Job redundancies are a painful and unwelcome experience for both company and employee. At the Hjørring plant in Denmark, part of Novo Nordisk Health Care Product Supply, the management and unions have taken an unusual approach by Danish standards: the use of courses to reduce job cuts while raising the level of skills and education.

When strategic considerations forced the downsizing of the production of NovoFine^® needles at the Hjørring plant in mid-1998, the workforce had to be restructured accordingly.

39 jobs threatened
Initially 39 jobs were threatened. According to Danish regulations concerning lay-offs of 30 people or more, management and local unions must try to find the best solution for all parties. After a constructive collaboration, the management and unions were able to reduce the redundancies to 17. The remaining 22 who kept their jobs were offered part-time courses with reduced salaries during the period of education. The offer of part-time education was extended to 38 of their production colleagues at the site, who also agreed to accept reduced salaries. This was a show of solidarity on the part of the 60 employees who helped to minimise the job cuts by accepting wage cuts and the offer of education.

11 redundancies in the end
Of the 17 employees in Hjørring whose jobs were made redundant, three found another job and three found other alternatives before the lay-offs were implemented.

On top of the statutory redundancy payments according to Danish legislation, the remaining 11 also received a special Novo Nordisk redundancy payment based on number of years in service. In addition, they were offered consultations with a human resources consultant. All except one accepted the offer. At the meetings, a training plan was drawn up depending on their individual career interests. Novo Nordisk supported their training financially in most cases. Many took the opportunity to gain further qualifications, for example, one person took a basic computer course.

The 11 people were offered a short course on job-hunting. In between being given notice and being laid off, they were also offered the opportunity to be registered with the Novo Nordisk Job Exchange ­ an internal service with an information database on all positions vacant in the Danish part of the company.

60 attend classes part-time
The total number of employees being offered educational courses in 1999 is 60 ­ almost half of the 123 people currently employed at the Hjørring site. Each candidate is offered 20 weeks of training over a one-year period in such subjects as basic electronics, computer skills, first aid, Danish, English and arithmetic. All 60 people are receiving the same training and it was not possible to satisfy specific personal requests for practical reasons. The subjects were decided democratically by the candidates, based on their training needs and the needs of Novo Nordisk. The project is managed in close cooperation with the local centre for adult vocational training and the technical college.

In five-week periods throughout 1999, the employees do three weeks' work and two weeks' study. This means that the plant in 1999 operates at around 60% of its capacity compared with 1998.

The informal feedback, which was received from some of the employees, indicated both positive and negative reactions to this solution:

What will happen?
After the period of cutbacks, the management has been drawing up plans for the factory for the year 2000. These plans have now been finalised and it is expected that all employees will go back to normal full-time working when the courses finish at the end of 1999.

The plans were presented to the employees at a meeting in May 1999. The announcement brought an end to uncertainty about the future of the factory; something which had been worrying employees even though they had received extensive training.

To our knowledge, the Hjørring solution is unique by Danish standards. It was only made possible by the contribution of public funding for courses and by a close cooperation with unions, local government authorities and education centres. Although this approach can only be applied in favourable circumstances, it is outlined here to provide inspiration when facing similar situations in the future.