1. Employment and Social Affairs Platform
This project is funded by the EU

2. Employment and Social Affairs Platform (ESAP)
Implementation period: March March 2019 Implementing institutions: RCC and ILO Overall objective: strengthen regional cooperation and institutional capacities of national administrations, employers’ and workers’ organizations, enabling them to develop and effectively implement labour market and social policy reforms in their EU enlargement process.

3. Benchlearning among Western Balkan PES
3. Strengthen the capacities of Public Employment Services (PES) to facilitate the SEE 2020 labour mobility objective and prepare for future participation in the European Employment Services
Benchlearning initiative – conduct comprehensive benchmarking and follow up with mutual learning activities

4. Idea of Benchlearning and underlying rationale
Benchlearning: The process of
creating a systematic and integrated link between benchmarking and mutual learning activities that
consists of identifying good/best performances through indicator based benchmarking systems
Ultimate aim of Benchlearning: Support each PES
to improve its own performance through
a structured and systematic reflection on its own performance and how this has been achieved
Performance: Measurable achievements which can be attributed to the efforts/activities of a PES (and not to external factors)
Implication: Benchlearning offers a structured methodology which can be applied to support the complete process of organisational development/change in PES → recurring process

5. PES benchlearning cycle
PES-Report
Mutual Learning
National Action Plan
Improved Outcome
Quantitative and Qualitative Assessment
Areas for improvement
National Implementation
Good Practices

6. Assessment process Quantitative Assessment Qualitative Assessment
Data collection and analysis
Database with comparable data from each PES
Overall PES benchmarking comparative statistics
Valid performance outcomes
Identify unquantifiable strengths and good practices
PES self-assessment
PES external assessment
True performance enablers
Evidence based good practices

7. Quantitative benchmarking
1. Transition from unemployment into employment
2. Number of people leaving the PES unemployment records, as a share of the stock of registered unemployed individuals
3. Transition into employment within 6 and 12 months of unemployment
C1) Composition of the unemployment register (by individual characteristics and geographical distribution)
C2) Inflow and outflow
C3) Participants to active labour market programmes

8. Transition from unemployment into employment

10. Transition into employment within 12 months of unemployment, 2013-2016

11. Share of participants to active labour market programs

12. Assessment Framework on Benchlearning
Labour market conditions
Institutional conditions
Strategic
PES management A
Design of operational processes and use of information B
Sustainable activation and management of transition C
Relations to employers D
Evidence-based design and implementation of PES services E
Effective management of partnerships and stakeholders F
Allocation of PES resources G
Output and outcome of PES
Learning
Context
Variables/
Background
Qualitative Assessment of Performance Enablers/
Self-Assessment
Bench-marking indicators
Mutual Learning
Activities
Integrated Benchlearning Concept based on EFQM-Excellence Model
Performance drivers/ enablers
Results

13. assessment template

14. Self-assessment and external assessment process
Self-assessment (September – November 2017):
Host PES scores itself on a 6-level scale for each enabler;
Scoring is done on the basis of available evidence that a PES has implemented organizational solutions according to the definition of excellence (“ideally”);
The more evidence is available and the more convincing it is, the higher is the score.
External assessment (November – December 2017):
Discussion on results of self-assessment with representatives of host PES;
Assessment of evidence presented by host PES;
Identification of room for improvement together with host PES;
Scoring of presented evidence.

15. Benchlearning external assessments
Peer PES and expert perspectives on:
Strengths
Areas for further development
Potential good practices
Recommendations

16. Preliminary benchlearning findings
Strengths
Albania
Strategic management and target-setting, use of new service model, integration of PES register with other databases, autonomy of regional offices for partnerships
BiH
Human resources, standardized counselling process, mobile offices, local partnerships for employment
Kosovo*
EMIS, holistic profiling, early intervention, automatic matching
Montenegro
Human resources, well defined operational processes, well-developed ICT system
Serbia
Standardized business processes, ICT system
The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Human resources, division of responsibilities, rich databases, good cooperation with local level actors

17. Preliminary benchlearning findings
Areas for further development
Albania
Human resource strategy, monitoring and evaluation, employer strategy
BiH
Fragmented operational processes, quality management system
Kosovo*
Distribution and evaluation of measures, a strategy for employers
Montenegro
Evaluation of activities and measures, blended services, budget constraints
Serbia
Strengthen analytical function, better targeting, multi-channel services
The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Administrative cost of active measures is high, unit for employers, staff motivation

18. Benchlearning follow-up activities
National action plans
Promotion of good practices/Mutual learning events/study visits
Technical assistance
Support the inclusion of BL as an integral part of PES activities
Ongoing: collection of data on performance outcomes and data analysis
Qualitative benchmarking every 2 years

19. Thank you for your attention!