Commission staff working document
: MAIN ISSUES RELATING TO THE ANTICIPATION AND MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE
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- 3.1: THE IMPORTANCE OF TIMELY ACTION
- 3.2: A MULTI-LEVEL, MULTI-ACTOR ISSUE
3: MAIN ISSUES RELATING TO THE ANTICIPATION AND MANAGEMENT OF CHANGESince the late 1990s, in the context of the changing pace and forms of corporate restructuring, anticipation has become a crucial issue. New practices from different actors both inside and outside companies have emerged, showing that restructuring can be managed more easily and with more success when the social and regional actors are able to anticipate potential negative effects in the short term (operational anticipation) and, above all, when they manage to prepare change in the long term (strategic anticipation). Operational and strategic anticipation of change and restructuring is not only a necessary requirement for managing those processes in a socially responsible way and for cushioning their social impact: it is also an indispensable pre-condition of economic success and company competitiveness. A focus on the strategic goals of the company and placing change within long-term management frameworks (as opposed to decision-making based on short-term profits) can usefully contribute to the sustainability and competitiveness of companies. This is also the case for economic sectors, regions and economies as a whole. In recent years, and as has been seen above, the European Commission has launched several initiatives in the field of anticipating and managing change and restructuring. The European Commission has also financed numerous studies on this topic and supported the Joint European Social Partners’ Work Programme which includes an integrated project on restructuring in the EU27 Member States.229 3.1: THE IMPORTANCE OF TIMELY ACTIONThe more time the actors have to act before the announcement of a restructuring event (or after the announcement but before the implementation of the restructuring), the more space for discussion they will have to anticipate and manage the restructuring in a responsible way. They will also be more likely to have time to be able to find solutions to the resulting economic and occupational problems. The period of time given for restructuring (especially in a context of acceleration of change) has recently become a major factor conditioning the ability of the actors to monitor the situation, to identify particular risks (dependent, for example, on the particular level of qualifications, age, health, and gender of the workers involved) and to act in a proactive way. This means that the type of anticipatory action of each actor strongly depends on the period of time they have at their disposal before, during or after the announcement. There are degrees of predictability in the management of change: it depends where the time cursor is situated. A high degree of predictability is possible when anticipation is used as a permanent monitoring process for developing workers’ employability and sustainable activities of the company. Such an ex ante approach aims at conceiving and implementing in advance strategies, practices and measures that contribute to enabling companies and workers to adapt to all internal and external shocks and transformations. National, regional and sectoral observatories dealing in a prospective way with the evolution of employment, skills and careers belong to this category. Early warning mechanisms, such as observatories that track economic and labour market developments in specific sectors or regions, and which are then able to highlight actual threats or dangers to employment in particular regions, sectors or companies, intervene generally a little later but are still within this early stage of anticipation that gives time to the actors to build a common representation of future economic and social developments. Finland has a relatively well-developed system of early warning mechanisms, including the Government Foresight Network, which is an inter-ministerial forum for cooperation and exchange of information in issues relating to the anticipation of future events. This comprises a systematic and inclusive process involving the collection, assessment and analysis of information. It also includes the drawing up of projections for the future in the medium and long term. Anticipation can also be designed to manage a restructuring process in the best possible way, to find alternatives and to limit negative social impact, according to a ‘curative’ or an ex post approach. In this context, tools and procedures are conceived and used at an early stage to prepare workers, organisations, work processes and the local labour market for the consequences of a restructuring event that is already underway. The aim here is to mitigate the impact of restructuring on the employment paths of workers and on the economic situation of the region concerned. In the final stage of restructuring, there are strategies aimed at managing a temporary crisis situation, by implementing a range of different tools (for example during the present crisis, short-time work or reinforcing temporary unemployment schemes or part-time work). The main idea behind this approach is to find ways to maintain the workforce during the crisis and then to be ready to restart pre-crisis activities. However, it is also important to take on board the fact that a crisis can stimulate the need to accelerate structural adaptations. It is clear that the current economic crisis significantly reduces the time available for anticipatory intervention and the capacity of the social and regional actors to implement anticipatory solutions. However, even in this period of crisis, time remains an essential factor for overcoming a crisis situation. 3.2: A MULTI-LEVEL, MULTI-ACTOR ISSUEAnticipation can be used by the actors concerned at different levels (European, national, regional sectoral and company). However, issues surround questions such as: in what way can the actors be involved in preparing for change in a permanent way (especially before the announcement of restructuring); the capacities of the actors to build a shared diagnosis of a restructuring situation and to manage the situation; and whether there are shared diagnoses and a common perception of the crisis and its causes. All actors can play an active role in anticipating and managing change, as new and innovative practices show. In a context of multi-actor anticipation, the actors concerned are to be found both inside and outside the company. A multi-actor approach also requires strong interconnections between actions at different levels (such as mobilising corporate strategies, local management, trade unions, public authorities, regional bodies, observatories, universities, and the European level). The multiplicity of these interactions, which conditions the role of the different actors, is a factor of complexity. It also means that some actions and some policies are more difficult to apply to SMEs. A key element of any successful strategy of anticipation and prevention of the negative social impact of restructuring consists of building a culture and practice of permanent adaptation to change. This can be achieved by creating and pursuing on a permanent basis the instruments that will facilitate smoother adaptation and will help organisations to cope better with crisis situations once they occur. This includes the development of specific knowledge and expertise on change management, the development of strategies of crisis management and the creation of early warning systems. This implies that the strategic dimension should be integrated into corporate management as opposed to short-term profit or asset value objectives. For this purpose, the creation within companies of change managers who could liaise with similar entities at other levels (notably at regional, national and sectoral level) may be particularly useful. With regard to companies, social responsibility for anticipating and managing change concerns the internal as well as the external responsibility of the companies concerned (at local, national, or European/international level). For example, it concerns the involvement of the company in the economic revitalisation of the area hit by the restructuring, which in turn aims to secure the professional transition of those workers who have been made redundant. Companies are at the centre of the restructuring process. Any efficient action of anticipation and socially responsible restructuring must start and be conducted mainly within individual companies. Internal action is, however, frequently insufficient, taken on its own, to prevent or alleviate the social impact of restructuring. It must therefore be combined with parallel measures and instruments deployed by other actors (such as social partner organisations, public authorities and individual employees) at other levels of governance (local, regional, national, sectoral and European). It seems also important to stress the role that the companies can play concerning the employability, or capacity to adapt, of their workforce. The development of workers’ competences is crucial for the success of the company and for the capacity of the workers to manage their working life. SMEs are frequently excluded from most training and support provision and therefore experience particular difficulties in dealing with organisational, as well as wider economic, changes (see chapter 2 on training in SMEs). This is clearly an unfavourable scenario, given the importance of SMEs for jobs and growth in the EU. One way of addressing this problem would be for the sectoral organisations and the regional authorities to offer tools and methodologies (eg pooling resources) to take account of the time, cultural and financial specificities of SMEs (ie the fact that they do not have the resources, access to credit, formal internal systems or the staffing levels of larger firms). These interventions not only help to train and support SME employees, but also give strategic direction to the business, which is a critical step in the positive management of change. From the employee representatives’ perspective, anticipation is very much linked to their capacity to exercise in good time their social and economic prerogatives at different levels (such as the level of the site, company, group of companies, national and European level). This presupposes an effective and constructive mode of implementing information, consultation and negotiation practice at the enterprise and group levels. Employee representatives at company and group levels are the main management counterparts during restructuring processes. They should therefore be involved and participate actively in all anticipatory measures and permanent mechanisms established by the company, internally and externally (ie those that are part of internal company processes and procedures, and those that have been developed by or with the help of external parties). Representing the entire workforce, they are in a unique position to work with the change manager, if one is present, promote smooth change and restructuring and ensure that employees’ interests are safeguarded. If there is no change manager, the company needs to ensure that this role is covered by managers internally. From the employers’ and employer representatives’ point of view, anticipation of restructuring can be part of good business planning and a need to anticipate demand for goods and services. Regular meetings with employee representatives can form part of this process, giving the parties an opportunity to discuss likely future trends. Employers are the actors that usually initiate and consequently manage the process of restructuring. They are bound by national legislation concerning the process, particularly in the area of informing and consulting employee representatives. In particular, consultation should be carried out in good time to allow discussion of the options available to mitigate the impact of any planned redundancies. Where a relationship of trust has been built up with employee representatives, meaningful consultation will be able to take place. From the individual worker’s viewpoint, anticipation relies on their capacity as an individual to choose and to use a training programme in order to improve their employability and to facilitate a transition in their career and working life. The intensity of the difficulties met by workers who have been made redundant varies according to their level of qualification, with the risk being higher, the lower the level of qualification. With regard to employability, it is evident that the individual employee cannot be regarded as an isolated entity: other actors, such as the employer, employee representatives, the social partners and the public authorities have a crucial role to play in supporting, motivating and encouraging individual employees. Employees are, together with companies, the main actor of the restructuring process — and at the same time, very often, the main victims of restructuring. Without prejudice to the specific responsibilities of the other actors in creating the whole set of conditions that will give employees a real opportunity to find their way through those processes, the success of any effort to minimise the social cost of restructuring depends, as far as employees are concerned, on:
The opportunities offered to employees in term of training and support may differ significantly according to how an employee is categorised — ie whether they are a temporary agency worker, or a temporary worker within the company — and also the size of the company. For the social partners, collective bargaining and other forms of bi- and tripartite bargaining and dialogue are among the most important tools for anticipating and managing change at enterprise, sectoral, national and European/international levels. Social partners also play a crucial role with regard to the social perception of a given restructuring situation. Social partners represent employers and workers at cross-sector and sector level. They play a key role in anticipating and managing change. Their capacity to intervene at all levels through social dialogue and collective bargaining mechanisms places them in a privileged position to coordinate actions aimed at stimulating and developing social tools for anticipating and managing restructuring. They are important actors in the creation of social innovation, economic and social progress, solidarity, social inclusion and good-quality employment practices at all levels. The creation of guarantee, training and job security funds by collective agreement is a particularly innovative practice that has been developed in recent years. National and regional authorities can also develop specific actions supporting employees and companies in the field of anticipation of change and restructuring. Regional authorities have a specific role in coordinating all actors and offering rapid solutions to the consequences of a restructuring event. For examples of regional anticipation and management of change, see box 7.3. Although the main actors involved in restructuring processes are companies, their employees, and social partners; public authorities also have an important role to play. They shape the relevant legal framework, define and pursue employment policy goals, manage important forecasting tools, possess the institutional capacity to help employees (through means such as education and training institutions and job centres) and manage substantial financial resources that can be allocated to meeting the needs of restructuring companies and their employees. Other government-led tools are mediation, forecasting tools and incentive schemes. A major contribution from governments consists in establishing or supporting the creation of risk mutualisation mechanisms (guarantee, training and job security funds). This should be seen in the context of flexicurity policies — for more information on flexicurity and restructuring, see chapter 5. Alongside national governments, regional authorities have a major role to play in the coordination of the work of stakeholders who intervene in each region through restructuring operations or are engaged in the processes of anticipation. Another task that falls under the responsibility of regional authorities relates to the promotion of regional development and economic and social reconversion of regions likely to be, or already affected by, severe restructuring. It seems important in that regard that regions create a regional task force (a body involving all stakeholders interested in employment in the region) and train change managers who will coordinate the economic, social and institutional actors around those two objectives. The efficiency of anticipation processes developed by all of these actors differs according to the time they have for acting in a strategic and effective way. An early diagnosis contributes to effective anticipation, while a late (or mistaken) diagnosis hinders the possibilities of both strategic and operational anticipation. Time is indeed an essential factor. Box 7.3: The regional experience of anticipation and management of change At a preparatory workshop for the Restructuring Forum that was held on 23 September 2009, participants presented and discussed a range of experiences of both the anticipation and the management of restructuring and change at regional (or more properly territorial, as the geographical scope is not always that of an administrative region) level. The experiences were those of:
Directory: pub -> ECD ECD -> Commission staff working document ECD -> Table of contents I instruments Error: Reference source not found ECD -> Table of annexes annex I: Glossary 4 ECD -> En commission of the european communities brussels, 12. 12. 2008 com(2008) 853 final annex annex II to VIII ECD -> Report from the commission to the european parliament and the council european community safa programme aggregated information report ECD -> Report from the commission european community safa programme ECD -> Commission of the european communities brussels, 24 2008 ECD -> Commission staff working document ECD -> Communication from the commission to the european parliament, the council, the european economic and social committee and the committee of the regions ECD -> Annex I iccat species Download 1.43 Mb. Share with your friends:
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