Outplacement is the consulting activity in the field of human resources that deals with accompanying people leaving a company in the search for new professional opportunities. The outplacement service in Italy is regulated by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies as a support activity for professional relocation.
The activity is carried out on specific and exclusive request of the client organization (the company where the person is employed and from which he/she is about to be fired or placed in redundancy fund or in mobility) and is aimed at the relocation of workers in the labour market. Outplacement is an English-derived term, imported from the United States where it was coined around the 1960s. It was first used by the NASA space agency that helped thousands of employees from the concluded “Apollo” project to re-enter the labour market.