A People-First Approach to Career Transition Support During an Unprecedented Period of Organizational Change
HLN Consulting is a leading health information technology consulting company with deep roots in academia. Their mission is to support public health organizations and healthcare providers with top-tier consulting services, strategic planning, and custom software development - ensuring they have the tools needed to deliver impactful and lasting improvements in healthcare.
HLN primarily works with public health agencies across the country - from New York City to Minnesota to Kansas and beyond - building custom software solutions that power critical public health functions. Their technology helps hospitals and healthcare providers make data-driven decisions, from patient chart recommendations to population-level health reporting. Notably, HLN served as one of the prime vendors for the CDC during the COVID-19 pandemic, building the custom software infrastructure used to collect, analyze, and disseminate nationwide health data.
West End Workforce’s relationship with HLN spans over a decade, beginning when the company had roughly 20 employees. Through that partnership, we have supported their growth to more than 60 team members. HLN is widely recognized as a deeply culture-driven organization - once people join, they tend to stay. Tenure is long, loyalty is high, and the mission-driven nature of the work keeps people engaged for years.
In 2025, shifts in the federal administration led to the abrupt cancellation of several public health projects. For a company that had never experienced layoffs in its history, HLN was suddenly faced with the difficult reality of reducing its workforce. Approximately five team members were affected - long-tenured, mission-driven professionals who had dedicated years to meaningful public health work.
HLN had never been here before. As a culture-driven organization with exceptionally high employee retention, involuntary reductions were entirely uncharted ground. Leadership understood that how they handled this moment would define how the company was remembered - by the people leaving and by the people staying. The decision to invest in genuine support wasn’t a formality. It was a values decision, made under pressure, about who HLN wanted to be.
The individuals affected weren’t leaving because of anything they’d done. They’d been embedded in mission-driven public health work for years, and the sudden disruption carried real emotional weight. What they needed wasn’t a standard outplacement package - a PDF template and three coaching sessions. They needed a partner with real market knowledge, active connections, and the judgment to help them figure out what came next in a job market being reshaped by AI, federal restructuring, and ongoing tech industry volatility.
HLN evaluated multiple providers and selected West End Workforce - not only for our career coaching capabilities, but for our active market connections and our ability to open doors directly for affected employees. We deployed our Premium Career Transition Support Package, a high-touch, strategic service that goes well beyond the traditional outplacement model.
Each affected employee received dedicated 1:1 coaching tailored to their individual goals, background, and circumstances. While the program specified four sessions per person, our team provided ongoing support for months - because career transitions don’t run on a fixed schedule, and neither do we. Conversations continued as long as they were useful, and the relationship didn’t end when the formal engagement did.
We rebuilt every resume collaboratively and worked through LinkedIn profiles with targeted keyword strategies - making sure that deep expertise in public health IT, government contracting, and custom software development translated into positioning that actually gets seen by the right people. We developed custom outreach messaging, interview preparation, and salary negotiation guidance specific to each person’s target market and role level.
The piece that separated this program from a checklist-style outplacement service was the market access. We made direct introductions to hiring managers and companies within our network - not warm leads, actual conversations. We knew who was hiring, what they were looking for, and how to position each person’s background in that context. For people navigating an unfamiliar job market under difficult personal circumstances, that kind of active sponsorship made a material difference. Weekly check-ins kept momentum high and made sure no one was moving through the process alone.
Every affected employee received sustained, hands-on support that extended well past the initial scope of the engagement. Through ongoing coaching, strategic introductions, and active market engagement, each individual re-entered the job market with clear positioning, real momentum, and a network working for them - not just a polished resume sitting in an applicant tracking system.
For HLN, the decision to invest in premium transition support for people they were letting go sent a clear signal - internally and externally - about the kind of company they are. The employees who stayed watched how leadership handled this moment. The employees who left experienced it directly. In both cases, HLN’s commitment to its people was visible and credible, and that is what employer reputation is actually built on.
This engagement also established a working blueprint for responsible workforce transitions. It demonstrated that the choice isn’t between doing this cheaply or doing it well - it’s between handling it in a way that preserves trust and dignity, or in a way that doesn’t. HLN chose well. The combination of genuine human support and real market access is what made the difference.
How you treat people on the way out matters just as much as how you bring them in. HLN made that choice deliberately - and every team member they supported landed with genuine forward momentum, not just a resume update.
West End Workforce - Premium Career Transition Support