Philips Employment Scheme (PES/WGP)

 

Philips Netherlands has been running a private employment scheme (the Philips Employment Scheme, PES) for over twenty-five years. The scheme stands out for its durability (most other similar schemes are ephemeral) and its success in reintegrating the long-term unemployed into the work force. The combination of one year work experience and skills development within the PES seems to be fundamental to its success.

 

In this project, I work together with my supervisor Joan Muysken and with Riccardo Welters to discover the success factors of the PES by studying a carefully compiled and constructed dataset of around 1000 anonymous participants. We look for example into personal characteristics, unemployment history and job success after participating in the PES. Where the successes of public efforts to reduce long-term unemployment are not always clear, the PES has been successful over 25 years throughout changing economic conditions. The longitudinal character of the project enables us to also study its relation to the business cycle and aggregate labor market trends.

Vocational Qualification Programme

 

Changes in the labour market are leading to stricter educational requirements for workers of all education levels. This also affects the workers at the lower ends of the labour market who have only little or outdated skills. To address this issue in their own company and therewith increase the current and future employability for their workers, Philips Netherlands has developed a training program to increase its employees’ knowledge and skills (to basic qualification level (WEB2)). Between 2004 and 2009, 2.400 low skilled workers are offered education to obtain a certified degree/diploma (eg. VaPro or Som).

 

Our research into the Vocational Qualification Programme makes use of the fact that the training opportunity is offered to workers at a certain moment. This enables us to circumvent the problem of 'self-selection' and provide reliable estimates of the effect of training on wages, job promotions and job performance.

E-Miles

 

In this project I work with and Andries de Grip (ROA/NSI) to investigate the results of a brand new human resources instrument developed by Philips called E-Miles. Philips has developed E-Miles to increase awareness about the importance of personal development and training amongst its workforce. In 2009, all employees of Philips Netherlands will receive a credit of 1,000 E-Miles that he or she can spend on a selection of five specifically designed “products”. These products range from an interview with an employability counselor, to a combination of interviews and questionnaires. All products aim to increase the participant’s awareness of the importance of personal development and training.

 

We have been involved early on in the development of E-Miles to ensure that the results of the project are measured and analyzed in detail. We set up a research plan consisting of three questionnaires, two amongst regular employees (December 2008 and January 2010) and one amongst their managers (Summer 2009). The research is conducted in close cooperation with the Human Resources department of Philips and is thus beneficial for both Philips and NSI (Network Social Innovation). Philips will obtain a vast amount of knowledge to further tailor the E-Miles instrument and NSI will benefit from the creation of a unique dataset which enables us to answer a range of interesting research questions.