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Socially responsible restructuring
Effective strategies for supporting redundant workers
Swedbank also made sure that outsourcing some of its services did not cause
unnecessary job loss. It is currently planning to outsource its telephone bank
service to Lattelecom, a telecommunications company, but the agreement has a
requirement that most current telephone bank employees keep working for
Lattelecom on similar employment terms.
Support measures offered internally were not differentiated among groups of
employees. However, few of Swedbank’s employees could be considered at risk
of long-term employment, as they have been highly valued in the labour market.
Swedbank has not sought to participate in any European funding programme to
improve their internal support to the redundant employees.
6.7.4. Cooperation and external capacity
The bank recognised the need of some of the redundant employees for career
guidance and counselling. The main beneficiaries were long-term employees,
who had not experienced a work-life change of this sort for many years.
However, others who could not find work immediately chose to use the option
two to three months later, when they realised they might need such support; this
was not so much to find work as to rethink their lives due to their unemployment.
One reason for using an external provider of counselling services was that the
redundant employees could choose to attend counselling sessions when they
needed them most. Additionally, regardless of how well the employment
termination was prepared and what benefits were offered, many of these former
employees feel resentment towards their previous workplace; therefore, it was
important to offer a neutral environment to plan for the future. The bank itself
lacked the specialists to offer such service internally. Moreover, the bank offered
an outplacement service for well-performing long-time managers, for whom there
was no other position available in the optimised structure.
6.7.5. Impact and effects
According to the HRM Director, it has been difficult to assess reintegration in the
labour market, as there was no follow-up in place after contract termination. As
there has been very little differentiation of support activities among the redundant
employees, it is difficult to say which instruments work best.
Very solid results were achieved. On job preservation, approximately 400
people in the 10 months of 2009 have been retrained to do the work required by
the new business environment. These employees changed their profile (a
common example, from loan issue specialist to loan restructuring and collection
specialist) and never needed to be made redundant.
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