Job insecurity and successful re-employment: Examples from The Netherlands

Abstract

This part of the project involved two major elements: conducting qualitative interviews with two groups of employees on the one hand, and case studies in several Dutch companies on the other. The first group consisted of workers in an insecure job situation following the (future) restructuring of their company. These respondents were asked what elements would help them in such a situation, and which organisational factors obstructed them in adequately coping with their insecurity. The aim of these interviews was to gain insight in key issues for workers in an insecure job situation, and to develop innovative intervention strategies that assisted employees in coping with occupational transitions. The second group was composed of successfully re-employed individuals having found a new job as a result of outplacement/replacement counselling provided by their previous employer. These interviewees were asked about their experiences with different elements in the outplacement programme and how this support has helped them in recovering from the shock of dismissal and in successfully finding another job.