Page 184 - Socially-responsible-restructuring-Effective-strategies-for-supporting-redundant-workers

Socially responsible restructuring
Effective strategies for supporting redundant workers

7.5.1. Need for more systematic evidence
The review has gone a long way towards producing a state-of-the-art
assessment of how career guidance contributes to supporting displaced workers
in enterprise restructuring. It has presented practices that can be seen as
effective and innovative, and also highlighted the limits of current understanding
and knowledge. Nonetheless, evidence gaps remain considerable and this
remains a provisional assessment of socially responsible practices.
This review should be seen as a starting point for understanding this complex
area of enterprise and partnership practice. It suggests an overriding need for
more systematic evidence.
Longitudinal evidence is missing on how career guidance activities have
supported decision-making and the behaviour of displaced workers beyond the
short-term. This reflects the likelihood that quality of ‘new’ jobs will be dictated by
experiences over time. Only then will displaced workers also be able to start to
reflect on the contributions of support to their enduring employability.
Routine impact evidence is often limited and there would seem to be scope for
stronger impact evidence in service delivery, including tracking of supported
displaced workers. Such approaches are presently limited besides very short-
term operational targets on participation and levels of service. A more effective
and robust approach to assessing impact and providing for post-support tracking
of clients could be considered where public funds are involved, since the
evidence generated could play an important role in informing restructuring
policies and strategies and its regional and national efficiency.
Similar challenges are offered where European level funds and programmes
are also harnessed to support enterprise restructuring, in single employers and
supply chains. Here existing requirements for project evaluation could be usefully
extended to collecting robust impact evidence as well as for evaluating issues
such as added-value of different adjustment measures and displacement effects,
on which there is currently very little evidence available. Standardised
arrangements would also ensure this was consistent across Member States.
Across all these areas covered by this review there may be value considering
transferability and sustainability of practices, as well as the initial and subsequent
training needs of career guidance and other practitioners who support social
partners in developing socially responsible strategies for enterprise restructuring.
The present review contributes to raising understanding and awareness of what
socially responsible contributions can be made at local level and the barriers to
be removed, thus encouraging wider engagement of social partners and public
authorities in taking forward these emerging issues.

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