Page 21 - Socially-responsible-restructuring-Effective-strategies-for-supporting-redundant-workers

Socially responsible restructuring
Effective strategies for supporting redundant workers

A proactive enterprise approach, beyond statutory requirements, seems to be
atypical, especially for socially responsible practices involving career guidance.
The exceptions (such as transfer companies and agencies in Germany) stem
from refined and discretionary social partnership arrangements.
Guidance-related support is typically intensive and goes beyond available
capacity in terms of resources of all but the largest enterprises. Enterprise
capacities here usually rely heavily on specialist contractors, and usually a
mixture of public funded services, such as PES, and commercially-orientated
outplacement services.
For these external suppliers of guidance and other transition services, having
in-depth knowledge of current and likely future demands in local, regional – and
sometimes national and European – labour markets is an essential success
factor. This requires active research and analysis, as well as cooperation with
companies to gain ‘real-time’ understanding of where opportunities are, and not
just ‘second hand’ knowledge of trends data.
In both proactive and reactive adjustment responses, most external services
are supplied in partnership with the restructuring enterprise external bodies
including PES, fully or partly publicly-funded. Partnerships are a means to
provide expertise and human resources that enterprises themselves do not have,
and to achieve cost-effectiveness in services provided by harnessing the
mainstream services and resources of core public agencies.
Emerging enablers to effective collaborations – with PES and with other
external services and suppliers – also emphasise the importance of preparation
and advance planning to build clear working arrangements, and clarity in roles
and responsibilities. Even where there is little or no development before
restructuring, the evidence shows guidance-delivery partnerships need strong
leadership, and cohesion, clear synergies and are best integrated by a client-
centred approach to delivery.
Guidance-related cooperation also needs robust task management to support
the effective timing, flexibility, quality and responsiveness of the support, which
can be critical to career guidance interventions in restructuring situations. This is
particularly the case if there is limited time available prior to employees leave a
company following redundancy. These are becoming an important focus for
setting up and operating rapid-reaction type responses where established social
dialogue negotiated arrangements does not exist.
Rapid response programmes have a rising profile in restructuring adjustments
but their focus is often not consistent with the principles underpinning socially
responsible practice. In particular, evidence suggests a limited range of
guidance-related support and modes of delivery in such schemes, more

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