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Socially responsible restructuring
Effective strategies for supporting redundant workers

2.3. Challenges and opportunities of socially
responsible practice

This review concerns how guidance practices assist socially responsible
approaches to enterprise restructuring and, in particular, to enduring
employability of redundant workers. The focus on socially responsible practice
and on vulnerability of particular employee groups is well-timed. The Council
Resolution of November 2008 (Council of the EU, 2008) on better integrated
lifelong guidance within lifelong learning strategies emphasises the importance of
solidarity and social cohesion in developing effective guidance processes that
can empower citizens in their own informed career management for work and life
transitions. Through a particular focus on vulnerable groups, the resolution
stresses the need to boost the work and life chances of those least able to be
empowered in their own career management without appropriate support.
Socially responsible guidance-related practice in restructuring has not been a
significant area for past empirical assessments. Gazier (2005) reviews the range
of instruments company managers, trade union officials and other local
stakeholders have to manage, a ‘socially responsible workforce adjustment’,
including identifying desirable measures, and present suggestions for decision-
makers. There is no evidence-based model of socially responsible practice, or a
consensus on what this means. Against a background of diverse national
legislative frameworks and guidance capacities, socially responsible restructuring
is the subject of contrasting and even conflicting interpretations. As a formative
contribution, Auer (2001) summarised socially responsible restructuring actions
under three key headings: prevention of lay-offs; internal adjustment; and
external adjustment. The prevention of lay-offs may be influenced by regulatory
requirements, usually through employment protection regulation or as a result of
previously determined collective agreement or unilateral responses of
enterprises. Here, from a socially responsible perspective, services might
include:
(a) warning systems, beyond the advance notification procedures which are
compulsory in certain countries, although with various periods of advance
notification;
(b) training and development of human resources to create a flexible and
transferable workforce, often including guidance-related support;
(c) investment in worker employability, with greater emphasis in training on
skills that promote mobility;
(d) changes in work organisation to support job security.

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