how do career transitions work today?

As workforce change accelerates, skills, roles and careers are evolving faster than ever. When leaders guide change, employees expect transparency, fairness and a clear process. You need practical ways to meet evolving needs — redeploy talent when possible and provide outplacement when layoffs are unavoidable — so you protect performance, sustain trust and keep the business moving.

Career transitions are now an expected feature of work, not an exception. Employees move across industries and functions, take portfolio roles or career breaks, and prioritize skills and purpose over tenure. In this environment, you plan for and support employees through continuous workforce change.

Workforce transitions, such as outplacement and redeployment, can also impact your talent retention strategies. How you handle shifts in skills demand shapes engagement for those who stay, alumni goodwill for those who leave and your reputation in the market.

• Transition readiness: Treat transitions as a core capability. Building readiness into plans, partners and processes reduces disruption, protects culture and keeps performance steady when roles change.
• Readiness gap: 95% of leaders expect significant workforce change while only a fraction feel fully prepared — a gap that puts performance, morale and brand at risk.
• Real business costs: Mishandled exits can drive voluntary turnover and replacement costs that compound across teams.
• Speed of change: Skills shift faster than titles, so embedding transition agility helps people move at the pace of the business.

1. Redeployment first
   Look for internal moves before considering exits to preserve skills and culture.
2. Supported exits when needed
   When roles end, use outplacement to ensure dignity, speed and brand protection.
3. Care for remaining employees
   Communicate clearly, equip managers and provide resources so teams stay focused and engaged.
4. Transitions as a system
   Use the same coaching, branding and mobility tools across redeployment and outplacement to maintain consistent and fair experiences.
5. Measurement matters
   Track time to land, pay outcomes and program adoption so you improve with each transition.

Career transitions shape trust, engagement and loyalty long after they first take place. Today’s workforce expects more than severance during layoffs — they expect fair treatment, transparent communication and tangible support that helps them move forward. To meet these expectations, employers should focus on providing:

• Clear communication: Employees want timely, transparent updates with clarity on reasons, next steps and where to find support.
• Career and reskilling support: Talent expects access to coaching, personal branding and learning pathways that build in-demand skills and momentum.
• Respect and recognition: People want a fair and dignified process that treats them as contributors, not transactions, and that honors their impact.
• Personalized tools: Employees value guided support like career exploration, predictive skills insights and accessible coaching, so the transition feels structured, not isolating.

Frequent transitions are the new normal. Managed poorly, they erode trust, productivity and brand; managed well, they protect your culture, sustain engagement and demonstrate credible leadership. Build a repeatable approach so that every transition feels fair, fast and well-supported.

• Transitions are recurring: Build readiness into your strategy with playbooks, partners and processes that scale at speed.
• Visibility is high: People judge organizations more by how transitions are handled than by the change itself, which calls for the gold standard of transition support. Human-led coaching paired with technology that scales insights and access can help you meet their expectations.
• Mistakes are costly: Mishandled exits drive voluntary turnover, damage brand equity and raise replacement costs that can reach a significant share of salary per role.
• Responsible transitions build strength: Fair, transparent processes protect trust and culture, and pairing redeployment with outplacement ensures no option is overlooked.

Outplacement is purpose-built for layoffs and workforce exits. It differs from redeployment, but both can use the same transition services — including coaching, professional branding and mobility tools — which facilitate more successful internal moves when roles change. 

Ideally, employers prioritize redeployment first to retain talent by moving people into new roles that preserve skills and culture. Outplacement then supports employees with dignity when roles end, ensuring consistent and fair experiences.

Modern outplacement also goes beyond individual support; it provides organizations with predictive career intelligence that helps departing employees identify transferable skills and pursue future-proof career paths. Viewed collectively, anonymized data from transitions can reveal where talent is going and which skills are in demand, providing leaders with strategic insights to inform broader workforce planning.

As complementary strategies, redeployment and outplacement guide workforce transitions — two paths within the total talent life cycle — delivered through a single, human-led, technology-enhanced solution that protects brand, reduces risk and preserves organizational agility.

• Do you recognize career transitions as a recurring, not rare, workforce event?
• Have you adapted to nonlinear skills-based career models?
• Are your leaders equipped to meet the rising expectations of employees during times of change?
• Do you measure the impact of transitions on brand reputation and culture?
• Have you embedded both redeployment and outplacement as core tools for managing disruption?

1. Treat career transitions as an expected workforce event and embed readiness into your talent strategy.
2. Make transparency, dignity and reskilling central to change management to protect both people and your brand.
3. Pair redeployment with outplacement to balance talent retention with responsible exits.

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• what is redeployment?
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