Study: Cross Border Job Mediation

In a region with more international than national borders one might consider taking up a position across the national border in a neighboring country. In the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany help is available for making this transition via cross border employment service teams that support placement of workers with employers and institutions across the border. However, up until now, there was no clear overview of the comparability of processes involved nor is there an overview of annual volumes of workers who were successfully mediated across the border. 

ITEM worked closely with the German Bundesagentur für Arbeit, VDAB, UWV, FOREM, Arbeitsamt der Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft Belgiens and Grenzinfopunkte to investigate the process of cross border employment services.

Which criteria determine whether cross border job mediation c.q. placement has been successful? Which initiatives are undertaken by the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany to achieve concrete results for their citizens in this respect? Are there best-practices and data already available in relation to cross border job mediation and how to compare them? 

This new ITEM partnership study was launched January 20th 2016 by Euregio Maas-Rhine (EMR), financed from the “Europees Werkgelegenheids -en Sociale Innovatieprogramma”. Online-questionnaires combined with face-to-face interviews on site will be carried out.

For now it is already clear that huge differences exist between the five partner organisations in terms of annual numbers and definitions. Both ITEM and EMR wish to clarify these issues and get more insight into the practices of cross border employment services within the EMR. A visual description of the cross border practices for each country will be provided. Furthermore, if possible, ITEM will come up with recommendations for future international benchmarking and data collection on this topic. Finally, best-practices will be shared with EMR job consultants. The study period lasted until June 2016, results are now disseminated with practitioners and general public through the ITEM website.