legal logic.Read the article
Labor marketAI and the modern job searchHiring changed on both sides of the table, and the market people are entering looks different from the one they left.Read the article
OutplacementThe outplacement industry's value proposition is breaking downFor every dollar spent on outplacement, only $0.34 of value is consumed by the participant. We verified every number the industry relies on.Read the article
OutplacementThe credibility deltaProviders report 92-98% satisfaction. Independent review platforms tell a different story, and the gap matters for buyers.Read the article
Executive careerThe LinkedIn visibility gapOnly 1% of members post weekly, average reach fell by half in two years, and recruiters read activity as signal.Read the article
Executive careerOutplacement executives will useSenior leaders decline outplacement at far higher rates than mid-career professionals. The fix is a different service, not better marketing.Read the article- All our research for employersSee all insights