Page 171 - Socially-responsible-restructuring-Effective-strategies-for-supporting-redundant-workers

Socially responsible restructuring
Effective strategies for supporting redundant workers

‘work security’ over ‘assisted leaving’. However, assisted leaving seems to be the
more common model across the reviewed countries other than in the Nordic
countries and in Germany. Away from compensation for job loss and assisted
leaving, work security measures insist on enterprise responsibility for adjustment,
often over a continuing period of support to at-risk employees. However, these
are certainly not the dominant model for restructuring in Europe; such
approaches may be uncommon in some sectors and among SMEs. These are,
nonetheless, important areas of innovation in harnessing guidance to support
socially responsible practice. While important, and potentially transferable widely,
these arrangements, even with multi-national European companies, seem rarely
to cross national boundaries.
Elsewhere, arrangements for career guidance support in restructuring seem to
be characteristically short term and reactive, before or during the restructuring
process itself. Direct counselling and guidance support to employees tend to be
limited to short term outplacement, usually within some obligatory notice period.
Such counselling and guidance is often dependant on standard PES services
and not on any specialist provision set up for redundancy situations, except with
some local area rapid response arrangements; even here provision may lack
personalisation. It seems that PES career guidance capacity continues to be
strongly oriented to meeting the needs of the unemployed, with limited orientation
to employees anticipating job loss. Differentiation of PES services is uncommon
in any of the members states looked at in this review and this may not serve the
needs of displaced workers well.
The review goes further to suggest that beyond often limited national or
regional safety nets, much of the use of career guidance as an active measure in
managing restructuring seems to be peripheral or discretionary.

7.2. Evolving organisation practices

The most important evidence source for this review has been from within
enterprises, with just over a third of those identified willing to contribute as case
studies. Many felt that even past ‘better practice’ remained highly sensitive,
particularly in the current economic climate. At times of recession, or slow
emergence from the economic downturn, this caution is perhaps understandable,
particularly where globally-recognised brands and corporate prestige may be
involved. However, this reluctance restricts the breadth of this assessment.

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