Page 88 - Socially-responsible-restructuring-Effective-strategies-for-supporting-redundant-workers

Socially responsible restructuring
Effective strategies for supporting redundant workers

5.3. Innovation quality

Innovation is a difficult concept and especially for comparative and
organisational level research such as this. Applied to career guidance within
restructuring contexts, the term innovation requires some elaboration. Looked at
in absolute terms, the provision of support – by enterprises or others – to those
displaced by restructuring in enterprises is not necessarily an adjustment that
lends itself to truly ‘novel’ activity. There is little that is completely untried and
new in supporting displaced, or soon to be displaced, employees. Innovation, for
this review, has been more about discovering examples of where traditional
support activities have been applied in particular combinations, targeted or
modified or augmented through collaborations to increase their effectiveness in
assisting displaced workers in the transition to a positive outcome from leaving
their previous work. Such a positive outcomes might be re-employment within the
same enterprise, achieving work at another employer, self-employment, or entry
to education or training or a successful transition to retirement. The quality of the
transition may be as important as the change itself, in terms of issues such as the
appropriateness and sustainability of the alternative work.
The case studies display a range of approaches to providing support for
displaced workers and, while there are differences in approach between
employers within the same Member State, it is clear that major differences
emerge across national lines. This reflects the preliminary conclusion of this
review following a series of national state of play assessments. It is best
illustrated by the case studies of selected practices drawn from the
manufacturing sector in Germany. Here, the central approach seems to be to
support with devolved and coordinated provision through previously established
social partnership arrangements to set up, fund and manage transfer companies
focused on dealing with the consequences of job displacement. Although, exact
practices and processes vary, transfer companies effectively take over the
delivery of support to the redundant workers and can draw on specialist
expertise, both within and outside, to offer a package to employees to help the
transition out of the company and into another job or other positive outcome. In
parts of German manufacturing this is established practice in restructuring
situations and, while not universal, especially among smaller firms, transfer
companies remain a distinctive feature of adjustment.
Two of the case studies where transfer companies are involved, AutoVision
and Siemens, were set up by the respective multi-national employers (both very
large) and service all the various plants and divisions in Germany. In both cases,
these existing relationships provide a very strong basis for effective support, with

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