Page 16 - Socially-responsible-restructuring-Effective-strategies-for-supporting-redundant-workers

Socially responsible restructuring
Effective strategies for supporting redundant workers

• innovative and effective practices, in different economic sectors, which could
be transferable across diverse cultural and economic contexts.
A cornerstone of the study has been a series of case studies on innovation
and effective practices led by enterprises, as well as by local and regional
support schemes, in restructuring situations. These have brought together
practice in enterprises ranging from 140 employees to over 130 000 across
Europe and with redundancies ranging from 35 to over 6 000. The review has
been comparative but has not been comprehensive across Europe, with eleven
countries included and seven of these providing enterprise case studies
(Germany, Latvia, Austria, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden and the UK), and two case
studies on regional or local adjustment strategies (Slovakia and the UK). To this
has been added a wider review of policy, academic and practitioner literature,
stakeholder consultation and peer review.

Enterprise restructuring and careers guidance in

context

Across Europe, there has been extensive research both on the issue of
enterprise restructuring and organisational development, and on career
guidance, career choice and career development. Unfortunately, research on the
links between these two areas has attracted little past interest, echoing the
paucity of European-level evidence of guidance in the context of workplace
related practice. US research has been a little more extensive, and has
postulated the scope for compassionate downsizing for employers managing lay
offs and moving beyond a past emphasis on compensation for job loss. If Europe
currently lacks such a theoretical underpinning, much is known about the context
in which careers guidance might support restructuring.
First, the quality and maturity of enterprises’ arrangements to support workers
are affected greatly by the variable starting points for different countries.
Adjustment practices by enterprises in Europe are highly diverse, set against a
backcloth of wide contrasts in Member States in terms of legislative frameworks
affecting companies in notifying job losses, and supporting and compensating
those affected. This diversity is intensified by contrasts at national and sectoral
level in industrial relations practice and social partnership traditions.
There are also wide variations in the career guidance infrastructure for adults
in employment or seeking work across Europe, which can profoundly affect the
breadth and depth of professional support services that restructuring enterprises
can draw on. This is most notably for the capacity and professionalism of career

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