Do we even need to say something like “Getting laid off is one of the hardest things in the world”. Probably not. Getting laid off is a fact of life though, especially in these trying economic times. There’s no way to sugar coat the lay off process but what happens immediately afterwards is crucial to the laid off employee.
Historically, the longer a laid off employee waits to start the next job hunt, the harder it gets. As time goes on people who are laid off tend to get disengaged from the work life experience and also disheartened by their lack of leads. Often times this is because people who have been laid off don’t know exactly where to go.
This is where Columbus startup Resition comes in. Resition is a platform created by Mike Chapman (CEO), Chris Domino (CTO) and Walter Akana (COO), to help facilitate a transition to another job and ease the blow of getting laid off. Resition is actually paid for by the company that is doing the layoffs. Adding Resition at the time of separation allows the companies that are laying people off to give those people access to career coaches, mentoring, and a socially driven job search. The companies then get valuable analytic data back from Resition that can help them manage the morale at the company for the remaining employees.
While the job displacement space is definitely not a sexy one, Chapman and his team have left no stone unturned and have made sure that Resition does exactly what they’ve set out to do.
How is it done? We got a chance to interview Chapman. Check out the interview below:
What is Resition?
Resition is a web-based outplacement solution that reduces companies’ layoff costs. Laid off employees are matched with their own personal career coaches on our platform & complete a socially driven, milestone-based job search program. The analytics generated from this process enable companies to better manage morale among remaining employees, unemployment insurance taxes, & the administrative time-costs of carrying out a downsizing event.
In layman’s terms, how does it work?
Downsizing companies purchase Resition and provide it to their laid employees as part of their separation agreements. Laid off employees are then matched with their own personal career coaches on our platform and together they complete a milestone-based job search program, which includes: one-on-one video chat meetings with their career coaches, personality and values assessments, resume editing, interview preparation, and job application organization. Meanwhile, remaining employees (e.g. those employees that didn’t get laid off) can create Resition accounts and support their friends who were let go by offering them encouragement and introductions to valuable networking contacts. While all of this is taking place, companies track the progress being made by laid off employees and share the information with stakeholders. The idea is that, by transparently communicating the job search progress being made by laid off employees, and giving remaining employees the opportunity to help out their friends who were let go, morale and retention will increase and drive down voluntary turnover costs.
Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?
![Mike Chapman]()
Mike Chapman, CEO
Prior to founding Resition, Mike worked in higher education administration for nine years, most recently as an Admission Counselor at an Ohio community college. In that role, he worked with hundreds of people who were recently laid off and looking to enhance their skills in order to land new jobs. It was this experience that led Mike to realize that companies could be doing a better job at managing their layoffs.
![Chris Domino]()
Chris Domino, CTO
Chris is a software architect who has built robust back end solutions for companies like New Balance, Lurie Children’s Hospital, and YMCA of the USA. He’s built Resition from the ground up and is continuously making our platform better. He graduated from Miami University (OH) where he majored in Computer Science and Mathematics.
![Chris Domino]()
Walter Akana, COO
Prior to starting his own career coaching business and founding Resition, Walter worked as a career consultant at Lee Hecht Harrison, Right Management, and the IMPACT Group. In addition to being an industry renowned career coach, Walter has also developed a niche specialty in personal branding.
Where are you based?
Columbus, Ohio
What’s the startup scene/culture like where you’re based?
Let’s put it this way. I had a business partner in town recently who’s originally from New York and now lives in Atlanta. One of his comments to me while he was in Columbus was something like: “Columbus really has a vibrant startup scene. Why do you think that is?” My response to him and now you guys is that Columbus invests a lot of time and money into its local startups because they see it as an effective strategy for economic development. Combine this with a lot of imaginative and ambitious entrepreneurs, and it becomes clear that the startup ecosystem here is only going to grow more robust over the years.
How did you come up with the idea for Resition?
Prior to founding Resition, I worked in higher education administration for 9 years and my last job in that industry was working as an Admission Counselor at a community college. In talking with hundreds of prospective students over the years, many of whom had been recently laid off, I realized that the career coaching process was out of date and less effective than it could be. I then started looking into the outplacement industry and saw an opportunity for innovation due to advances in technology and consumer expectations regarding wanting more services offered online–enter the creation of Resition.
How did you come up with the name?
It’s a play on the phrase: “Career transition services, reinvented”. The .com URL happened to be available as well, so it worked out great.
What problem does Resition solve?
Layoffs precipitate decreased morale among remaining employees. They’re concerned about their friends who got let go, they’re worried about their own job security, and they’ve usually lost trust in their company. As a result, on average, a company can expect a 5% increase in its voluntary turnover the year following layoffs, and this is costly to the company due to all the extra off boarding of departing employees, and then recruiting, hiring, and training their replacements. Resition helps downsizing companies reduce this voluntary turnover cost by increasing morale and retention among remaining employees. We enable remaining employees to get involved with the layoff process right from the get-go by helping their friends who were let go, and this helps them stay engaged, maintain morale, and hopefully not voluntarily leave the company.
What’s your secret sauce?
Two things: 1) entirely web-based career coaching for laid off employees, including one-on-one video chat with real, professional career coaches. 2) we’ve built our platform in such a way that enables remaining employees to get involved with the downsizing process by helping their friends who were let go land new jobs.
What’s one dilemma you’ve encountered in the startup process?
Haha…just one? When we went into private beta a month or so ago, due to the feedback we were getting from users on our system, we realized that our public launch would be delayed due to some serious UX issues. As such, we’ve had to contract a UX professional and designer to make the platform more intuitive. Although this is delaying our public launch, it’s for the better, because our platform will be more user friendly as a result.
What’s one challenge you’ve overcome in the startup process?
Our three founders live in three separate cities. I live in Columbus, Chris, our technical lead, lives in Chicago, and Walter, our industry expert, lives in Atlanta. Although we’ve hit some bumps along the way with respect to working remotely, we’ve made it work and are becoming better at it. We had some people tell us at the onset of this project that working remotely wouldn’t work, but we’re proving them wrong. Project management and communication web-based tools have really helped us execute.
Who are some of your mentors and business role models?
Lots. We’ve been inspired quite a bit by the books ReWork, Art of the Start, The Lean Startup, and Solution Selling. We’re also inspired by our advisors and the local entrepreneurs here in Columbus.
What’s next for Resition?
1) We’re in the process of doing a UX and frontend redesign of our platform. 2) We’re flying out to Silicon Valley this coming week to meet with two potential channel partners that will hopefully help us ramp up our go to market initiatives. 3) we’re going to finish up closing our friends and family round (raised $20k to date, would like to raise $25k-$30k) more. 4) then we’re going live sometime in October.
Linkage:
Kyle
