"Flexible jobs" in Norway: How to integrate job-hunters with chronic health problems into the labour market?
By Hildegunn M. Førsund, Directorate of Labour, Norway
"Flexible jobs" is a project mainly based on the Norwegian emphasis on strengthening job-related services to people with psychiatric disabilities. It is a labour market measure with an attached follow-up service for the participants and includes a wage-subsidy paid to the employer for a period up to 5 years.
The main purpose of the project is quite widely defined: Is to improve the public employment service offered to job-seekers with chronic health problems often causing a reduced and variable work-capacity. Norway has a long political tradition of an active labour-market policy, saying that all persons being able to do some work, part-time or full-time, shall have the possibility to do so ("the working-line"). The local offices in the Public Employment Service shall by information, counselling and various kinds of labour market measures serve the job-seeker on his/her way to get a job. This may also include formal qualification if needed.
In our experience, success in the vocational rehabilitation field is more likely if the applicants have a stable work-capacity, and are able to stay at work for a fixed time per day. If a person has a chronic disease or condition, the expected work stability is often difficult to comply with. For the employer though, stability is of great importance to get the job done. It is often said about these job-hunters that they are "too sick to work, but still too well to get a disability pension". For the Public Employment Services it is crucial to learn more about the special needs of the potential workers and the employers to make a successful job-placement possible.
Long-term objectives of "Flexible jobs"
The long-term objective of "Flexible jobs" is therefore to increase the opportunities these job-hunters have to get a job according to their qualifications on the ordinary labour market.
Furthermore, the project hopes to contribute to improved competence and better methods in the day-to-day services given to this population.
For the project, the target groups consist of mainly job-hunters with mental, joint or muscle related health problems. These diagnoses are all focuses concerning chronic disease and variable work capacity and constitute the fastest growing diagnoses among the vocationally disabled job-hunters in Norway. In Norway, more than 60% of the total number of people under our vocational rehabilitation programme (about 70, 000) have one or the other of these diagnoses. Not all of them though experience unstable work capacity.
The project programme consists of 250 temporary jobs (placements) on the ordinary labour market. In the programme the project leaders are working on the basis of:
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Using economic measures to stimulate and compensate employers for loss or reduction in production.
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Stimulation and integration to normal working life conditions by giving regular salaries to the employees.
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Making emphasis on a) thorough mapping of the participants` ability to work, b) working conditions and, c) using contracts.
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Making extensive and individually adapted adjustments and follow-up in the working place.
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Giving supportive measures to the employers when requested.
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Initiating necessary teamwork between various public services (health and social assistance, employment service etc) to secure relevant adjustments and follow-up.
Improving the public sector opportunities
In addition to implement the various elements of the project through cooperation between the project leaders, the participants, the companies and the public service-sector, the project leaders are all supposed to focus on improving the Public Employment Service on three main areas of development:
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Strengthen relations to employers by marketing our services and the job-seekers, establishing and maintaining "customer relations" and mapping the employers needs
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Adapt, organise and follow up the work-situation and coordinate the various public services.
Planning & leading the development project
The development-project is planned on the basis of 5 years and followed up by 6 full-time, project-leaders who are responsible for setting up, managing and developing the project in different regions. Approximately one full position has been created in the Directorate of Labour to administrate the regional projects, to document and follow up the project, and to review and accept the regional reports and plans. Joint activities for the project-leader-team, such as relevant seminars, lectures and courses, status- and planning meetings and more are also organised. There are also established reference groups centrally and locally to secure participation and implementation from the organisations of the employers, public authorities and the non-governmental organisations representing job-hunters.
Intermediate results
Approximately 250 places either in private or public sector have been established after one year of the total five years project time (2000-2005). All of them are to be found on the ordinary labour market. The project will be evaluated after two and a half years, and then after five years by an external evaluator, when the project is ended.
Experience so far tells us that 14 out of about 50 persons having left the project, have found ordinary jobs. For some of the participants the health situation made it necessary to once again undergo medical treatment. Furthermore, it seems easier for our job-hunters to apply for a job in a private firm than in the public sector. This is partly due to the job contents of the public services, which often require higher formal qualification, less flexible regulations for appointment and a less flexible budget situation. The jobs for participants in this project are usually found in the service sector, in small private companies.
The majority of the participants are women, but the number of women starting a job is remarkably low. The male participants are relatively younger than the women; 64% of the men are under 40 years of age while the female average is between 39-49 years of age. The difficulties in obtaining suitable jobs in the public sector are in some cases affecting the possibility of success for the many women who want a job in the health or social sector.
Wage-subsidy can be important for employers
The project so far has shown that vocational rehabilitation for these job-hunters takes time, the participants need counselling and even training in the process of finding the right employer. The employer on his/her side needs reassurance (security) that the working relationship is being followed up and maintained during the life of the project. For some employers the wage subsidy is also important when giving the participant a try. The most important thing though for the project-leaders is to make individually adapted adjustments for the participants and to make sure that job conditions and job expectations are made clear for both partners. Such adjustment may require a special agreement on working hours, for example. For further information: hmf@adir.aetat.no
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