Page 82 - Socially-responsible-restructuring-Effective-strategies-for-supporting-redundant-workers

Socially responsible restructuring
Effective strategies for supporting redundant workers

proportions of displaced workers going into training or education are added,
taking the overall totals finding an alternative activity to above 50% in most
cases. However, even where the use of outplacement consultants has been
limited, this has not affected reintegration into the labour market, judging by the
example of Swedbank in Latvia (Case study 7). Here at the end of 2008, around
90% of staff made redundant had found alternative employment or other activity,
though this had fallen to around 50% at the end of 2009, reflecting the impact of
the recession.
Consideration of the type of outcome is important in assessing the effects of
any support package. In some of the German cases the re-employment rates
may appear high, but can be in precarious jobs; most of those rejoining
employment in the AutoVision case study went into fixed-term or temporary jobs,
as they did in the Karmann case where it was estimated that over 80% were
fixed-term contracts (Case study 6).
By contrast, the lower level of re-employment in the UK case studies partly
reflects the emphasis on allowing the displaced workers to consider longer-term
objectives, taking on board future labour market considerations and going more
for retraining opportunities that might provide a more sustainable outcome and,
ultimately, a more socially advantageous result. This is illustrated by the case of
GKN, where 12% of displaced workers chose to follow long-term training,
reorienting themselves away from the engineering sector to other occupational
areas with future employment potential (Case study 4).
The provision of individually centred advice and guidance emerges as
essential to the success of any career guidance support. This occurred in all the
case studies, though only in the case of EnergoMont (Slovakia) was this solely
provided by the PES. In the other cases, the PES was frequently involved as a
provider but working in partnership with the outplacement companies or other
public agencies such as the career service in the case of Anglesey Aluminium
(Case study 11). Further, information from some of the case studies illustrates
the comparatively high levels of satisfaction with the services offered. For
example, in Teliasonera a number of employee surveys had showed high
satisfaction with the support given, with respondents also indicating the
‘humanity’ of the company’s approach in creating the ‘competence pool’ that also
had the knock-on effect of raising the morale of those employees still in work.
However, take up of individual advice and guidance varied between the case
studies and there is a clear distinction between white-collar and blue-collar jobs.
This is well illustrated in Volvo (Sweden) where around 80% of the displaced
blue-collar staff used the support, but only 40% of the white-collar staff (Case
study 12). Some of the difference may be due to the ease with which the different

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