EMPLOYID APPROACH: EMPOWERING CHANGE IN PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT SERVICES

Enabling employees to shape change and develop solution-focused approaches in European Public Employment Services (PES) is at the heart of this major EU Framework 7 funded four-year programme (2014 -2018). I’ve had the privilege to work closely with a truly dynamic and innovative European multi-disciplinary research and development team. We began our joint work in 2014 and have a final meeting with our European Reviewers in Luxembourg on 25th and 26th June 2018. We will be publishing a new EMPLOYID Yearbook 20018 very shortly. In the meantime, you can find out more from here: https://employid.eu/

The EMPLOYID approach recognises public administration systems are facing fundamental challenges to the delivery of efficient and effective services and there is a need to change their strategies to combat high unemployment, demographic change in increasingly uncertain and dynamic labour markets. This does not only require developing new professional skills related to new tasks, but poses for more profound developmental challenges for staff members.

Three of these changes relate to (i) understanding the changing world of work; (ii) a ‘turn’ towards coaching; and (iii) the increased importance of relations with employers. Practitioners and managers need to learn new ways of working, with a major challenge being to enhance the power of collaborative (peer) learning in order to support staff in accomplishing their goals. All these changes are linked to transforming professional identity, which requires learning on a deeper level that is often neglected by continuing professional development strategies.

EmployID makes its contribution here; that PES practitioners’ learning related to professional identity transformation needs to be facilitated through social learning approaches and the nurturing of social learning networks, which include the following:

 Reflection as a way of turning one’s own and others’ experiences into general insights on multiple levels, both from an individual and a collective perspective

 Peer coaching as a way of helping learners in changing their behaviour through a structured process

 Social learning programmes as a way of engaging learners with new topics such as labour market intelligence/information (LMI), other perspectives, and conversations around this.

I’m now part of an EMPLOYID Consultancy Network, so watch this space for regular updates on how EMPLOYID is journeying into a new phase.

To read more about our work visit:- https://employid.eu/