03-06-09 Style advise as part of outplacement
Imagine: you lost your job and have been offered outplacement. A new job is headed your way and after a first interview, a series of tests and an assessment, you’re one of two final candidates. In that final interview you will need to make the difference. But how? Acerta Outplacement added style advise to their outplacement programme a few years ago because making a good impression qua appearance can be crucial.
Often, candidates have the misconception that making a first impression is what tips the balance, but that’s not how selection procedures work. First interviews are often done over the phone or by recruitment agencies and first assessments and profiling are often done on the basis of written tests. An applicant is only really ‘looked at’ by the decision maker in the very last round. This may seem very superficial but it is very human. If you have to decide between two candidates that are equally worthy and have similar qualities, what is there to base your decision on? Of course you won’t exclude any candidate purposely or prefer a candidate simply because of the cut of their suit or the length of their skirt, but you will have noticed if someone’s style fits with the function and the company image.
Certified consultant
This is precisely why Acerta has included an outfit consult in their outplacement programme – and this makes Acerta the first outplacement agency to do this. Managing Consultant Outplacement, Magda Duerinckx: “Obvisiouly this is something we include in an outplacement programm when it is useful for the candidate. Looking for a new job, after having been made redundant, isn’t a very easy path as it is. This is why we don’t overlook any aspect of someone’s chances of getting a new job. The different analyses and tests we do in order to style a candidate take place professionally, according to the rules of the trade.”
Magda Duerinckx specialised in clothing – and style advice (studies taking two years) is a certified colour and style consultant. The Acerta Offices in Heverlee-Louvain have a specific room designed to screen the candidate for their sense of dress and style. “Don’t worry, we’re not Trinny and Suzanna,” Duerinckx says, making reference to the British style-gurus, “we are not going to change personalities or willing aim to shock. What we do aim for is the perfect match between company and talent and we take clothing into account. After all, it would be quiet a shame, if a perfectly valuable candidate is rejected in a last phase because of their ‘look’.”
