Sustainable employability: to measure is to know

On the back of the COVID-19 crisis, sustainable employability has (once again) gained momentum. The 'new' way of working first of all forces organisations to make choices and timely implement adjustments aimed at workers’ employability. Secondly, for many organisations the production process was key in the past year and the high sickness absence figures demonstrate as much. This has created a need to invest in health, vitality and development.

The Dutch government and Europe (Brussels), too, are aware of the urgency to invest in health and development. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment has, for example, requested the Social and Economic Council for advice on hybrid working, including working healthily and safely (from home). And the government has made available various subsidy schemes to boost investments in sustainable employability. Even though many organisations recognise the need to invest in this, they struggle with the question of where to start. Sound familiar?

Insight: the starting point

You are obviously free to start just about anywhere. But still, if you want to know whether you are spending your time as effectively as possible and what your return on your investments will be, you are well advised to first obtain the necessary qualitative and quantitative insights: a baseline measurement of sustainable employability. The obtained insights will allow you to take well-founded steps. Both from an organisational and financial perspective you will be able to draw up the appropriate policy. Performing a second measurement after a while will show you whether your interventions have contributed to your employees’ employability. Likewise, you will see the financial benefits of the interventions. Another option is to expand the measurement and examine the sickness absence within your organization. This will enable an integral approach to your prevention and sickness absence policies.

Deloitte uses scientific research when offering its insights. The results are presented transparently, both to you as an employer and to your employees. The measurements can just as easily be used after you have adjusted your work processes and want to know whether the adjustments have the intended effect. Or when, after a merger or restructuring, you wish to gain insight into which HRM themes (such as health, development, motivation, or terms of employment) require the highest priority. If you would like to know more about the possibilities of making your workers’ employability quantitatively measurable, please contact Jolanda Jansen (JJansen@deloitten.nl) or Lyanne Dekker (ldekker@deloitte.nl).

Also see the Factsheet Sustainable Employability