Communiqué, issue 6, 2004
Special Foundation Forum 2004
- Time to re-think work-life balance: Second Foundation Forum debates key issues
- Do we need to work longer hours?
- Time and flexibility
- Investing in work-life balance – a win-win situation?
- Work and care - payback for the elderly or investment in a new generation?
- Keynote round-up
- An economy or a society: where do we live and work?
Articles
- Focusing firmly on the year ahead
- Foundation forges closer ties with the EP
- Disability and social exclusion: Reversing the trend
- Europe ‘not losing jobs’ due to outsourcing of ICT services
Previous issues of Communiqué
The Foundation enjoys an increasingly good reputation with its stakeholders and target audiences, as a provider of quality and reliable research and information. In 2005, as Europe prepares to carry out a mid-term review of its progress towards the Lisbon objectives, this reputation will put the Foundation at the centre of the political debate, with its current and upcoming research – on quality of work and life, the ageing workforce and management of change – as outlined in its 2005 work programme.
At the launch of the 2005 work programme, Willy Buschak, the Foundation’s Acting Director, said that efforts during the past four years were beginning to pay off. He added that because of the Foundation’s reputation as a provider of quality research and information, people now turn to them to hear what they have to say.
‘Equally important, the Foundation has gained a solid standing with the budgetary authorities – both the Court of Auditors and our internal auditing services – for making good and proper use of our financial resources,’ he added.
Within the framework of its 2005-2008 work programme, the Foundation’s 2005 plan defines the priorities for the year ahead. This programme is structured around the three main tasks of the Foundation.
Monitoring and understanding change
In the past four years, monitoring instruments have been put in place for all four core areas of Foundation research: living conditions, working conditions, industrial relations and managing change. The challenge for the coming four-year period, 2005-2008, will be to extend all of these monitoring activities to all 25 EU Member States.
In particular, creating synergy between the Foundation’s methods (such as surveys and network reporting), its activities (seminars and publishing) and its products (new reports, thematic analysis) will be essential in optimising output and resources in 2005.
Comparative analysis will become a primary output. The European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO) will, for example, continue to strengthen its analytical capacity, highlighting key issues on the policy agenda.
Exploring what works
There is a noticeable balance in the 2005 work programme, between projects with a new theme and projects that propose to build on the knowledge base that already exists in a particular area.
Research in 2005 will cover the following topics: employment initiatives; entrepreneurship; flexibility and the inter-relationship between living and working conditions; collective bargaining; migration and labour market mobility; sustainable care services; and workplace development.
Communicating and sharing ideas and experiences
In the year ahead, a number of new information and communication initiatives aim to facilitate access to Foundation research, both for target audiences and the general public. A new-look Foundation website, which is planned to be operational towards the end of spring 2005, will allow for theme-based access to all research findings.
Tailored information will also be made increasingly available, via e-letters and the revamped monthly version of the Foundation’s newsletter, Communiqué. Lastly, a new customer relations management system will be introduced, which aims to shorten response-times to the growing number of information requests.
Highlights for 2005:
- Company survey on working time Ageing workforce Management of change Quality of work
- Quality of life
The Foundation’s work programme for 2005 is available at: www.eurofound.europa.eu/publications/EF04135.htm