| EVOLUTION OF MOBILITY CENTRES |
| ITS, the promoter and coordinator of the Mobility Centres project, has identified four stages in the evolution of mobility centres. |
| 1. The curative mobility centre |
| Mobility centres are usually established in response to a redundancy programme to assist employees losing their jobs to find employment opportunities elsewhere. This type of mobility centre is sometimes called a curative or reactive mobility centre because the impetus for its formation is a reaction to a problem e.g. redundancy or closure. |
| A curative or reactive mobility centre can be viewed as an internal out-placement unit because the emphasis is on assisting redundant employees to find jobs outside the organisation. The focus of the curative mobility centre is on promoting the mobility of employees out of the organisation. |
| The disadvantage of this type of mobility centre is that it can be viewed as a resource for "losers" in an organisation i.e. those that are being made redundant. Management while agreeing to the establishment of mobility centre during times of employee downsizing may be in favour of closing it when the redundancy programme is completed because its existence is a reminder of a time which they would rather forget. |
| The experience of Irish companies to-date which introduce mobility centres is that they have not advanced beyond this stage. |
| 2. The preventive mobility centre |
| The focus of the preventive mobility centre is both internal and external employee mobility. This type of mobility centre seeks to prevent the emergence of problems within an organisation by stimulating voluntary mobility among employees in those parts of the organisation which are likely to come under pressure to reduce numbers. |
| This is does by increasing awareness among employees of job opportunities elsewhere within the organisation as well as externally. It provides information on the skills and expertise needed for alternative positions/careers. |
| The work of the preventive mobility centre while focusing on operational matters also begins to deal with strategic issues. |
| 3. The pro-active mobility centre |
| The third type of mobility centre, the pro-active mobility centre, is still involved in providing services to facilitate internal and external employee mobility but has a stronger input in terms of strategic human resource development policy. The centre has an important role in the development and implementation of policies which are focused on employee mobility. |
| The pro-active mobility centre is also strongly directed towards preventing future enforced external replacement by facilitating the voluntary internal mobility of employees. |
| 4. The pro-active mobility policy |
| The fourth stage in the development of mobility centres sees the integration of mobility policies with mainstream human resource development policies. In other words, employee mobility has become an integral part of the organisation's human resource development strategy. |
| Though the mobility centre continues to exist all of the company's human resource development personnel are now all fully trained in mobility techniques. |
| One of the aims of the pro-active mobility policy is to place emphasis on the mobility of employees in all parts of the organisation's policies. By integrating mobility in all aspects of its strategic policies, the organisation becomes more flexible and adaptable. |
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