Severance Includes Outplacement, Financial Planning

December 22, 2008 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Employers participating in a recent severance package benchmarking survey offer both outplacement services and financial planning to their laid-off employees.

The poll by HR consultant Right Management of HR executives and other senior managers responsible for severance issues found that 81% of the 399 U.S. executives questioned provide outplacement services (61% of the 1,227 surveyed worldwide).

Some 6% of the U.S. executives said they offer retirement planning (15% worldwide), while 11% offer financial planning services (14% worldwide) and 1% of U.S. employers include retraining services (9% worldwide).

According to the survey, 82% of U.S. respondents provide health-related benefits (49% worldwide). Four percent of U.S. employers and 16% worldwide said they give laid-off workers no severance benefits at all.

Right Management engaged International Communications Research to conduct the study in 28 countries between July and September 2008. Of the 1,524 survey responses received, 45% were from the Americas (including 456 from the United States), 34% were from Europe, and 21% were from Asia Pacific.

A broad cross section of industries was represented.