The governments in Holland and Australia were first movers in outsourcing the public job administration to private outplacement companies. A lot of experiences were gathered, and other governments were following them closely to see what they could learn. Among these was the Danish government, which back in 2002 also started the process of outsourcing activities of the government owned jobcentres for the ensured part of the work force called “Arbejdsformidlingen” (AF).

A lot of changes have therefore taken place in Denmark during the last 3½ years and reports say that once the private companies have become acquainted with the many administration procedures, they are more successful in getting people in job than the public job centres.

By now a lot of experience has been gained by the Danish government and the private outplacement companies, who have been involved in having contact meetings with unemployed people to help them find a job. Even to an extent that the experiences now gathered in Denmark are being watched closely by many other European governments.

However, the Danish job market is still in the process of finding the most optimal way of balancing between using private outplacement companies and still do some tasks in new jobcentres being established now all over Denmark. To help in the process, the Danish outplacement firms have during 2005 worked together in a common task force, which – with the help of an external consulting firm – gathered all their own good and bad experiences. This has ended up in a lot of recommendations and opinions, which are now published in a booklet and on the home page of the association.

The booklet contains recommendations on how to handle the tender-process, what to put in tender and opinions of the private companies on how the job centres of the government and municipalities can most effectively cooperate on a daily basis with the private companies.

• Guide to proceed with a tender
• When to do a tender and when not to
• How to define the tasks and setting goals
• Definition of the groups of unemployed citizens
• Models for payment
• Bonus recommendations
• The tendering process

• Recommendations for the cooperation between state/municipality and private companies
• How to start the cooperation
• Visitation of the citizens to the private companies
• The ongoing cooperation
• Registration, documentation and invoicing
• Developing the cooperation

Unique cooperation between competitors
Even though there is a lot of competition between the private outplacement companies there is also a spirit of cooperation, since those who win the tenders almost become colleagues. This spirit has been reinforced by the founding of the 3 year old trade association for the privately owned companies in the market. The process of making a recommendation for the government and all the local jobcentres opened up for at communication between employees in the different companies, who began to exchange experiences. This has further enabled the organisation to speak with one voice toward the involved government bodies, the media, politicians and the trade associations. Many of these tasks are not very effective, when a company is going alone.

The Danish association of outplacement firms, which are working for the public, has published a new website (in Danish only) with all the recommendations and opinions gathered. Whenever there are issues in the media, which are relevant to comment on this is done also. An intranet for the member companies enables to share information about relevant issues for all members.

www.jobraadgiverne.dk