Tim Gielens

Revitalizing social dialogue in the workplace: the impact of a cooperative industrial relations climate and sustainable HR practices on reducing employee harm

Abstract The purpose of the present study is to unravel the relationship between current forms and realities of social dialogue in the workplace, the industrial relations climate, HRM, and employee harm. We tested a model specifying associations between (1) indicators of revitalized social dialogue, (2) perceived cooperation within the industrial relations climate, (3) perceived sustainability in HR practices, and (4) management perceptions regarding employee harm. The test was based on a survey conducted among 356 (HR-)managers and CEOs in Belgium. The results support the idea that a cooperative industrial relations climate and sustainable HR practices can reduce employee harm. More specifically, efficiency in social dialogue fully mediated the relationship between cooperative industrial climate and employee harm. In turn, industrial relations climate partially mediated the relationship between sustainable HR practices and employee harm. Finally, sustainable HR practices correlated positively with a cooperative industrial relations climate, suggesting that HR and employee relations reinforce rather than weaken each other.

Facilitating Sustainable Careers: Getting Started

Whilst the previous chapter aimed to formulate recommendations at a more strategic level, this chapter proposes practical advices for different stakeholders and relevant actors involved in sustainable career management: policy makers, trade unions, HR decision makers, direct supervisors and individuals. Regarding the latter, the individual career actor, more specific suggestions will be formulated in Chap. 7.

Context & Transfer Issues: How Can Good Practices Be Transferred?

Transferability of a good practice is defined as the degree to which a good practice can easily be transferred and used in other contexts. At system level it refers to how a policy or good practice can be transferred from one EU country or region to another and which parameters should be taken into account. At the organizational level it refers to how a policy or good practice can be transsferred from one type of organization or sector to another. This chapter will present an overview of the literature on policy transfer studies. A checklist of the main aspects to consider when planning a transfer will be provided. We will describe the relevant characteristics of the socio-economic context and of the organizational context to be considered, both for the original context and the target one. Two examples of concrete transfers will be presented.

Introduction: ESF Network Career & AGE (Age, Generation, Experience)

This chapter outlines the objectives and scope of this book and introduces the Career and AGE (Age, Generation, Experience) learning network set up by the European Social Fund. It starts with highlighting the challenges of making careers more sustainable

Conceptual Framework for Sustainable Careers

This chapter introduces the most important concepts that will be used throughout this book. The changing career context brings a need for a fresh perspective to understand career dynamics and the implications for individuals as well as stakeholders at different levels. Starting with the changing nature of careers and the meaning of sustainable careers, we present the framework for facilitating the sustainability of careers that was used by the ESF Career & AGE network to describe and evaluate good practices. This framework will be used in the next chapter to introduce and discuss good practices for facilitating sustainable careers.

Five Recommendations for Facilitating Sustainable Careers

In this chapter we formulate five recommendations to facilitate sustainable careers. The focal point that we take is the individual’s career and how the sustainability of careers can be improved by a combination of measures taken at different levels. More specifically we propose five types of initiatives that policy makers and organisations can take to foster the sustainability of individuals’ careers.

Examples of Good Practices at Multiple Levels

In this Chapter we will introduce nine relevant examples of good practice that were validated as part of the Career & AGE network: Career vouchers, Cite des Metiers, Age management in the City of Helsinki; Compte Individuel de Formation, House of Workability, Minerva plan, Kestrel, Navigator Centres, Diversity & Inclusion a good driver.

Sustainable Competencies and Career Competencies: How to Put the Individual in the Driver’s Seat?

In the current career context the individual has to play a focal role in his or her own career. It is important therefore to address the competencies that are essential for sustainable careers. This chapter focuses on the individual’s career capital (his or her “backpack” of competencies), made of technical competencies, transversal competencies and career competencies. The concepts of career competencies and metacompetencies are described and the importance of developing them is highlighted through the image of the “career GPS”.