Page 28 - Socially-responsible-restructuring-Effective-strategies-for-supporting-redundant-workers

Socially responsible restructuring
Effective strategies for supporting redundant workers

Different demands underpin larger-scale redundancies, in particular, the need for
individual enterprises, enterprise chains, or wider sectors to respond to changing
economic and technological circumstances. While the pace and pressures for
change may intensify in recession, large-scale job losses from both large and
smaller employers can occur at any time in the economic cycle. This review has
consequently been concerned with the wider picture of the use and effectiveness
of career guidance and continuing training in restructuring enterprises, within
strategies to support redundant workers.
The aim was to provide practical evidence of how enterprise and locality
responses to restructuring have provided equitable and personalised
approaches, and ensured that affected individuals were supported to develop
enduring capacity to cope with change in the labour market and workplace. More
specific objectives have been to:
(a) highlight and contextualise regional and national level responses and
innovations in supporting at-risk workers, in particular the use of career
guidance in socially responsible adjustment, through a comparative review;
(b) examine existing evidence and expertise, by combining secondary research
with a highly focused review of effective restructuring processes led by
enterprises and local partnerships and support schemes;
(c) assess a range of innovative and effective practices in different sectoral
circumstances, which are transferable across diverse cultural, economic and
infrastructural contexts of different Member States.
The review has centred on current European-level and some wider cross-
national evidence of what constitutes effective practice, and the conditions
affecting this, drawing on existing documentary evidence and a series of inputs
from key stakeholders. At the outset, it was not clear how much available
evidence might be drawn from existing research and the implications this might
have for the focus and selection of case studies. To establish this, a comparative
review was conducted of the available literature on trends in enterprise
restructuring and the role of career guidance and counselling within these
strategies across Member States. In the second research phase, practical
examples of innovation and effective practice were analysed in-depth, in five
sectors: automotive manufacture and distribution; financial services; public and
associated utilities; consumer electronics, including ICT manufacture; and
telecommunications. To this has been added a small number of case studies
dealing with local or regional partnerships aimed at supporting a range of local
employers in restructuring. A total of 44 enterprises with appropriate experience
were identified; 15 of these have supported review case studies. To these were
added four case studies reflecting local strategies. At a later stage, the case

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