Tuesday, November 14, 2006
[IWS] RAND: BENCHMARKING PERSONAL ADVISORS in JOBCENTRE PLUS [14 November 2006]
IWS Documented News Service
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies----------------- Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor---------------------- Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016 -------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau
________________________________________________________________________
RAND
Benchmarking of the use of personal advisers in Jobcentre Plus [14 November 2006]
http://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR374/
or
http://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/2006/RAND_TR374.pdf
[full-text, 84 pages]
and
Summary
http://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/2006/RAND_TR374.sum.pdf
[full-text, 11 pages]
By: Christian van Stolk, Jennifer Rubin, Jonathan Grant
This report, which was commissioned by the National Audit Office (NAO), presents the results of a
benchmarking study investigating the deployment and management of personal advisers in three employment education
companies in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Tomorrow's People, a non-governmental
organisation in the United Kingdom; WorkDirections, a private sector provider in the
United Kingdom; and the Centrum voor Werk en Inkomen (Centre for Work and Income),
an independent government agency (Zelfstandig Bestuursorgaan) in the Netherlands.
The main purpose of this study is to identify specific, transferable lessons that could lead to
process improvements for Jobcentre Plus and identify the key priorities for enhancing
performance. The structure of the case study reports follows benchmarking criteria agreed
by RAND Europe and the NAO (see Appendix C). The case study reports describe the
different organisational structures, outline the different ways in which advisers function
and give employment advice and assess the varying costs and outcomes of these advice
processes. In addition, an overarching analysis, which is presented in the 'Summary'
section, draws out the principal themes of the comparison between the case studies and
aims to identify transferable lessons for Jobcentre Plus. These main findings are:
Other employment advice providers focus more exclusively on employmentadvice than Jobcentre Plus.
The advice process and the client base served vary among providers.
The autonomy of advisers is central to the advice processes of the benchmarked employment advice providers.
The employment advice providers in this study place an emphasis on
outcome-based performance measures rather than process targets.
The cost per successful outcome (i.e. unemployed clients placed in
employment) of Jobcentre Plus programmes is higher than that of other
employment advice providers.
The initiatives of other providers to improve efficiency in the time use of
advisers could offer valuable lessons for Jobcentre Plus.
This report will be of particular interest to the NAO and its client department, the
Department for Work and Pensions. It is also relevant for policy makers, as well as a wider
audience concerned with the challenge of providing effective and efficient employment
advice.
______________________________
This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.
Stuart Basefsky
Director, IWS News Bureau
Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell/ILR School
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Telephone: (607) 255-2703
Fax: (607) 255-9641
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu
****************************************
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies----------------- Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor---------------------- Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016 -------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau
________________________________________________________________________
RAND
Benchmarking of the use of personal advisers in Jobcentre Plus [14 November 2006]
http://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR374/
or
http://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/2006/RAND_TR374.pdf
[full-text, 84 pages]
and
Summary
http://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/2006/RAND_TR374.sum.pdf
[full-text, 11 pages]
By: Christian van Stolk, Jennifer Rubin, Jonathan Grant
This report, which was commissioned by the National Audit Office (NAO), presents the results of a
benchmarking study investigating the deployment and management of personal advisers in three employment education
companies in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Tomorrow's People, a non-governmental
organisation in the United Kingdom; WorkDirections, a private sector provider in the
United Kingdom; and the Centrum voor Werk en Inkomen (Centre for Work and Income),
an independent government agency (Zelfstandig Bestuursorgaan) in the Netherlands.
The main purpose of this study is to identify specific, transferable lessons that could lead to
process improvements for Jobcentre Plus and identify the key priorities for enhancing
performance. The structure of the case study reports follows benchmarking criteria agreed
by RAND Europe and the NAO (see Appendix C). The case study reports describe the
different organisational structures, outline the different ways in which advisers function
and give employment advice and assess the varying costs and outcomes of these advice
processes. In addition, an overarching analysis, which is presented in the 'Summary'
section, draws out the principal themes of the comparison between the case studies and
aims to identify transferable lessons for Jobcentre Plus. These main findings are:
Other employment advice providers focus more exclusively on employmentadvice than Jobcentre Plus.
The advice process and the client base served vary among providers.
The autonomy of advisers is central to the advice processes of the benchmarked employment advice providers.
The employment advice providers in this study place an emphasis on
outcome-based performance measures rather than process targets.
The cost per successful outcome (i.e. unemployed clients placed in
employment) of Jobcentre Plus programmes is higher than that of other
employment advice providers.
The initiatives of other providers to improve efficiency in the time use of
advisers could offer valuable lessons for Jobcentre Plus.
This report will be of particular interest to the NAO and its client department, the
Department for Work and Pensions. It is also relevant for policy makers, as well as a wider
audience concerned with the challenge of providing effective and efficient employment
advice.
______________________________
This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.
Stuart Basefsky
Director, IWS News Bureau
Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell/ILR School
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Telephone: (607) 255-2703
Fax: (607) 255-9641
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu
****************************************
# posted by SBasefsky : 2:36 PM
