For any company facing the difficult decision to reduce its workforce, the non-profit Council for Adult and Experiential Learning's (CAEL) Compassionate Downsizing* program is an idea whose time has come. Merging your corporate objectives with the needs of your downsized employees, this unique program goes beyond traditional outplacement by providing an enhanced range of education, retraining and reemployment opportunities to your employees.

As delivered by CAEL in coordination with your company's internal outplacement staff or designated outplacement firm, compassionate downsizing helps to:

• Maintain your company's customer base through good public relations
• Maintain the morale, productivity and loyalty of the remaining workforce
• Ensure that downsized employees remain loyal customers
• Enhance the company's reputation in the community/marketplace
• Provide a pool of re-trained employees in case of business upturns
• Guarantee the company's recruitment power as an "employer of choice"

When combined with traditional outplacement activities, Compassionate Downsizing offers a greater range of services that maximize benefits, streamline process and leverage available government and corporate retraining dollars.

Services available to your company through a customized compassionate downsizing program include:

Coordination of activities with government, non-profit and
community resources

• Engages the community by leveraging support of local community colleges and available public training resources, such as the federal One-Stop system
• Assists in identifying and accessing available public or private sector training benefits and/or community transition funds, enhancing the level of service available to the displaced workforce

Education and career advising and coaching

• Tailors support to individual employees through personal attention and service
• Delivers skill, interest, and capability assessments along with Returning to
  Learning™ and other customized workshops
• Helps employees develop action-oriented learning and career plans

Tuition and transition assistance management services

• Provides administration of company-offered educational benefits
• Reduces paperwork time and costs for company
• Ensures appropriate and productive use of funds by transitioning employees

As a non-profit organization dedicated to the mission of increasing access to learning for adults, CAEL can customize and provide compassionate downsizing services for any size group of employees.

Compassionate Downsizing: With short-and long-term benefits for both the company and workforce, it's an idea whose time has come.

* ”Compassionate Downsizing” is a term first used by the Conference Board in 2002 when it conducted a survey of its member companies about these enhanced services.
For more information on Compassionate Downsizing, obtain a copy of the report “Compassionate Downsizing: Making the Business Case for Education and Training Services” from The Conference Board at www.conference-board.org.