Challenger, Gray & Christmas is the nation's oldest outplacement consulting organization. The firm provides outplacement programs for executives, middle managers and long-term or highly valued employees. Challenger, Gray & Christmas pioneered programs for plant closings and large volume reductions. Historically, clients find new jobs in a median time of 3.2 months, compared with an average of five months as cited by The Wall Street Journal. Usually, 85 to 90 percent of clients find equivalent or better jobs. Business development executives work with clients to create termination plans that include communication strategy and timing, phase out and shut down, community awareness, employee retention, contingency planning, security and public agency involvement. The company has offices throughout the United States and more than sixty locations in Canada.