Journal of European Industrial TrainingEmerald Article: Outplacement and re-employment measures during organizational restructuring in Belgium: Overview of the literature and results of qualitative researchHans De Witte, Jan Vandoorne, Roel Verlinden, Nele De Cuyper

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Hans De Witte, Jan Vandoorne, Roel Verlinden, Nele De Cuyper, (2005),"Outplacement and re-employment measures during organizational restructuring in Belgium: Overview of the literature and results of qualitative research", Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 29 Iss: 2 pp. 148 - 164http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090590510585109

Hans De Witte, Jan Vandoorne, Roel Verlinden, Nele De Cuyper, (2005),"Outplacement and re-employment measures during organizational restructuring in Belgium: Overview of the literature and results of qualitative research", Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 29 Iss: 2 pp. 148 - 164http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090590510585109

Hans De Witte, Jan Vandoorne, Roel Verlinden, Nele De Cuyper, (2005),"Outplacement and re-employment measures during organizational restructuring in Belgium: Overview of the literature and results of qualitative research", Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 29 Iss: 2 pp. 148 - 164http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090590510585109

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Outplacement and re-employmentmeasures during organizational

restructuring in BelgiumOverview of the literature and results of

qualitative research

Hans De Witte, Jan Vandoorne, Roel Verlinden and Nele De CuyperKULeuven, Leuven, Belgium

Abstract

Purpose – Aims to review the research literature and legislation on outplacement andre-employment interventions in Belgium and present results of qualitative research and casestudies of companies, regarding interventions during organizational restructuring.

Design/methodology/approach – Comprises a literature review, qualitative (semi-structured andin-depth) interviews with workers and experts, and case studies of companies.

Findings – The literature on interventions suggests the importance of “traject-counselling” foraffected workers as a most valuable intervention during organizational restructuring. In-depthinterviews with job-insecure workers highlight the importance of fair treatment, and especially ofinteractional justice. Case studies and interviews delineate the components that make re-employmentinitiatives successful: outplacement interventions include emotional support, training of skills andindividual coaching or guidance. Belgian legislation regarding outplacement and re-employmentinitiatives is unique and extensive. Possible weaknesses, however, are the complexity of procedures,the unfamiliarity of the public with the legislation and the lack of legislation at an international level.

Research limitations/implications – The reported results are based on qualitative research only.In the future, quantitative evaluation studies need to be performed, in order to evaluate the outcomes ofre-employment initiatives and of the implemented legislation.

Practical implications – The results highlight the need for training of all partners involved inorganizational restructuring: workers, managers and outplacement consultants.

Originality/value – This study offers the first integrated account of research results on measuresneeded to re-employ workers during (and after) organizational restructuring in Belgium. Variousmethods (literature review, qualitative interviews and case studies) are used. The results includevaluable suggestions for other European countries.

Keywords Resource management, Human resourcing, Organizational restructuring, Belgium,Interviews, Case studies

Paper type Research paper

IntroductionThis article integrates the different components of the Belgian part of theEU-SOCOSE-research. The SOCOSE-research (“Social Convoy and SustainableEmployability”)[1] was an international comparative research on outplacement andre-employment measures, used in the context of occupational transitions due toorganizational restructuring. The first part of this article reviews the literature onemployment and re-employment interventions in Belgium (Vandoorne and De Witte,2001). The second part summarises the results of some qualitative interviews with a

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Received April 2004Revised November 2004Accepted November 2004

Journal of European IndustrialTrainingVol. 29 No. 2, 2005pp. 148-164q Emerald Group Publishing Limited0309-0590DOI 10.1108/03090590510585109

group of “job-insecure employees” and a group of “successfully re-employedemployees”. Furthermore, a number of “cases of good practices” of organizationalrestructuring are described (Vandoorne and De Witte, 2002). These allowed us todeduce some conclusions as to “what is a good practice” for re-employment measures.The third part describes the results of a range of qualitative interviews with experts inthe field of organizational restructuring (such as HR managers and unionrepresentatives), again on outplacement and re-employment (De Cuyper and DeWitte, 2003). The fourth part reviews and evaluates the existing Belgian legislationregarding outplacement and replacement (Verlinden and De Witte, 2003). Finally, someoverall conclusions are formulated.

Overview of existing employment and re-employment measuresIn order to set the context for the rest of the research, a review of the literature on(re-)employment measures in Belgium and on their effectiveness was carried out(Vandoorne and De Witte, 2001). Next to the description of existing interventions,results of empirical studies on the effectiveness of these measures in Belgium weresynthesized. As such, this part contains information that has not been published inEnglish before.

The existing network of instruments for the promotion of employment andre-employment is fairly extensive in Belgium. There are passive as well as active jobmarket measures, focussing on both the demand and supply side of the labour market.Some of these measures are implemented to prevent people from dismissal, mainly byincreasing their chances to participate in training and education and thus to developnecessary competencies. Further, a number of measures try to protect people during alay-off situation, by means of a term of notice and financial compensations.

With regard to passive job market measures, there is a clear trend to make thesystem more stringent and growing effort is put in active job market measures (De Vosand Nicaise, 1990). Unemployed people are encouraged to put more effort into jobseeking, due to the more compelling conditions for those receiving unemploymentbenefits. Measures for the redistribution of labour, especially “early retirement”, havebeen the subject of discussion. The impact on job-creation is minimal and the measureis primarily used as a form of social support for dismissed employees (Matheus et al.,2000). The cost for the society is high and thereby early retirement causes an importantefflux of expertise.

This growing interest in active labour market measures can be seen in a broad trendto make people responsible for their own career development and for the constantdevelopment of their competencies and thus their chances in the labour market. Thesuccesses of initiatives which offer training and job experience to the (long-term)unemployed are illustrative for this.

Since the mid-1990s a range of evaluation studies with regard to successfulre-integration of unemployed people into a new job have been executed.

A first conclusion as to “what works?” is that career training and initiatives offeringjob experience show a clear positive influence on the re-employment of people (Bollensand Hooge, 1996; Nicaise, 1995). Research findings show that participation in trainingincreases the chance to find a new job: of those participating in training more peoplewere employed for a longer period of time, compared to those who didn’t follow

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professional training. Training and education are therefore crucial elements of a modelframework for outplacement/replacement interventions.

One of the most important conclusions refers to what is the most appropriatemeasure in a specific case, or for a specific target-group. A broad range of measuresexists, many of them having a positive impact on the further career perspectives ofparticipants. Still it is clear that a “route-oriented” approach offers the best results,compared to activating-measures related to one single instrument (Vos et al., 2000).

The concept of “route-” or “traject-counselling” is characterised by the fact that anideal combination of support and other measures is decided on on the basis of thecounsellor’s assessment and experience. Depending on the individual requirements ofthe job seeker, different instruments (such as orientation, training, job experience andapplication assistance) can be combined, in order to improve the guidance of the jobseeker in his or her transition towards a new job.

The added value of “route-counselling” involves a crucial role for the consultant. Hisor her experience and capacities to assess the needs of a job-seeker and to direct thisperson to the appropriate support measures play a significant role in the success of there-employment guidance. Therefore, the training and selection of these consultants hasto be taken serious, in order to ensure the quality of the re-employment guidance ofjob-seekers.

With regard to the broad variety of intervention schemes, passive as well as activemeasures, aimed at the demand side or at the supply side, we conclude that most ofthem are complementary and encompass one’s entire active career. Passive measures,such as unemployment benefits, offer a minimum of financial security to, e.g.low-skilled long-term unemployed persons. In addition to this job-experience initiativesor recruitment incentives stimulate the re-integration of this target group into thelabour market. For this last purpose, an experienced consultant can help and direct thejob-seeker towards the most appropriate support measures.

The question “when intervention should take place” can be the subject ofdiscussion. An approach aimed at efficiency and effectiveness will emphasize curativeconsiderations. Early action often leads to high and unnecessary expenses, since manyunemployed find work themselves. However, from a mental health point of view,intervention should take place as early as possible. During the period ofunemployment, discouragement, declining motivation and habituation will set in,making re-integration into the job-market more difficult (De Witte, 1993).

“Outplacement” is in Belgium defined as “a cluster of supportive services andrecommendations carried out by a third party, paid for by the employer and offered toan individual or group, in order to enable the employee to find a job as soon as possiblewith a new employer or to develop a new career as self-employed”. Outplacementintegrates various elements of interventions aimed at reintegration in a new job, whicheach proved to be successful.

Furthermore, analysis of the effectiveness of outplacement showed thatparticipation in collective outplacement is definitely beneficial for redundantemployees. This was especially the case for women and older men, both risk groupsfor long-term unemployment (Denolf and Denys, 1998; Denolf et al., 1999).

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Evaluation of re-employment measures in Belgium: results of qualitativeresearchThe core of this research is related to qualitative interviews with individual workersand to (qualitative) case studies of organizations undergoing restructuring. First of all,we highlight the findings from our interviews with job-insecure workers. The next partdeals with the findings from interviews with successfully re-employed workers. Thesegroups allow us to get an insight on two sides of the issue: before a restructuring takesplace (e.g. the insecure workers) and after a restructuring (the “successfullyre-employed”). In both cases we mainly wanted to assess the need for and evaluation ofinterventions during restructuring. Next to this, some broader questions were askedregarding their attitudes and experiences. Any analysis of the issue of restructuring,however, should not be limited to the assessment of individual’s reactions. For thatreason, case studies were performed among organizations which were involved in asuccessful restructuring process (cases of “good practices”). In the third part wediscuss the results of these case studies. The focus is on aspects contributing to thesuccess of company restructuring.

Employees threatened with job-insecurityThe insecure employees were selected from companies were jobs were objectivelyinsecure (regardless the subjective perception of the workers themselves). Insecureemployees were be defined as working for a company where mass dismissals wereabout to take place, and whose situation was discussed in the media. Four branches inthe process of restructuring and downsizing were selected: a biscuit company that wasgoing to be closed down; the former national airline company (SABENA), which wentinto compulsory liquidation at the time of the interviews; a car factory that hadannounced the dismissal of several hundreds of temporary workers; and several banksfrom the banking sector, where major mergers had been taken place during thepreceding decade.

Co-operation was obtained from trade unions to approach insecure employees inthese companies, as they are most familiar with the company situation and have accessto the employees involved. A total of 25 respondents were interviewed. About 2/3 of theinterviewees (n ¼ 16) were male, and one-third (n ¼ 9) was female. They were onaverage 39.2 years old. Approximately half of them were 40 years old or below(n ¼ 14), and the other half (n ¼ 11) was older than 40 years old. Almost all weremarried, with mostly two children (n ¼ 20). Both blue-collar workers (n ¼ 12), andwhite-collar workers (n ¼ 13; almost all with a low or medium level of education) wereinterviewed.

A semi-structured or problem-focussed type interview was used as a researchmethod, covering such areas as the evaluation of the company, work significance,recent career changes, assessment of the company’s social responsibility in thedownsizing/ restructuring process, perceptions of the future, assessment of possiblelabour market related needs (e.g. the need for specific interventions duringdownsizing), and attitudes towards unemployment.

Although our respondents found themselves in an “objectively uncertain” jobsituation, the majority of them did not report a high level of job insecurity. Theseemployees rather adopted a “wait and see” attitude and did not want to worry too

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early. As long as no irreversible decisions had been communicated, employees showedsigns of a psychological protective reaction, helping them to cope with insecurity.

Drastic company restructuring and mass dismissals hardly ever come “out of theblue”, but are rather a next (and final) step in an ongoing process. In companies whichfind themselves in a troubled financial situation a number of employees leave(voluntary or obliged) before the actual mass dismissal is decided on. As aconsequence, the same amount of work has to be performed by fewer employees, whoare often the least experienced and who suffer from increasing work-pressure and adeteriorated work atmosphere. This process has an inevitable negative impact on thepsychological and physical health of the remaining employees.

Aspects of organisational justice largely determine the feeling of getting a fairtreatment. Therefore companies need to pay sufficient attention to these elements ofjustice. When people believed that the selection of those who lose their job is based onobjective criteria, they felt to be treated fairly, even though they didn’t agree with thecriteria themselves. This trend is described as “procedural justice”.

The far most important element of justice seems to be the interactional one: clearand honest information and communication towards all employees contributes themost to one’s feeling of being treated honestly. Nevertheless, this crucial elementwithin a restructuring process is overlooked far too often. The reason for this is double:on the one hand, managers are reluctant to bring “bad news” in an open and clear way,because they fear emotional reactions. On the other hand, many of them don’t have therequired competencies for open communication with employees, resulting in badcommunication and uncertainty.

In addition to fair and open communication and a dismissal procedure based onobjective criteria, employees threatened with dismissal expect a generous financialcompensation and re-employment guidance.

Our respondents acknowledged that employees should also take up theirresponsibilities with regard to competence development. When the employer offersthe possibility to participate in training and development activities, employees havethe responsibility to take up these chances (Vandoorne and De Witte, 2002).

Successfully re-employed workersWe used two criteria for the selection of the successfully re-employed: having receivedoutplacement/replacement counselling before dismissal and being successfullyre-employed. The counselling had taken place during the preceding 12 months andwas financed and organised by the company, an external agency, or with the help ofthe labour administration. In order to approach these individuals, we obtained theco-operation of a few outplacement agencies, who located interviewees who had beencounselled during the previous year. This procedure enabled us to conduct interviewswith 25 successfully re-employed people. This sample contains slightly more women(60 per cent or n ¼ 15) than men (40 per cent or n ¼ 10). They were on average 39 yearsold. Almost all were married (n ¼ 21), with mostly two children. Their occupation wasslightly “higher” than the previous sample: about 2/3 (n ¼ 17) were white-collarworkers, and one-third (n ¼ 8) were blue-collar workers. They worked in a largevariety of branches.

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This group was interviewed in a semi-structured or problem-focussed way, and theinterview covered similar topics as the interview with the previous sample. In addition,questions were asked regarding the evaluation of the counselling process.

Naturally, it’s not a surprise that our “successfully re-employed respondents” werevery positive about the re-employment initiatives in which they participated. Althoughour research does not allow revealing any causality between outplacement counsellingand re-employment, we summarize the most appreciated aspects of the counselling.

Participants in re-employment initiatives were very grateful for the “psychologicalrespite” they were given, before they had to engage in job seeking again. Dismissedpeople had the time to cope with the strong emotions that go together with theirjob-loss. Furthermore, the consultant spent enough time with them on “who and whatthey are now” and “what they want in the future”, before setting out a “route” ofadditional guidance. This encouraged people to start the application process withconfidence and self-knowledge.

A second strong element, from the point of view of successful participants, is theindividual coaching by a consultant and the personal band of trust with thisconsultant. This not only increases the quality of the custom-made counselling, but it isfurthermore a significant source of emotional support for the participant. With regardto the actual applying for a new occupation, it seems to be important for the consultantto have a good insight in the regional labour market. This information can enable theparticipant to engage in targeted job-seeking.

Our respondents reported that the outplacement in which they participated, andespecially the elements we mentioned above, were really helpful when it comes to jobseeking. Especially the motivational influence of “looking for the job you really want”appears to be one of the most important aspects.

The result of re-employment measures cannot be assessed by only taking intoaccount the number of people who found a new job. At least as important is theappreciation, by the re-employed, of their new function. This appreciation is influencedby the quality of work, the wages etc. There were some differing opinions, but on theaverage most of our respondents were rather pleased with their new occupation. Anumber of them found an even better job than before, for others the new job hadadvantages as well as disadvantages compared with their previous jobs. Theadaptation to the new job and to a new company culture seemed to be complicated bythe loss of contact with (former) colleagues (Vandoorne and De Witte, 2002).

Good practices in organizational restructuring: which lessons to be drawn?Belgium has known a number of large companies restructuring in the past decade,each of them accompanied by (internal or external) re-employment of many employees.In order to fully understand the dynamic of restructuring and outplacement guidance,one of course also needs to look at the way restructuring took place. For that reason, sixtypical “cases” (e.g. organizations) were selected, where re-employment initiatives havebeen rather successful. These six organizations form a rather heterogeneous sample ofcases, in order to represent the complexity and variety of the situation in Belgium. Allkinds of branches were covered (e.g. from industry to banking and finance). Allorganizations were involved in a large scale restructuring, involving massredundancies (or the prospect of massive job loss). Other criteria for inclusion werethe development of a specific (partly innovative) policy that could explain their success,

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and the fact that the case was well-known (e.g. the case of Renault was included, sinceit was the origin of a new legislation on this issue). In each company or organization,several persons were interviewed in order to collect information on the policy,interventions and their effectiveness (e.g. human resources managers andrespresentatives from trade unions, among others). In addition, documents and –when available – research results were also consulted and integrated in the analysis.From these six case studies, we summarize the most important lessons to be drawn forpossible future mass restructurings.

Preparation and start-up of the interventions. The companies involved in our casestudies had predominantly shown a steady growth, during the years before therestructuring. As a consequence the respective local HR departments were notacquainted with the process of mass dismissal, although certain competencies andexperience are indispensable for a successful re-employment intervention. Therefore,in most cases specialised agencies were hired to drive the process of restructuring. Inalmost every company a kind of co-ordinating “employment cell” was established, inwhich the various parties, involved in the restructuring, were assembled: the HRdepartment, workers unions, outplacement agencies, and the VDAB[2] (in some cases).Our cases also demonstrated the positive effect on re-employment interventions of agood co-operation between unions and the company management. On the other hand,we found some indications for the conflicting role some managers have to fulfil. On theone hand, they have to put all their efforts in the re-employment interventions; on theother hand, they are often threatened with (or certain about) dismissal themselves.

Open and fair communication between the management and the employees iscrucial for a re-employment intervention, so that employees understand why therestructuring is necessary, who will be involved, when it will take place etc. Theso-called “Renault law” obliges a company to respect the legislation on collectivedismissal, by informing all employees about its intentions to restructure the companyand by offering all employees (or its representatives) the opportunity to formulatealternatives for collective dismissals. Although the intentions of this law are good, itoften causes delays of several months, before the re-employment intervention canreally take off. All this might cause prolonged insecurity for the employees.

Clear communication about the goal, content and possible results of outplacement iscrucial in the early stages of the intervention. Employees might be unfamiliar with theconcept, have wrong expectations or be sceptical about the whole initiative. To copewith this the intervention should start with an information session in whichinformation about these aspects is given. This start of the outplacement interventionand specially the first emotional relief has to get of the ground as soon as possible afterthe dismissal. One case was in particular interesting, because also the family of thedismissed person was invited to the information session. This was done for a doublepurpose:

(1) The family of the participant is also (emotionally and financially) affected bythe dismissal and thus needs information and emotional support.

(2) On the other hand, they can be an important source of support and motivationfor this person, in coping with his/her job-loss and participating in theoutplacement programme.

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The emphasis on communication from the company, concerning the restructuringprocess and its consequences, underlines the importance of the interactional dimensionof justice. Our findings made clear that this is the most relevant aspect of justice, incomparison with distributive and procedural justice (Vandoorne and De Witte, 2002).

Components of an outplacement intervention. Every outplacement interventioncontains three main elements: psychological respite, training and personal guidance.

Participants who just lost their job need emotional support to cope with this and toregain the ability to manage things for oneself: to take the process of job-seeking inown hands and find out what kind of job they really want, with the support of theirconsultant (Vandoorne and De Witte, 2002).

With regard to the second element of outplacement, training, the most widespreadand most wanted sort is training in application (techniques). In a first stage of theapplication training the participant is drawing up his or her own profile, as todetermine his own strengths, weaknesses, desires, expectations and competencies.Shortcomings in the profile can be supplemented by additional training, depending onthe kind of job one would like to fulfil. Different methods can be used to organiseapplication training: video-simulation, group discussions, role-playing, success storiesetc. These can initiate discussions and mutual exchange of experiences and ideas.

In some cases additional training is provided, besides application training. This isparticularly important for blue-collar workers with a low level of qualifications and lowemployability. In order to enable them to work in a different sector or function, theyhave to acquire a range of new skills and knowledge.

The third crucial element within a re-employment intervention is the personalguidance by an outplacement consultant. In all major restructuring projects in Belgiumexternal experts were involved. Guidance initiatives evolve mostly from groupsessions, where general introductory information was provided, to individualcounselling by a personal consultant.

As such personal guidance serves a double purpose: on the one hand the empathicattitude of the consultant is a significant source of support and trust for the participant.On the other hand the consultant has the necessary expertise to trace out a “route”along those support measures which fit precisely to the personal needs of theparticipant.

The concept of “route-counselling”, as it’s frequently used in Belgium, also impliesthe idea of a personal consultant who guides the participant to those appropriatesupport initiatives which best fit to his/her individual needs. Based on our researchfindings we are therefore strongly in favour of integrating this concept in a model forsocial convoy and sustainable employability.

In every outplacement intervention an analysis of the regional labour market ismade. The outplacement consultants have to know in which companies there arevacancies and for what kind of functions. The public employment service (VDAB) canplay an important role in assessing the regional labour market. Thereby, this service’smain activities are job-search and vocational training, which place it in a prominentposition to participate in outplacement initiatives and “employment cells”. By takinginto account regional labour market situations, consultants can assist participants toapproach the labour market in order to find a new job. Besides for job-search, focussingon the regional labour market can provide an input for the consultant when discussingpossible additional training and education with the participant. In regions where

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employment rates are declining for specific sectors, it might be advisable to make theparticipant aware of employment possibilities in other sectors, for which specificadditional training is needed (Vandoorne and De Witte, 2002).

Supporting measuresLogistic and material support. Often, the work of a re-employment cell and theoutplacement interventions is complemented with a range of logistic supportingmeasures. These can be individualized computer files of the participants, to support theguidance process; available ICT or other media to support the job search ofparticipants; administrative support for written job-applications etc.

Employment cell. In all major company restructurings in Belgium, an “employmentcell” was created, in which all possible partners, for re-employment interventions, areinvolved. The cell should bring together partners from inside the organisation as wellas external partners.

A first internal partner is the HRM department, as the initiator of the restructuringand the direct representative of the management. Another crucial internal partner toinvolve in an employment cell are the trade unions. They play an important role ininforming and communicating with the dismissed employees, overcoming theirscepticism, convincing their rank and file of the added value of re-employmentmeasures and stimulating them to participate in counselling. Our findings clearly showthat an active involvement of trade unions contributes significantly to the success ofre-employment initiatives.

Two different partners from outside the company appeared to be important tointegrate in the employment cell. One is an external outplacement agency, since theyare the experts in the field and they have the knowledge needed for the guidance of theemployees. Next, also public employment services (e.g. in Flanders: the VDAB[3]) needto be included, because these services likewise gained a lot of expertise in the field andhave a good insight in the local labour market situation (Vandoorne and De Witte,2002).

PremiumsApart from re-employment guidance the financial compensations (premiums) are anextremely important issue for the dismissed employees and thus a vital element ofsocial bargaining. Nevertheless, our findings make clear that the system to grantpremiums should be well thought out, in order not to put a burden on the employabilityof the dismissed people.

For the employees, in a company going through a process of restructuring,premiums are important for a double reason: they are a compensation for the emotionaldistress caused by uncertainty and job-loss and they give financial safety to thedismissed person, for a certain period of time.

On the other hand, redundancy payments might have the negative effect that peoplesettle in their situation of “unemployed”, since they experience a relative financialsafety, and might not engage in active job-seeking. The longer one is unemployed, theharder it will be to find a new occupation, resulting in a vicious circle and long-termunemployment.

To cope with the problem of “settling in a status of being unemployed”, in somemajor processes of company restructuring gradually declining premiums were used:

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the longer one is unemployed, the smaller the premium will be (until a certain fixedminimum). This system is however also subject to some criticism, because it mightpush people to accept any job they can get, as quickly as possible. This way they mightnot have the time to emotionally “come to terms” with their job-loss and they couldengage themselves in jobs of a lesser quality and certainty.

All this leads us to the conclusion that the (personal) re-employment consultantfulfils a crucial role and needs to balance between motivating the participant toactively engage in job-search and on the other hand giving him/her the time to cope(emotionally) with the redundancy (Vandoorne and De Witte, 2002).

Shared responsibilitiesA final remark, based on our results, is that both companies (employers) andemployees have shared responsibilities in the restructuring or downsizing process. Theindividual has, of course, the final responsibility to find a new job. This implies anactive attitude in approaching the labour market and the will to develop his or heremployability. Although a majority of workers seemed to agree with this, they didstress the vital responsibility of the company. This last party should provide open andclear information about the restructuring process and has to provide the possibility forthe employee, to participate in the discussions. Thereby employers have to provideguidance and outplacement, to help employees to find new employment.

To ensure the responsibility of the company towards the dismissed person, somecompanies keep these people on their pay roll until they are re-employed elsewhere. Assuch, the link between the employee and the company remains institutionalised and thecompany remains responsible.

Finally, we found that re-employment measures have the biggest chance to succeedin those companies where aspects of “social responsibility” are an integrated part of theown company culture (Vandoorne and De Witte, 2002).

Results from expert interviewsNext to those directly involved (e.g. workers and companies), we choose to interviewsome experts, that could complement the information obtained in the previous part ofthe research. Five groups, thought of as prominent actors on the labour market, wereinvolved: human resource managers (n ¼ 4), representatives of unions (n ¼ 5), ofemployers’ associations (n ¼ 3), of employment services (n ¼ 4) and of ministries(n ¼ 3). All of them have dealt with restructuring: they were at least partly involved inthe decision to restructure or they took directly (e.g. unions) or indirectly (e.g.ministries) care of the consequences of that decision. In total 19 interviews wereconducted. In order to guarantee a sufficient diversity within each group, selectioncriteria were formulated. The in depth interviews covered topics such as: theinterviewee’s professional and institutional background; the way restructuring ishandled; employability; the division of responsibility between organizations,individuals and other actors on the labour market; justice considerations and anevaluation of the national and international regulations on outplacement and the like.For each sub-group, a series of more targeted questions were added. In this part wehighlight the central conclusions of this interview round.

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Employability in a changing labour marketA first theme that was addressed by all parties is the concept of “employability”.Within the framework of the changing labour market, where jobs are no longer certainfor a lifetime, the importance of keeping up one’s “employability” tends to gainincreasing acceptance. Still, employees mainly seem to stress its negative aspects (therelation to job-insecurity etc.).

Related to the employability-debate is the change in mentality, which we recognisedon the side of all parties that were interviewed. There seems to be an increasingawareness of the need for a shift towards active employment measures. Although inpractice many employees still prefer “early retirement measures”, in case of a companyrestructuring, unions as well as employer federations acknowledge that nowadaysemployees need to adopt a more (pro-)active attitude towards employment and thelabour market. At the moment the major objections against the concept ofemployability seem to be:

. Various parties have a differing interpretation of the concept and itsconsequences.

. It seems to be difficult to communicate the exact meaning and the consequencesof “employability” to employees. They tend to pay more attention to its negativeside-effects.

. Investing in employability brings along additional financial costs. Theresponsibility for these costs causes disagreement.

Companies, on the one hand, need to take up their responsibilities to offer employeesopportunities to increase their employability and they need to adopt strategies forlong-term liveability of the company. On the other hand, trade unions need to thinkmore in terms of active and long-term labour market measures and they should aim fora co-operative relation with employers.

Based on our interviews we conclude that the future employability-debate will haveto deal with the following contradictions (De Cuyper and De Witte, 2003):

. How to find a balance between job security inside versus outside a company?

. Loyalty of the employee towards an employer, versus the demand for flexibilitytowards an employee.

. Investing in employability of one’s employees, versus coping with concurrenceon the demand-side of the labour market.

Responsibilities and justiceIn order to further promote sustainable employability, the different parties involvedeach have their own responsibilities to take up.

Employers first of all have to ensure long-term stability and growth for thecompany. If there is no other possibility a company restructuring will have to takeplace. If people have to be made redundant, this has to be done in a social way,ensuring the person’s employability (by, e.g. outplacement) and future chances onemployment.

Employees from their side are responsible to adapt an “active” labour marketattitude and have to engage in learning-opportunities, which are offered to them byemployment services and employers.

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The government is expected to ensure a suitable legal framework for employmentand re-employment measures, based on a social long-term perspective. Thereby thegovernment is expected to solve the conflicting role of the public employment service(VDAB). This service is a direct competitor of outplacement and other employmentagencies. As a consequence the latter plead for a clear division of responsibilities of theVDAB, as to in which cases it should take up a co-ordinating role, rather than anactor-role.

A first crucial condition for employees, to feel fairly treated, is open and honestcommunication from the company towards the employees. Furthermore HR managersreported that dismissals are more acceptable (for employees) when they are based on(objective) strategic criteria, instead of on (subjective) competence-based criteria. Foremployers and HR managers, a responsible and social company restructuring isimportant for the following reasons (De Cuyper and De Witte, 2003):

. in order not to endanger the motivation of the “survivors”;

. in order to avoid unnecessary negative and emotional feelings on the side of thedismissed persons; and

. in order to keep up a positive public image of a social and responsible company.

Evaluation of re-employment initiatives and legislationA legal framework for re-employment measures in BelgiumThe Belgian as well as the Flemish government created a fairly extensive legalframework for re-employment measures. This framework is rather unique in Europe.As a consequence, it seemed relevant to additionally survey and evaluate this legalframework. Although this legislation offers new opportunities for employmentagencies, it could also produce some upheaval among all players on the market. So farno effectiveness and efficiency studies have been executed. Therefore, expertinterviews were conducted and their views were complemented with the findings froma review of the available literature. In all, nine interviews were conducted: fourinterviews with representatives of employees, one with a representative of theemployers, three with respondents related to outplacement bureaus and one with anexpert working at a governmental administration. The interviewer used a list of topicsthat were discussed in the consulted literature and media, in addition to several openquestions. The latter covered the strengths and weaknesses of the various laws andCLA’s dealing with collective dismissal and outplacement guidance, and lessons thatcould be drawn from the Belgian experience, in order to develop a European modelconcept of outplacement/replacement counselling. Based on the results, we canformulate the following strengths and weaknesses. Note that these conclusions onlystem from the expectations and experiences of the experts, and not from quantitativeresearch.

Impediments to qualitative service providingDifferent aspects within the legal framework for outplacement and re-employmentinitiatives seem to hamper a qualitative provision of services. We will briefly highlightthose who stand out the most and formulate suggestions to overcome thoseimpediments.

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Length and burden of application procedures. When companies restructure and jobsare at stake various measures have to protect employees from dismissal, enable themto cope with dismissal and offer a formal right on re-employment guidance. However,in many cases, these measures seem to bring along a time-consuming and complexprocedure, before the actual guidance gets of the ground. Despite the generalconviction that the employees’ strategies to cope with dismissal clearly need support,the actual measures might fail to do so.

The results from our interviews point to the fact that the Renault law fails to makejob-loss more easily manageable for the employees. Time-consuming proceduresprevent the early assistance of dismissed employees and are, as a consequence, animpediment to the effectiveness and quality of the re-employment guidance. Ironically,those people who are legally assured re-employment services (by CLA nr. 82 and the“replacement fund”) run the risk to lack support in the first period after their dismissal.Employees who are offered outplacement guidance voluntary will probably have theadvantages of a better “product” than those employees who have a “right tooutplacement”.

An additional impediment to the efficiency of the application procedure is theperson who is responsible to submit the request for outplacement. In the case of a“normal” dismissal, the employee bears the responsibility to inform his employer abouthis intentions and (if necessary) to declare the employer in default. This employee is,after his dismissal, often not motivated, nor emotionally ready to engage him- orherself in these administrative matters. In case of a bankruptcy, the trustee is supposedto submit an application for the re-employment fund to the Flemish administration.Again, this creates conflicting responsibilities for the trustee and harms the quality ofthe re-employment guidance for dismissed employees.

Financial responsibility. Questions are raised with the obligation for employers topay for the outplacement of the employees they dismiss. Since employees create profitfor their employer, during their career, it is acceptable that the employer, in returninvests in the employability of his staff.

The cost-benefit analysis carried out by Albertijn (2001) showed that the total socialbenefits of outplacement (the savings on unemployment insurance plus the extrarevenues from social security contributions on the wages of re-employed persons) arehigher than the costs of outplacement. As such, it wouldn’t mean an additionalexpenditure for the government to pay for outplacement, whereas at the moment thecosts of outplacement are for the employer and the (financial) benefits for the society.

Familiarity of “the public” with outplacement. Re-employment measures, such asoutplacement, are not always well known, nor popular. Apparently some employeesare not convinced of the advantages of these services and prefer (in social negotiations)higher financial compensations to re-employment guidance. Trade Unions findthemselves in a difficult position between their rank and file on the one hand and theemployers on the other hand. Such discord is not positive during negotiations, e.g. inthe case of a collective dismissal.

Importance of European and global level. Downsizing cases such as RenaultVilvoorde, or recently Phillips in Hasselt make clear that decisions concerningreorganizations of companies and the resulting (collective) dismissals are often notmade on the national level. Reorganizations fit in large-scale strategic decisions of themother holding and can hardly be influenced in the works council of the Belgian

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department. Consequently, European Trade Unions tend to offer more possibilities toinfluence such decisions. Measures for the re-employment of dismissed employees aretherefore preferably taken on an international level.

Towards integration of re-employment measures? Overcoming the obstacles that arementioned above will probably necessitate different evolutions: an evolution towardsan integrated approach of career transitions, an evolution towards simplification andautomation of the application for and admission to career transition counselling, anevolution towards internationalisation of legislation on re-employment measures.

The first evolution should be seen against the background of Belgian trendstowards an integrated “career counselling”. The results of a Belgian study on this topicwere in favour of generalized career counselling for all people who have “some”connection to the labour market (Sels et al., 2002). It is clear that the report stimulatedthe public debate on this topic in Belgium. Some European countries, such as Finland,have already set up a form of integrated career counselling, with satisfactory outcomes.Furthermore, outplacement shows clear resemblance with the existing “trajectbegeleiding” (route counselling) in Belgium. In both initiatives an unemployed personis guided by a consultant, along a “route” towards (re)-employment. The consultantestimates the kind of support (training etc.) that could be most helpful for theunemployed person (Denolf et al., 1999).

An evolution towards a simplification of application procedures and entrance intocareer counselling could help to overcome the problems related to administrativematters and the submittance of application forms for outplacement. Persons who arelegally entitled to outplacement (or other re-employment guidance) should be informedabout this right as soon as possible, after their dismissal, without opposing them to theburden of administrative and time-consuming application procedures. Probably aparty with no interests whatsoever is best placed for this task. As such, governmentalemployment services could integrate these tasks in their existing offerings.

ConclusionA legal framework on outplacement is, for various reasons, of significant importance(Verlinden and De Witte, 2003). Still, defining the legal stipulations should be donewith scrutiny.

Thereby, the opinions on the necessity and content of the legal framework, as wasdiscussed above, vary considerably among the four parties involved: employers,employees, governmental bodies and the sector of outplacement bureaus.

DiscussionSome general conclusionsOverlooking the broad variety of research data gathered in the Belgian part of theSocose project, we can formulate some general ideas for the future.

Our economy and labour markets are constantly changing. Companies experiencean ever-increasing competition and consequently need to react in a flexible way onchanging demands of the market. Since human resources are the most flexibleproduction factor, the flexibility-demand immediately affects employees.Consequently, the traditional long-term job security is under great pressure.

Both companies and people need to cope with these new economic demands. Theyhave to balance between flexibility and employability, between investing in human

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resources and competition on the labour market, between loyalty to a company andinsecurity in employment.

Employers and employees have a shared responsibility to develop each person’semployability as good as possible. The former have to offer opportunities to learn anddevelop oneself, the latter have to take up these opportunities and actively engage tolearn and develop his/her competencies.

Re-employment measures have to meet a list of requirements, as have beenidentified in the Socose-project. These include, among others, the emphasis on thetypical components of an outplacement intervention (e.g. offering psychologicalrespite, training and personal guidance) and the need to establish employment cells, inwhich all relevant labour market actors are involved.

Embedding re-employment measures in a legislation is a precarious task. Whendoing so, it’s important to involve all parties in the discussions, in order not to createimpediments for a successful re-employment policy and practice.

Implications for practice: the need for training of all partners involvedThroughout the different parts of this study, the various results emphasize the need todevelop a well elaborated training policy. This training policy covers all levels and allpartners involved. There is, first of all, a clear need to offer different forms of trainingto workers confronted with organizational restructuring. The experiences withoutplacement interventions clearly emphasize that it is important to offer applicationtraining, as well as additional training, when qualifications and employability are low.The acquisition of new skills and knowledge is especially important when one has tofind a job in a different sector than the one he or she has been working in until then.The stress on additional training is quite important, as this might increase theemployability of workers in occupational transitions. The need to emphasizeemployability has been mentioned by virtually all partners involved in this research.

Next to the workers involved, there is also a need to offer training to the otherspartners concerned. A recurrent topic in this research has been the emphasis oncommunication during a downsizing or organizational restructuring process. However,the results of the qualitative interviews with job insecure workers highlighted the factthat many managers do not seem to possess the required competencies for developingopen communication with their employees. This clearly underlines the need to trainmanagers in this important task, since this would considerably reduce workers’feelings of (interactional) injustice. Another group that needs training are theconsultants themselves, who offer outplacement interventions to the employees. Indoing so, they need to master many different qualifications, such as assessing the jobseekers needs, offering social support and psychological respite, and giving theminsight into the dynamics of the regional labour market. This rather diverse amount oftasks and expectations underlines that consultants need to be trained too, as masteringall these tasks seems rather ambitious.

Limitations of this study and implications for future researchMost of the results reported in this article stem from a qualitative research design (andfrom a review of the literature). This limits the conclusions of our study to a certaindegree, and delineates some directions for future research. First of all, there is a need toinclude more objective data when analysing the consequences of organizational

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restructuring (e.g. real turnover rates instead of, e.g. self reported turnover intentions).An important critique is that none of the results reported are based on (quantitative)evaluation studies. Instead, subjective evaluations of individuals involved are reported.Some of these individuals do refer to their own experiences when discussion theirresponses (e.g. the qualitative interviews with the job insecure or the successfullyre-employed workers). Others, however, simply refer to what they “think to be true”(e.g. the experts when discussing restructuring policies or legislation). In the future,well elaborated evaluation studies are needed, in order to assess the consequences ofspecific interventions. This will allow to study a-select samples (instead of the “selectedsamples” in this research design), and to follow them up in the future (longitudinaldesign). The fact that these respondents will be interviewed at least twice, will allow tostudy the causal effect of a given intervention on several outcome variables, such aswell-being, finding a job, and the quality of that job. This design can combine thequalitative design used in this study with a more quantitative approach, which willenable the inclusion of more objective measures. A similar comment could be maderegarding the evaluation of legislation. Here too, our account was a qualitative one.This design was not really able to prove whether a given legal measures is actuallyeffective, or not. Given the scarcity of research on this issue, however, this waswarranted as a starting point for future research on this issue. Future research,however, should try to surpass the limitations of the actual qualitative design, byperforming quantitative evaluation studies in this field.

Notes

1. The research project “Social Convoy and Sustainable Employability: Innovative Strategies forOutplacement/Replacement Interventions” (SOCOSE), was supported by the EuropeanCommission, DG Research, and was coordinated by Thomas Kieselbach (University ofBremen). The project analysed the prerequisites and effects of counselling in occupationaltransitions in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain, and The Netherlands. In each of thesecountries, labour market policies and actual practices were analysed, and interviews wereconducted with relevant actors in the field. More information available at:www.ipg.uni-bremen.de/socose

2. Flemish employment and vocational training service.

3. Vlaamse Dienst voor Arbeidsbemiddeling en Beroepsopleiding ¼ Flemish Services forEmployment Counselling and Vocational Training.

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