Placement Coaching is when organizations choose to invest in the people leaving, not just the positions they’re vacating. Contrary to the belief, it’s not about filling roles—it’s about helping humans find footing.

When layoffs or reorganizations happen, HR leaders often move quickly to “do the right thing.” That usually means hiring an outplacement firm—because it’s familiar, easy to scale, and checks a compliance box. But what happens after that box is checked? Employees receive generic job search materials, and HR is left carrying the emotional weight of helping people through change that no template can solve.

That’s where placement coaching comes in—and why it’s so often misunderstood.

The Fear Behind Paid Placement Services

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If you’ve ever browsed Reddit threads on job placement services, the skepticism is impossible to miss. People fear:

• “They’re scams or exploit desperation.”
• “They charge money upfront with no guarantee.”
• “They just mass-apply to jobs without tailoring anything.”
• “Why would I pay? Recruiters are supposed to be paid by the company.”
• “Even when it works, it feels like a gamble.”

The disbelief around placement services doesn’t come out of nowhere—it comes from exhaustion.

In 2025 alone, U.S. employers announced more than 93,000 job cuts in May and over 1.7 million layoffs overall, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The tech sector alone saw nearly 90,000 employees let go across 200+ companies, based on NerdWallet and TechCrunch data.

When that many people lose their jobs in a single year, skepticism grows. People turn to anything that promises security—and end up disappointed when it feels transactional.

As one Reddit commenter put it:

“They just mass-apply to jobs without tailoring anything.”

That’s the heart of the problem: people don’t want to be processed—they want to be seen.

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Why These Beliefs Exist—and Why They’re Misleading

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These fears exist because most “placement” or “outplacement” companies are built for efficiency, not empathy. They measure success in numbers, not outcomes that truly change lives. They’re designed to protect the employer’s reputation, not the employee’s readiness.

And yet, the need behind those fears is real. People crave direction, not deliverables. They don’t just want to find work—they want to feel ready to start again.

Coach Helane Cohen, who has worked across multiple tech layoffs, put it best:

“There are things in your control and things that are not. A company is in business to make business—and a lot of times, they have to do things that really have nothing to do with you, but directly affect you.”

That’s the truth many employees don’t hear during a layoff. When the separation feels personal, it creates mistrust—not only toward the employer but toward any service that claims to “help.”
Placement coaching was built to restore that trust—to help people separate what happened to them from what’s still possible for them.

So we decided to create this article to remove the myths about placement coaching—and to show HR leaders what real human support looks like during change.

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1. Outplacement Is About Numbers. Placement Coaching Is About People.

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Traditional outplacement firms focus on logistics: résumé rewrites, job boards, and group webinars. It looks good on paper, but it rarely meets the human need for meaning, confidence, and closure.

Placement coaching, by contrast, starts with the person—not the process. It helps individuals reframe their story, rediscover their strengths, and design a strategy that feels aligned with who they are becoming, not just where they’re going.

As Helane shared during our Coffee & Coaching conversation,

“You can’t tie your worth to a company. They make business decisions, but your value doesn’t leave when your badge does.”

That’s exactly why placement coaching exists—to help people rebuild confidence around who they are, not just what they did.

A placement company may place you somewhere.
A placement coach helps you land where you belong.

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2. The Human Gap HR Has Been Asked to Carry Alone

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Every HR professional knows what the spreadsheets don’t show—the late-night messages from anxious employees, the leaders who cry after delivering bad news, and the personal toll of doing the “hard but necessary” work.

Kind Transitions™ was designed to fill that gap—the space between operational efficiency and emotional empathy. We don’t replace HR. We walk beside it. Placement coaching supports both sides of change: the people leaving and the ones staying to rebuild.

As one HR partner shared,

“Kind Transitions helped us do more than support our people—it gave us a way to protect our culture during change.”

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3. What Placement Coaching Actually Looks Like

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At HIK Trainings®, placement coaching is structured, human, and emotionally intelligent. It’s not a deliverable checklist—it’s a growth journey.

Each engagement includes:

• Career Discovery: Clarifying values, transferable skills, and purpose.
• Emotional Reframing: Processing loss and restoring self-confidence.
• Transition Strategy Map: Designing a clear, tailored path forward.
• Optional Resume & LinkedIn Alignment: Updating tools to reflect a renewed professional identity.

This approach ensures people don’t just “land a job”—they land with intention, resilience, and self-awareness.

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4. Why HIK Trainings® Created Kind Transitions™

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We built Kind Transitions™ after years of coaching leaders through both beginnings and endings—the two most defining and least supported moments in an employee’s journey.

When organizations focus solely on onboarding, they build enthusiasm but not resilience. When they focus only on offboarding logistics, they miss the chance to leave people better than they arrived. Kind Transitions™ bridges both.

It combines Core 50™ (for starting strong) and Pivot Ready™ (for exiting well) under one integrated experience. Through live coaching, asynchronous support, and AI-powered companions, it helps people start or leave roles with clarity, dignity, and confidence—while protecting HR’s credibility and culture in the process.

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Closing: Because Change Deserves Kindness

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At HIK Trainings®, we believe the moments that define your culture aren’t the big launches or milestones—they’re the quiet transitions that happen when no one is watching.

Placement coaching is how you make those moments count. It’s how you protect both people and brand when everything shifts.

Because the truth is, real placement isn’t about filling positions.
It’s about helping humans find footing—and walking with them until they do.

References

• Bureau of Labor Statistics, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary (JOLTS), August 2025.
• USAFacts, Layoffs and Discharges Data — August 2025.
• Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Job Cuts Report — May 2025.
• TechCrunch, Comprehensive List of 2025 Tech Layoffs.
• NerdWallet, Layoffs.fyi 2025 Tech Data Analysis.
• Reddit Thread: “Has anyone here actually paid for job placement?”
• Coffee & Coaching with Helane Cohen, HIK Trainings Podcast, 2025.

© 2025 HIK Trainings®. All rights reserved.

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