NedCar
NedCar, a Netherlands based company, is the Netherlands’ only large-scale motor manufacturer. It started in August 1991 as a joint venture between the Mitsubishi Motor Corporation and Volvo. With a workforce of 3,000 people, it is also one of the largest employers in the region. Many of its employees are trained to junior technical school level and, only in later life, realise the benefits of additional training.
Staff training is an essential part of the company’s strategy to remain competitive, and to encourage employees to take responsibility for improving their own job prospects, both internally and externally.
The problems at the NedCar plant, in the southeast of the Netherlands, were triggered by DaimlerChrysler AG’s (DCX) decision to stop the production of its Smart ForFour model. NedCar reduced the number of employees by 1,000 in a reorganisation aimed at cutting production costs.
NedCar’s ePortfolio solution addresses the top 10 employability challenges in Europe, as defined by the European Commission. These include various challenges related to, for example, globalisation and change in workforce demographics (such as ethnics and ageing) as well as economic slowdown in European markets.
Solution
Synergetics, Giunti Labs’ competency technology partner, introduced Giunti Labs’ eXact Portfolio, the fully IMS ePortfolio compatible ePortfolio management system for all of NedCar’s 3,000 employees – giving each of them a personal employabilityPortfolio®.
The ePortfolio data was imported from NedCar’s SAP-HR and other HR-applications. Supported by NedCar HR-coaches, external consultants and various employability/employment service providers as well as training service providers, employees checked their ePortfolios regularly.
All employees developed and completed a personal Employability Portfolio, thus creating either a powerful, standards-based tool that is helping them to develop their NedCar career (internal employability) or has helped them to find a new job (‘shortest way to work’, external employability).
The ePMS also acted as an instrument for NedCar’s new continuityHR-policy, which is focusing on developing mobile, competency-aware employees, thus helping to improve labour mobility in the region.
To orchestrate this broad range of (web) services, especially for the 1,000 employees who have left the company, the ePMS was integrated with Giunti Labs’ LCMS, eXact Skills and eventually embedded in a BPMS/SOArchitecture.
Achievements
Advantages of this solution include a more detailed and accurate insight into available competencies and development potential within NedCar; increased workforce flexibility, and increased employee competency aggregation through a rationalisation process triggered by personal ePortfolio development.The solution enables employees to find a job through using their ePortfolios, provided by the consortium of service partners, and aligning their competencies with opportunities in the existing and future local labour market.
The local labour market functions more efficiently – it is easier to match vacancies for employees and to plan training more efficiently, for example – and the solution supports lifelong learning.