An Experimental Methodology for Industrial Redundancies: The “Human Capital Map”

Facing redundancies is a recurrent issue in contemporary societies. Businesses have entered a regime of continuous restructuring in which the reorganization of production and labour is no longer a cyclical occurrence in the context of economic hardship or paradigmatic change: restructuring is an integral part of normal corporate activity, implemented also as a pro-active strategic choice to realign and improve organizational efficiency. From a policy perspective, coping with lay-offs is highly problematic and so is for the workers involved. In this context, the EU urges for anticipation. Based on a fieldwork in 35 companies of the Abruzzo region (Italy), this article presents an experimental methodology aiming to concur to the re-employment of laid-off workers. The Human capital map, enabling the analysis and classification of the skills and competencies that belong to differentiated job positions and to ascertain their similarity (or not) to the requirements of other jobs, is deemed to be an innovative instrument to be used, among the others, to anticipate and ease situations of redundancies. The findings show a high potential for job transfers both within and across industrial sectors.