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Socially responsible restructuring
Effective strategies for supporting redundant workers

2. Enterprise restructuring and career

guidance

This analysis brings together a contextual review of enterprise restructuring,
together with empirical evidence of innovative and effective practices at sector,
enterprise and local level. This chapter details the background of this review,
both in relation to enterprise restructuring and to the support provided to
redundant and soon-to-be redundant workers, based on desk research. It
considers:
• enterprise restructuring in context and, in particular, the effects of recession
and structural change;
• the state of development of career guidance in supporting employment and
employability in Europe;
• opportunities for enterprises and, more widely, the social partners to develop
socially responsible practices to assist workers affected by restructuring;
• the role of public policy at present and prospectively in supporting or
stimulating wider area responses;
• the roles and scope for action of individuals directly affected by restructuring;
• research challenges related to innovation and effectiveness in enterprise
restructuring, and conditions needed to support transferable messages and
practices.

This chapter aims to provide a backcloth for the review and a context for
understanding how those citizens caught in restructuring situations within
enterprises are supported to reintegrate with the world of work. The main
evidence sources here have been the wide range of literature, together with
inputs from policy stakeholders, and peer review.

2.1. Enterprise restructuring: recession and structural
change

While this review has been taking place, there have been intensifying effects of
recession across Europe, leading to widespread job losses and redundancy. The
most pessimistic estimates suggested a fall in demand for new workers across
Europe in 2009-10 approaching a third across the EU, a labour market which has
shrunk by nearly 2% in a single year, and losses approaching four and half

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