Outplacement

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The service that supports individuals who have lost their jobs in finding new employment opportunities Assistance provided to those who have been laid off to ease their transition into new careers The program focused on helping ex-employees successfully re-enter the workforce after dismissal
2. A professional assistance program that helps people find new jobs after losing employment
3. Support offered to individuals to facilitate their career change following redundancy

Etymology: "Outplacement" is a compound built from "out" and "placement," and the second part carries most of the history. "Placement" traces back through Middle English "-ment" and Old French "-ment," which came from Latin "-mentum," a suffix that formed nouns from verbs, so "placement" is essentially the act or result of placing something. The "out" half descends from Old English "ūt," which has the same ancestry as the English word "out" itself. The combination is a plainly modern coinage: English simply attached "out" to "placement" to name a service that moves employees out of a company and into new jobs. Readers who see the word for the first time can read its meaning straight from its parts, which is part of why the term has stayed transparent.

Synonyms: job placement, career transition, employment assistance