Hospitality and tourism recruitment specialist TMS Asia-Pacific has again joined with financial advice specialist ipac Asia to offer a valuable mentoring option to Singapore-based employees affected by pay cuts and layoffs.

In what TMS CEO Andrew Chan describes as a “timely and very positive response” to the current situation, the two companies have combined resources to offer a raft of career and financial advisory options designed to help assist employees through the current economic crisis.

The concept has been evolved from the highly successful ‘StarLife’ career advice, financial and lifestyle mentoring concept launched by both companies and other partners in late 2007.

The newly released scheme offers advice and services in a variety of areas Mr Chan said were particularly pertinent in today’s environment. The TMS services, he said, range from how to look for and succeed in obtaining a new job, reworking CVs, improving candidates’ interview techniques and introductions to potential employers. The ipac element of the new program revolves around the provision of advice to help those employees facing retrenchment or having been retrenched on how to best manage periods of non-employment.

ipac plans to help employees develop a firm understanding of the full financial impact of taking redundancy packages especially so for older and senior employees whose financial situations are likely to be more complicated.

Mr Chan said people facing the possibility of retrenchment or those who have in fact been retrenched need to be pragmatic with regard to their financial survival beyond outplacement. “These are changing times and we have seen outsourcing evolve beyond traditional outplacement. “New environments call for new measures and this is an excellent example of how TMS and ipac are constantly evolving their product offerings to reflect changing needs,” he said.

ipac Asia CEO Derek Young said exiting staff needed to bear in mind that their job loss was not about them but the effects of a global financial crisis that is affecting thousands of people. “It does present an opportunity to use the transitional period between exiting from your current job to getting a new one as a period for financial review and development of an understanding of what your next steps could possibly be, not only for the immediate future, but for life long plans,” he said.

Launched in late 2007, the ‘StarLife’ model is a ‘one stop shop’ concept designed to provide candidates with a unique value added proposition combining career, finance and lifestyle elements under the one umbrella. ‘StarLife’ partners also include high profile retail specialist Club 21.

As part of their involvement, these companies provide advice ranging from salary packaging, insurance and future planning to the all important ‘lifestyle’ element – holidays, shopping and fitness.