Are you on the fence about hiring an outplacement service for your terminated employees? This feeling is completely normal – most employers wonder if it’s really necessary to provide job-hunting resources for the employees they’ve had to terminate for one reason or another.

If you’ve been experience this confusion about investing in career outplacement services, this list of pros and cons should help you make your final decision.

The Pros of Hiring Outplacement Services

Before we can discuss the potential advantages of outplacement, let’s first talk about what outplacement actually is. According to Dictionary.com, outplacement is “the provision of assistance to laid-off employees in finding new employment, either as a benefit provided by the employer directly, or through a specialist service.”

It Provides Your Terminated Employees with a Solution

There are tons of advantages to having an outplacement service in place within your company. The first benefit is obvious: it allows your laid-off employees to reenter the workforce as quickly as possible. Maybe you don’t see this as your responsibility, but many employees are terminated for reasons out of their control – like lack of money within the company budget to keep them on board.

There are times when even your hardworking, loyal employees have to get the boot. At least with outplacement, you are providing them with the necessary tools to prevent a major lapse in paychecks. Many outplacement agencies have high success rates when it comes to finding people jobs fast.

It Shows that Your Truly Care

Another major perk of outplacement is that your employees will actually like working for you. Investing in a service like this shows that you truly care, you even care about their well-being once they no longer work for you. Hiring outplacement speaks volumes to your name. It has actually been proven that employees working for a company with an outplacement service in place have a higher rate of productivity in the workplace.

It Provides Valuable Skills and Career Lessons

One of the major services provided by an outplacement service is resume writing. Once an employee of yours has been terminated, he or she will receive extensive help on perfecting the current resume. Outplacement agents have expert knowledge on resume writing, but that’s not the only service that is provided by these professionals.

There are tons of valuable skills and career-related lessons that become available through outplacement agents. The top agencies provide everything from career counseling to online professional profile updates. They even provide you with things like “How to Dress for an Interview” seminars as well as Mock Interview sessions.

The Cons of Hiring Outplacement Services

The only disadvantage to investing in outplacement is the cost. Most agencies will charge you based on the amount of employees you would like to cover, or you could find one that has an all-inclusive package for the entire company. The cost is not miniscule, in fact it can be rather pricey depending on the agency you choose. However, outplacement is a complete necessity and it will do you much more good than harm.