Employer engagement: Making active labour market policies work Edited by JoIngold and PatrickMcGurk. Bristol University Press, Mar 1, 2024, 270 pp., ISBN: 978–1529223002, Price GBP 28.99, p/b
本书聚焦雇主在积极劳动力市场政策中常被忽视的角色，通过多国案例和三个分析层次，探讨如何更好地让雇主参与政策实施，对政策制定者和研究者有重要参考价值。
There is a lot written about active labour market policy (ALMP) but editors Ingold and McGurk, in their book Employer Engagement: Making Active Labour Market Policies Work, make an excellent case for the oft-overlooked role of employers. The focus of ALMP research to date has primarily been on the unemployed − whether young, old, disabled, migrants or parents to name a few − and the providers of employment services − profit, not-for-profit, private, public, trauma-informed and many more. This book, and the contributions of its authors, does a brilliant job of highlighting the importance of extending this blinkered view and expands the horizons of research to date. The book canvasses a breadth of fields, including social and public policy, political economy, employment relations, HR management and leadership, as well as from practitioners. Using cases from countries across Europe, such as Denmark, Germany and The Netherlands, as well as the United Kingdom, United States and Australia, Employer Engagement speaks to issues facing employers of different sizes, across private and social purpose industries. It looks at myriad ways employers engage jobseekers with disabilities, refugees, single parents and from diverse ethnic groups. Given this incredible breadth of topics, case studies and different iterations of ALMP, it is helpful that the authors break these down into three categories: macro, meso and micro. Each draw on a number of articles and capping off, each includes a practice case study. These case studies are a particular highlight of the book. Given the breadth and scope of the book, the chapters were not always able to speak clearly to one another, but this is the challenge with an edited book on such a broad topic. It equally, perhaps necessarily, also speaks to the diversity and disjointedness of the field. Regardless, the quality of each chapter is incredibly high. In this review, I will not attempt to review the breadth of the book, and instead review each section as a whole, reflecting on the key contributions of the chapters and the role they play in telling the story of the book – namely that employer engagement has been largely under-developed and will play an important part in improving how we evaluate and understand ALMPs in the future. Beginning at the macro level, in Chapter 2, Bredgaard, Ingold and van Berkel helpfully provide a conceptual framework for analysing employer engagement. This framework forms a launching off point for the section, and in many ways for the book. The authors use the framework to explore variations in policy approaches to employer engagement. These ‘variations’ are referred to as regulation, facilitation and negotiation. Each align with governance modes; regulation with old public administration, facilitation aligns with New Public Management, while negotiation is more closely focused on networks and New Public governance. They compare the UK, Netherlands and Denmark's ALMPs in line with this framework and find that in these countries there is a reluctance to use regulatory policy approaches (beyond legislative requirements) and a preference for facilitation (although noting this approach is less effective with the hardest to place in employment). This framework will prove useful for moving beyond single-country case studies in the future and facilitate better comparisons across country and governance contexts. Still at the macro level, we have two chapters which provide detailed descriptions of two nationwide policies – job rotation in Denmark (Chapter 3) and apprenticeships in the UK (Chapter 4). Chapter 5 is a particular highlight though, as a coauthored piece with practitioners but also as a comparative case study. It explores the opportunities for cooperation that exist within a competitive market, pointing to the fact that the negotiations that support a more networked, new public governance approach are still in need of greater institutional and government support if they were to take off. This is well linked with the framework in Chapter 2. The following section shifts away from national policies and focuses on institutions and individual actors. The takeaway from this section is that a carefully and conscientiously designed multi-pronged approach will be critical in order to engage employers in ALMPs. In Chapter 6, we learn more about the UK's approach, and the interest in sharpening the focus on the quality and sustainability of work. What is important to note, however, is that there is little in current policy settings that could motivate employers to achieve this goal. Similarly, in Chapter 7, we see how Denmark has found flexibility and local autonomy important preconditions for successful interventions. Top-down policy, combined with persuasion and negotiation, could only achieve so much in encouraging employers to take on more disadvantaged jobseekers. Chapter 8 compares UK and German employers and likewise emphasizes there are varying motivations for employer involvement in employment programmes and that, to date, not enough research has been done to elucidate whether there was systematic variation in employer motivation by sector, industry or size for each scheme. This is all wrapped up with a case study of an Australian Disability Enterprise which highlights that there is an incredible complexity of policy settings for employers working with ALMPs – different funding models, lack of support, competition for funding and no codesign with users. It is an eye-opening story of messy and overlapping attempts which reflect all three of the different approaches to policy – facilitation, negotiation and regulation. The micro-level looks at individual workplaces, something which in the introductory sections were highlighted as representing the bulk of the research done in employer engagement in ALMP. What this book does differently is draw on human resources research rather than standard policy approaches. Chapters 10 and 11 point to the fact that existing ALMPs and programmes are operating based on an older model of employment. There are fewer traditional, lifelong roles. While policies remain focused on getting and keeping a job, rather than developing job-to-job and lifelong learning, it is likely that employers will treat ALMP intermediaries mainly as publicly funded recruitment agencies to solve short-term staffing needs. This is supported by Chapters 12 and 13, which use case studies of large retail chains to explore the challenges of leadership and adaptation when hiring individuals with physical or cognitive disabilities. These chapters both include extensive recommendations for employers and have a very practical focus. I will admit that HR was a new area to me, and likely will be to many in the policy space. Given this, I would have appreciated more overt links to ALMP and perhaps the initial framework discussed in Chapter 2. The conclusion, however, does a fantastic job tying the book together, combining a series of practice-focused recommendations and establishing a future research agenda. The editors share their perspective that, while there are no simple answers, there is much more that can be done, and it is hard as a reader not to agree. For readers – both academic and practitioners − interested in under/unemployment, education, training, and even broader social and welfare policy including those interested in what is happening at the front-line − this is a call to action and one worth heeding.