Implementationsstudie zur Erprobung des idealtypischen Kundenkernprozesses in der arbeitnehmerorientierten Vermittlung

"Between April 2022 and March 2023, the Federal Employment Agency tested a so-called customer core process (“Kundenkernprozess”) for the counselling and placement of jobseekers in four selected employment agencies. The goal was to align the intensity of counselling with the support needs of jobseekers. To this end, placement staff were to determine jobseekers' individual support needs during the first interview and then focus their counselling activities primarily on jobseekers with high support needs. The IAB (Institute for Employment Research) conducted an implementation study on this pilot project. The study is devoted to the experiences of placement officers and managers of the public employment services with the implementation of the concept and with counselling and placement under the conditions of the project. During the pilot project, the researchers conducted interviews and group discussions with placement officers and managers in the participating agencies, reviewed project-related documents, and participated as observers in counselling sessions between placement officers and jobseekers. The pilot project concept entailed two major changes compared with the previous approach to counselling and placement. First, a differentiation between jobseekers with low and jobseekers with high support needs is envisaged. Previously, however, placement officers made a forecast about how long it would take the jobseekers to return to work (six months or longer) and assigned them accordingly. The implementation of the new segmentation practice caused efforts in the participating agencies and required the formation of new routines. The results of the present study suggest that a shared understanding of the differentiation of jobseeker’s support needs did indeed develop. Across all agencies, criteria such as the jobseeker's own job search efforts, his or her state of health, and any need for qualifications were cited as indications for deciding on the need for support. In principle, placement specialists consider it realistic to make such an assessment based on the outcome of the first counselling interview - although this can change in the further course, for example if further information about the job seeker is available. Unclear cases, however, show the limits of this classification. These are, in particular, cases in which placement officers do not perceive their own possibilities for action, for example, when older jobseekers are confronted with reservations on the part of employers during their job search or when there are problems in the job seeker's personal environment that cannot be addressed with the resources available to the placement officers. The second major change in the pilot project is the alignment of the intensity of counselling with the identified need for support. In order to meet the need for support, the placement officers should decide on the required frequency of counselling appointments on a case-by-case basis and schedule them more freely than before. As an orientation framework for this, the BA head office published an ideal-typical flow chart of the placement process, which provided for more frequent counselling sessions in the case of a high need for support. The flow chart also contained information on the estimated duration of initial and follow-up interviews. According to the flow chart, the primary function of the initial interview was to determine the need for support. In practice, however, it became apparent that the functions of the initial interview are more diverse from the point of view of the placement officers, and tried-and-tested routines were retained accordingly. For example, in addition to data collection the initial interview also serves to answer questions from jobseekers. Other experiences with the implementation of the process scheme are also mixed. Placement officers rated it to be rather rigid. In particular, they felt that the requirement to hold another detailed interview no later than 10 days after the first consultation in the case of high support needs was not effective in many cases. If, for example, medical reports are requested, they are usually not yet available at this point. According to the experience of the placement officers, further topics addressed in the initial interview are usually not dealt with by jobseekers during this comparatively short period. If a high need for support is identified, more frequent counselling sessions are only one possible response, since in many cases the actual processing of the need for support takes place in labour market policy measures. The four participating agencies implemented the pilot project concept in two different ways. In two agencies, placement officers assisted both jobseekers with low support needs and jobseekers with high support needs. In the other two agencies, the concept was implemented based on a division of specialisations: placement officers specializing either in initial interviews and support for jobseekers with low support needs - the so-called customer centre - or in support for jobseekers with high support needs - the so-called counselling centre. These organizational differences, which were not originally intended, became a central feature of the project. Specialization resulted in major organizational adjustments, and additional interfaces emerged during implementation. From the point of view of the actors in the field, stipulations regarding counselling time or the integration agreement counteracted the flexibility inherent in the pilot project concept. The tension between counselling tailored to the individual and the targets to be met by the placement officers thus remained during the project period." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))