Page 81 - Socially-responsible-restructuring-Effective-strategies-for-supporting-redundant-workers

Socially responsible restructuring
Effective strategies for supporting redundant workers

Nonetheless, looking across the case studies it is possible to identify a
number of common elements that underpin the success of careers support to
displaced workers:
(a) use of specialist outplacement service providers;
(b) provision of individually centred advice and guidance;
(c) use of group sessions;
(d) value of employer networks in identifying vacancies.
A combination of these activities offers the best prospect for a successful
outcome but within the case studies it is possible to identify varying effects and
impacts as explained.
The use of specialist outplacement service providers was virtually universal
practice in all the case studies; the exception is EnergoMont in Slovakia where
the practice was little developed and reliance for such services was placed with
the PES. In Germany the use of transfer companies is common and in two of the
case studies (Auto Vision and Siemens beE) they are company owned and
operated, reflecting the constant programme or restructuring in these larger
corporations (Case studies 1 and 8). In Teliasonera (Finland) and Volvo
(Sweden), while a good deal of activity was provided by the companies, they still
used external outplacement companies to provide certain services such as
access to training (Case studies 10 and 12). In the UK companies, most of the
support was placed in the hands of external placement companies, though often
under a regional support framework. In the Latvian case study, Swedbank only
offered such outplacement services to a small number of senior staff, with the
unit cost cited as one reason why it was not more universally available (Case
study 7).
However, judging the effectiveness of the various outplacement approaches is
problematic. Nevertheless, the available figures suggest fairly high re-
employment rates:
(a) AutoVision, on average 68%;
(b) Karmann, 60%;
(c) Siemens beE ,on average 75%;
(d) BenQ Mobile, 90%;
(e) Teliasonera, 75%.
The BenQ case may be an exceptional achievement related to the high skills
profile of the workers affected by the closure. In these above cases, substantial
resources have been put into outplacement provision (Chapters 3 and 4). This
contrasts with a much lower level of resources used by, for example, the UK case
study companies. Here, re-employment rates tend to be much lower, in the range
35 to 40% though these figures are boosted considerably (and correctly) if the

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