PAUL Curley has been described as a corporate ambulance chaser. He advertises his services in terms of guilt, shame and fear. As managing director of Q3 Associates, an outplacement company, he is doing a roaring trade with sacked executives who need to find new jobs.
Outplacement is a US$1 billion (about HK$7.7 billion) business in the United States and worth US$20 million in Japan. Mr Curley sees no reason why it should not become as big in Hong Kong.
A recent survey by Price Waterhouse found that 38 per cent of companies in Hong Kong could not guarantee their expatriates a definite position upon their return home. Other studies have found that as many as 40 per cent who do return, leave their companies within two years.
'In the US, you can expect to be sacked at least once in your career,' Mr Curley said. 'Just because Hong Kong's economy is doing well does not mean that people will not lose their jobs. This is a very fluid market. Demands for skills are constantly changing.
'To remain competitive, companies have to let people go. Rising costs here also mean companies are relocating or thinking twice about the expense of expatriate packages.' It is the company, not the sacked individual that employs the outplacement firm. Mr Curley argues that as an economy becomes more sophisticated, increasing numbers of companies will want to be seen to be providing sacked employees with the outplacement cushion.
'We help preserve a company's good image,' he said. 'The dismissal of a long-term employee has a negative impact on the recruiting of new employees and the morale of those left. If a firm gets a reputation of hiring and firing, it won't be able to attract and retain the best employees. That's why they want us.' Outplacement can be an emotional business and it is the human cost that Mr Curley wants to communicate to his clients, hence his advertising strategy which attempts to play on feelings of corporate guilt by elaborating, in painful detail, how it feels to be sacked.