Page 25 - Socially-responsible-restructuring-Effective-strategies-for-supporting-redundant-workers

Socially responsible restructuring
Effective strategies for supporting redundant workers

and access to specially constituted job fairs may be a particularly effective, with
re-employment rates for outplacement participants averaging nearly two-thirds
(63%) for those restructuring enterprises able to supply evidence. Rates have
been typically lower (42%) for local and restructuring support mechanisms (such
as rapid reaction), although the sample size here is small.
However, the way these data are organised creates great problems for
comparability of impact assessment by nature and duration of support, user
groups and the forms of intervention. There is also a general lack of tracking or
longitudinal evidence on the impact of career guidance interventions in
restructuring situations, including those supported by regional, national and
European funds. In most situations, this lack of impact evidence, including of
deadweight effects, also seems to reflect the often very short time span that such
support was available for many employees. The notable exception seems to be
in Sweden where ‘flexicurity’ arrangements and empirical evidence on the
effectiveness of these processes is seen as relatively rich, especially for the job
security councils.

Issues and implications

This study shows Europe not only does not have a homogenous tradition of
enterprise practice in supporting displaced workers, but it also lacks a system
with any significant plural roots. Beyond often limited national or regional safety
nets of provision, much of the use of career guidance as an active measure in
managing restructuring seems to be peripheral or discretionary. At the same time
policy is encouraging more socially responsible practices, although that
encouragement and support is not always coherent. While there are emerging
examples of innovation by restructuring enterprises and in local area
collaborations, evidence of their effectiveness and impact remains, at best,
conditional.
This presents policy-makers, including national and European social partners,
with a dilemma, since the absence of evidence on effectiveness may be holding
back wider use of more socially responsible practice. Without wider application
and a willingness by enterprises and agencies to support more robust
assessment such evidence will continue to prove elusive. Against this
background, the review suggests an overriding need for more, and more
systematic, evidence and review, in particular:
• focusing future research not just on exploration of practices and outputs but to
include longitudinal evidence of how career guidance activities have supported

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