Marius Lüske
OECD
Strengthening Active Labour Market Policies in Korea
Connecting People with Jobs
3. Employment Centres and Employment Welfare Plus Centres as Korea’s main providers of employment services
Abstract
This chapter discusses the work of Employment Centres as Korea’s main Public Employment Services. Employment Centres can operate as delivery points for employment services only, but are increasingly organised as Employment Welfare Plus Centres, which also host staff from other institutions that provide active labour market policies or social services. The chapter examines the structure of Employment Centres and Employment Welfare Plus Centres, depicting how responsibilities are shared between different divisions within the centres. In addition, the chapter discusses how the centres work with jobseekers and other people in need of support. Throughout the chapter, examples of other OECD countries are highlighted that could be inspiring for policy makers in Korea.
3.1. Introduction
Employment Centres and Employment Welfare Plus Centres are the key delivery points providing active labour market policies in Korea. They serve as the main intermediaries between jobseekers and employers, providing a wide range of services and programmes to connect jobseekers with good jobs.
Employment Centres focus on delivering employment-related services and programmes. They are employment offices affiliated to the Ministry of Employment and Labour’s (MOEL) regional and local offices, i.e. they are directly managed and supervised by MOEL. Therefore, the services and programmes they deliver are fully aligned with national labour market policies under the responsibility of MOEL.
Employment Welfare Plus Centres are an extension to standard Employment Centres. In addition to a conventional Employment Centre, they also host staff members from other institutions, such as local governments or NGOs, who are responsible for delivering social services or employment services for specific groups. The aim of Employment Welfare Plus Centres is to address unemployment and socio‑economic challenges holistically, providing integrated services to jobseekers with both employment and social challenges, and prevent gaps and overlaps in service provision.
Building on the general discussion in Chapter 2, this chapter examines the organisation and resources of Employment Centres and Employment Welfare Plus Centres in more detail (Section 3.2). It then discusses how the centres operate to support jobseekers, people at risk of unemployment and employers (Section 3.3). Throughout the chapter, examples from other OECD countries are included that could inspire policy makers in Korea, considering the strengths and weaknesses of the functioning of Employment Centres/Employment Welfare Plus Centres.
3.2. Organisation and resources of Employment Centres and Employment Welfare Plus Centres
In general, Employment Centres consist of six main divisions: 1) Planning and Co‑ordination, 2) Job Placement and Employer Service, 3) National Employment Support Programme, 4) Vocational Training, 5) Regional Co‑operation, and 6) Unemployment Benefit (Table 3.1).
Depending on the size of the Employment Centre, the exact structure and responsibilities of the divisions can differ. For example, in larger Employment Centres there can be more than six divisions delivering a wide range of services while in small Employment Centres in sparsely populated areas, some divisions only provide a limited set of services, in particular job placement services and services under the National Employment Support Programme.
Most of the design and strategic planning of ALMP provision takes place centrally at MOEL, but Employment Centres nevertheless have some planning and co‑ordination responsibilities, notably to allocate budgets to individual services and measures within the budget categories set by MOEL. While the decision power of Employment Centres in planning and co‑ordination ALMPs is limited and must conform with the broader choices by MOEL, this flexibility is crucial for aligning services and measures to reflect regional particularities. Therefore, some decision authority on the implementation and use of specific ALMPs should be maintained at Employment Centre level. It would be worthwhile to initiate an in-depth dialogue between MOEL and senior staff at Employment Centres, aiming to verify that the decision authority currently held by Employment Centres (e.g. on budgets of individual ALMPs, design of ALMPs) corresponds with their responsibilities.
Table 3.1. Divisions in Employment Centres and main responsibilities
Source: Employment Welfare Plus Center (2023[1]), Introduction of departments and staff, www.work.go.kr/seoul/ctrIntro/deptStaffInfo/deptStaffInfoList.do.
3.2.1. Most Employment Centres have been extended to become Employment Welfare Plus Centres, hosting staff from partner organisations
Since 2014, an increasing number of Employment Centres have been extended to Employment Welfare Plus Centres, i.e. in addition to typical Employment Centre staff they also host staff of other ALMP providers or social service providers, such as local governments or microfinance support agencies. Today, more than 100 of the 174 Employment Centres operate as Employment Welfare‑Plus Centres. The participating institutions in Employment Welfare Plus Centres carry out their respective tasks individually but aim to collaborate to solve the problems of individuals facing complex and intricate situations. For such cases, staff of different organisations build so-called case management consultive groups to discuss the support they deliver.
Employment Welfare Plus Centres are structured into employment services, welfare support services and micro finance support (Figure 3.1). Most employment services are provided by Employment Centre staff, who deliver customised employment support, e.g. job counselling and referring jobseekers to ALMPs. Employment Centre staff is available to support all jobseekers, irrespective of age and labour market barriers.
In addition, staff from other organisations, including NGOs, provide services and ALMPs to groups with labour market vulnerabilities. Within Employment Welfare Plus Centres, Centres for women with career breaks cater services specifically to women who have been out of employment for some time, in many cases mothers who interrupted their careers to take care of their children. Services encompass counselling, vocational training, direct job creation and job retention schemes, and can span the entire jobseeker pathway. For instance, some Centres for women with career breaks start with an in-depth consultation and career type diagnosis of jobseekers, then move on the specific support (e.g. personal action plan, intensive counselling, mock interviews etc), and finish by post-placement support (SAEIL, 2023[2]).
Centres for Middle‑Aged People provide support to jobseekers over 40, including retirees and (former) business owners. These Centres, in addition to providing a large set of services to enhance employability, put a strong focus on life‑long career opportunities, including competency analysis to facilitate professional mobility across sectors (MOEL, 2023[3]).
Figure 3.1. Structure of Employment Welfare Plus Centres
Employment Welfare Plus Centres extend Employment Centres by adding social service providers
Source: Workplus (2024[4]), What is the Employment Welfare + Center?, www.workplus.go.kr/intro/about.do.
Welfare support is typically provided by staff from local governments/municipalities. Services include welfare counselling, the possibility to submit applications for public welfare benefits, referral to private welfare services and case management. All types of public welfare benefits can be claimed in Employment Welfare Plus Centres, such as subsistence benefits, housing benefits, medical benefits or education benefits. Welfare support teams also provide vouchers granting access to social services, including activity support for people with disabilities and support for caregivers.
In addition, there is a specific welfare team for current and former soldiers, who transit from a career in the military to the open labour market. The support provided by the Veterans Support Centres includes both welfare support (e.g. application for relocation grants, psychological rehabilitation) and employment-related support (counselling, mock interviews, vocational training, start-up support etc.) (Veterans’ Support Centre, 2023[5]).
Finally, support with personal finances is provided by an Employment and Welfare Plus Centre’s “Financial Centre”, which typically consists of dispatched staff from non-classified public institutions and NGOs. The Centres provide assistance to people with financial difficulties and low credit ratings. Financial counselling is an important part of the work provided by the Financial Centres, but they also provide low-interest loans to alleviate immediate financial difficulties.
In practice, the alignment between the services provided by Employment Centres and partner organisations remains limited in many cases (Employment Policy Council, 2023[6]). While some staff from municipalities or NGOs are present in Employment Welfare Plus Centres in addition to Employment Centre staff, each institutions acts independently in terms of staff management, budgetary decisions and monitoring/evaluation, limiting the co‑ordination between the different stakeholders (Kil, 2017[7]). The co‑ordination of the services varies across local offices as it depends largely on the personal co‑operation between Employment Centre staff and the staff of other organisations. As a result, there can be gaps or duplicates in services, or different services may not fit well together.
Against this backdrop, more systematic and closer co‑operation practices within Employment Welfare Plus Centres would contribute to better service provision. Specific guidelines on co‑operation in Employment Welfare Plus Centres, which could e.g. be developed by MOEL after consultation with municipalities and partner organisations, could help set a framework for a clearer and more structured approach to co‑operation. Such guidelines could include a range of different measures to increase co‑operation, such as information and training sessions for Employment Welfare Plus Centre staff from different organisations on in-house co‑operation, clear guidelines on co‑operations or new co‑operative initiatives. Increasing the co‑operation between employment and social service providers is a priority in other countries too, and international experience can provide examples of measures that could be adapted to the Korean context to improve co‑operation. For example, France introduced a programme called “Accompagement Global” to ensure that employment and social services are fully aligned for jobseekers with multiple vulnerabilities, which could be implemented in the Korean context (Box 3.1). Furthermore, other countries have introduced one‑stop-shops with far-reaching co‑operation among service providers, where co‑operative practices go further than in Korea (see Chapter 4 for an example from Finland).
In addition to limited co‑operation practices within Employment Welfare Plus Centres, one difficulty relates to the fact there is limited staff from partner institutions, especially local governments and specialised institutions, putting a barrier to further co‑operation and limiting the ability of the Employment Welfare Plus Centre to deliver social and welfare services to all people who are in need of them. This lack of effective service provision of welfare services was especially apparent during the COVID‑19 pandemic, when staff from local governments taking care of welfare issues was strongly reduced (Employment Policy Council, 2023[8]). Going forward, Korean authorities should ensure that staff levels in Employment Welfare Plus Centres include a sufficiently large number of staff from local government and NGOs to enable adequate service provision, facilitate co‑operation with Employment Centre staff and prevent gaps, delays, or inadequacies in services.
Box 3.1. Interdisciplinary support teams in France (Accompagnement Global)
Accompagnement global is a comprehensive support programme in France aimed at jobseekers with employment-related and social barriers. Employment-related barriers are usually addressed by the PES (France Travail, formerly Pôle Emploi) while most social barriers fall into the responsibility of regional governments (départements). Historically, the co‑operation between the PES and local governments tended to be limited, reducing the scope for integrated support.
To address this issue, Accompagnement global was introduced to increase the degree of co‑operation between institutions. In this programme, both a PES counsellor and a dedicated social worker provide collaborative and co‑ordinated assistance aimed at effectively addressing a range of social and labour market challenges that may impede a person’s job search and overall well-being.
The implementation of this progamme dates back to 2014, when pilot programmes of the approach were started in several French regions, and has since then been rolled out in the whole country. Teams consisting of a social worker and an employment counsellor were created to provide co‑ordinated job-search and social support to social benefit recipients and jobseekers with complex social problems. In 2020, 90 000 jobseekers benefited from such integrated support. In addition, common databases were set up between the PES and social services to improve the information flow between organisations.
Accompagnement global targets jobseekers who face major employment-related and social barriers and have low chances of finding employment if their social challenges persist. In 2020, the most common social barriers were financial problems (75%), housing (52%), health (51%), transportation (49%) and childcare (35%).
Process
Jobseekers who need integrated support are identified either by social services, who are in charge of administering means-tested minimum income, or by France Travail. At the beginning of the programme, which is voluntary for participants, both social services as well as France Travail establish an in-depth diagnosis of the person’s employment and social barriers and share it with each other, before organising tripartite meetings together with the jobseeker. Such tripartite meetings are held throughout the programme to jointly discuss a person’s progress. The key idea behind accompagnement global is to create synergies between the work of social workers and PES counsellors to overcome complex barriers to employment. Considering the intensity of many participants’ barriers, the support is time and resource‑consuming, requiring a joint strategy between PES counsellors and social workers. To this end, meetings between the social services and PES staff are usually organised once a week to follow up on several jobseekers. While these efforts create costs, they increase the efficiency of service delivery and are considered to be cost-efficient.
Results
While accompagnement global should ideally lead to stable employment, there are also other possible positive outcomes, such as enrolment in education and training. As the scheme is voluntary, only few people refuse participation in measures or employment, unless they have valid reasons, such as a deterioration of their health status.
An evaluation of the scheme found that accompagnement global increases the share of jobseekers finding stable employment by 27%, compared to a control. The evaluation consisted of a quantitative impact evaluation using a counterfactual evaluation approach with propensity score matching as well as of a qualitative evaluation. In addition, monitoring data for 2020 show that 85% of participants are satisfied with the scheme.
Staffing and financing
In total, 1 000 counsellors are involved in the comprehensive follow-up, of whom 500 are PES counsellors and 500 counsellors from the social services. Fifty percent of the costs of accompagnement global are financed through the European Social Fund (ESF), which cover the expenses for social service counsellors. PES counsellors are required to have a permanent contract and must have acquired sufficient experience. At PES local offices, there is in general a dedicated counsellor for this scheme, while this may not be the case at the social services. It may be the case that an individual is followed up by several social service counsellors at the same time (depending on the type of services needed). The caseload is around 70 to 100 jobseekers per counsellor.
In order to get a deeper understanding of the social labour market barriers and the work capacity of the individual and labour market demand, and to better join and build up on different work cultures of the social worker and the PES workers, temporary staff exchanges have been implemented.
Source: Pôle Emploi (2023[9]), L’accompagnement global, https://www.francetravail.fr/region/centre-val-de-loire/candidat/conseils-a-lemploi/accompagnements---prestations/laccompagnement-global.html.
3.2.2. The number of Employment Centre staff has increased over time, in line with the demand for employment services, but resources of individual centres depend on performance
Over time, the number of Employment Centre staff (including Employment Centres operating as Employment Welfare Plus centres) has increased to meet the growing demand for employment services, and they offer their services in a growing number of Employment Centres (Figure 3.2). In 2023, more than 5 100 people worked in Employment centres, up from 3 800 in 2012. The number of Employment Centres increased too, especially between 2019 and 2020, with 70 new Employment Centres opening in 2020. In terms of size, there were on average 50 employees in each Employment Centre in 2023, and about one‑third of them were job counsellors.
Figure 3.2. The number of Employment Centres (including Employment Welfare Plus Centres) staff has increased in line with the growing demand for employment services
Number of staff working in Employment Centres and total number of Employment Centres
Note: Numbers include Employment Centres both that are and that are not operating as Employment Welfare Plus Centres.
Source: Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL).
In line with a growing number of Employment Centres, many of which are operating as Employment Welfare Plus Centres, and more Employment Centre staff, the public expenditure on public employment services has increased. While Korea spent only 0.01% of GDP on placement and related services in 2012, this number rose to 0.06% of GDP by 2021 (OECD, 2023[10]). Today, Korea’s spending on placement and related service, which can be seen as a rough indicator of PES staff levels and service intensity, aligns closely with the OECD average (0.06%), whereas it lagged far behind the cross-country average just a few years ago. Korea’s current level of spending on placement and related services appears to strike a balance, sufficiently high to enable adequate service provision, but still leaving leeway for future increases – if needed – in case of a deteriorating labour market. Nevertheless, the limited number of staff in Employment Welfare Plus Centres from partner organisations may be an obstacle to integrated services provision (see 3.2.1)
The allocation of financial resources for the operation of Employment Centres is decided by MOEL and depends on several factors. Firstly, the administrative needs of each centre are carefully assessed to ensure they have the necessary resources to fulfil their responsibilities effectively. Notably, this includes the headcount of the centre, including the number of staff members and their expertise, which is taken into account when allocating funds, as well as the budget execution status from the previous year, helping to gauge the centre’s ability to effectively utilise resources.
Furthermore, the performance evaluation of an Employment Centre plays an important role. In recognition of outstanding performance, for example, Employment Centres may receive additional funding. This serves as an incentive for centres to strive for excellence in their services and outcomes. Such a performance‑based budgeting approach not only motivates to meet and exceed targets, it also ensures that public funds are used to achieve the greatest impact. Nevertheless, the budgeting process must ensure that all Employment Centres have sufficient funding to operate efficiently, even without additional performance‑based add-ups.
During the budgeting process, each Employment Centre is given an opportunity to provide input by submitting details regarding any special needs they may have. This can include different aspects, such as remodelling, leasing, or relocation requirements. These specific needs are carefully reviewed and taken into account when formulating the budget for each year, ensuring that the centres have the necessary support to address local circumstances and operational requirements.
Employment Centre staff benefit from a variety of regular training. Each year, MOEL establishes a training plan detailing the training needs and opportunities for staff members, for both public officials and contractual staff. In 2023, each of the 5 174 staff members working in Employment Centres throughout the country participated, on average, in 2.2 training opportunities, up from 1.4 in 2021. The training must be in line with a staff member’s individual “professional development plan” and can include both online and in-person training. The training is takes account of different levels of job duties and is tailored to the job responsibilities and tasks of each staff member, helping them to keep up with rapidly changing employment and social service counselling needs and aiming to strengthen the competencies of the staff. To continuously improve the expertise of the staff, Employment Centres should ensure that advanced training courses, including training on customised counselling techniques, are available to their staff and encourage them to participate regularly in the training.
3.3. Working with jobseekers, people at risk of unemployment and employers
Jobseekers, people at risk of unemployment and employers can receive different types of support at Employment Centres and Employment Welfare Plus Centres. Pursuant to the Employment Insurance Act, Employment Centres are in charge of providing employment information relevant to the hiring process to both jobseekers and employers and assume responsibility for providing vocational guidance, including job and training advice, job placement assistance and fostering vocational skill development (Government of Korea, 2016[11]).
3.3.1. Employment Welfare Plus Centres target jobseekers and people in need of social services
In practice, the support of Employment Centres and Employment Welfare Plus Centres mostly focuses on jobseekers in need of employment services, people in need of social services and individuals needing a combination of both. Job counsellors carry out a number of tasks to support them in connecting with the labour market, including the following:
Job placement, career guidance and employment information provision;
Vocational skill development, such as consultation on skill development training and referral to skill development training institutions;
Support on programmes for promoting the livelihood security and employment of jobseekers and the insured of employment insurance;
Support on programmes necessary for facilitating recruitment by recruiters;
Other supportive tasks deemed urgently needed for the stability of the local labour market by the Head of Employment Security Office.
Jobseekers contacting Employment Centres and Employment Welfare Plus Centres follow a support path consisting of several steps (Figure 3.3). In an initial interview, Employment Welfare Plus Centre frontline staff determines whether the jobseeker is entitled to and in need of employment services and programmes. If this is not the case, and the person is solely looking for social services, local government staff takes care of the client and determines whether he/she is eligible for welfare benefits or social services provided by the local government.
Conversely, if the person needs employment services, Employment Welfare Plus Centre staff verifies as a next step whether the jobseeker meets the eligibility requirements for unemployment insurance. Those who are eligible have further meetings with Employment Centre counsellors, who determine and grant unemployment benefits before referring jobseekers to ALMPs as needed. Jobseekers who do not meet the eligibility requirements for unemployment benefits, too, can get further support from the Employment Centre or partner organisations, depending on their individual circumstances. In case the person is already in retirement age, is a woman with career breaks or a veteran, he/she will have several high-intensity meetings with specialised staff from other institutions, such as the Ministry of Gender Equality, and be referred to ALMPs by them. Conversely, if the jobseeker does not belong to any of those specific categories, he/she has meetings with standard Employment Centre staff and receives ALMPs as needed.
Since 2021, Employment Centres have used an AI tool, called JobCare, to improve the profiling of jobseekers and identify the best ALMPs and possible job opportunities for them (see Chapter 5). JobCare uses the information it retrieves from millions of job postings and CVs and identifies the skills individual jobseekers need to achieve their career goals (OECD, 2023[12]). The tool summarises the skills jobseekers lack for a specific role, and provides guidelines on how to fill the skill gaps, for example suggesting training. (KEIS, 2023[13]). In its recommendations, JobCare takes account of the realities of the labour market, suggesting e.g. training for in-demand qualifications and considering the local labour market context. It also informs them what working conditions they can expect, most notably in terms of wages. The AI tool, which was developed by KEIS, is now also open to jobseekers who want to use it independently, and can be accessed via Korea’s PES platform WorkNet.
The main ALMPs offered in Employment Centres and Employment Welfare Plus Centres encompass employment services such as counselling, referral to training programmes, direct job creation programmes, services for employers and the services and programmes linked to the National Employment Support Programme (see Chapter 4).
Figure 3.3. Standard jobseeker support process in Employment Welfare Plus Centres
Simplified jobseeker process
Source: Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL); Meacham (2019[14]), One‑stop Shop E‑government Solution for South-Korean Government Multi-ministry Virtual Employment-Welfare Plus Center System, www.iaria.org/conferences2019/filesICDS19/SofiaMeacham_ICDS2019_Presentation.pdf.
One major issue was that the staff of the Employment Welfare Plus Centres had to focus on non-face‑to-face services during the COVID‑19 pandemic, which resulted in constraints on employment service provision. In addition, the long-lasting restrictions brought about by the pandemic limited the face‑to-face counselling experience Employment Welfare Plus staff could develop during this period.
Focusing staff training specifically on counselling is worthwhile since the benefits of effective counselling can be extensive, including through a greater likelihood of successful career advancements. Effective counselling training programmes for counsellors should equip them with a wide set of counselling techniques, motivation strategies, ways of identifying people’s labour market barriers and the skills to handle challenging situations. Recognising the importance of counselling, other OECD countries have undertaken efforts to make their counselling services as effective as possible. Korea could build on the lessons learnt in other countries and incorporate aspects that have shown to work well elsewhere, such as regular counselling training for counsellors, regular meetings between jobseekers and counsellors, and a high degree of flexibility for counsellors to tailor their counselling services to individual situations (Box 3.2).
Box 3.2. Making full use of counselling services
Counselling services play a central role in the work of Public Employment Services, serving as an important conduit for linking jobseekers with suitable employment opportunities. There is a growing body of research highlighting the importance of the work of counsellors on the time it takes for jobseekers to find employment. For example, among Swiss jobseekers, the effect of missing one meeting with a caseworker is estimated to prolong the period in unemployment by 5% (Schiprowski, 2020[15]). In addition, evidence from Sweden suggests that there are sizable differences across caseworkers in the way they can support jobseekers, depending on their working strategies and, to a lesser extent, the fit between counsellors and jobseekers (Cederlöf, Söderström and Vikström, 2020[16]). In terms of working strategies, counsellors engaging in more regular meetings with their clients are found to achieve better results.
OECD countries have undertaken steps to make better use of counselling services. In this context, the COVID‑19 pandemic acted as an accelerator, pushing many countries to make changes to their counselling services swiftly. Estonia, for example, implemented blended counselling services aiming to combine the advantages of both face‑to-face and remote counselling (European Commission, 2021[17]). While remote counselling had been possible in Estonia since 2011, its use was limited due to an outdated technical system for e‑counselling as well as legal requirements restricting the use of remote counselling in many cases. To address this issue and use the opportunities of remote counselling optimally, the Estonian PES introduced major changes to the delivery of distant counselling services, which had been envisaged and were then implemented in March 2020, ahead of schedule, in response to the COVID‑19 pandemic. In order to increase the efficiency of counselling services, more flexibility was introduced in the law in Estonia, giving full discretion to the PES in deciding whether counselling services are delivered face‑to-face or remotely, without any restriction. In practices, counsellors can now decide on a case‑by-case basis how often specific jobseekers receive counselling, and whether it is delivered in person or via e‑counselling. In order to use this flexibility to the best extent possible, counsellors have access to guidelines and online workshops, and receive training on distance counselling. In addition, a new interactive electronic channel was set up, allowing two‑way interactions between jobseekers and counsellors, as well as independent job search activities by jobseekers.
3.3.2. Employment Centres interact with employers, but could go further in their support to them
In addition to working with jobseekers and employed people at risk of unemployment, Employment Centres and Employment Centre Plus Centres also co‑operate with employers. For employers, the Employment Centres have a corporate support team and dedicated counsellors for the newly introduced Corporate Leap Guarantee Package, which are a result of active efforts to go beyond the simple payment of employment subsidies to offer comprehensive HR services needed by companies.
However, up until recently, the work with employers has mainly been limited to referring jobseekers to direct job creation programmes and paying out employment subsidies. Against this backdrop, efforts should continue to work actively with employers and provide them with adequate services, considering that successful job search hinges on the availability of adequate job offers.
Korea could follow the example of other OECD countries that go one step further and offer more comprehensive services to employers. For example, Slovenia is among the countries offering far-reaching services for employers, which have proven successful (Box 3.3).
In Korea, too, a stronger focus on employer services could be possible. Following an in-depth assessment on the needs of employers, in close co‑operation with employers facing labour shortages and employer organisations, MOEL could set up a plan to extend the support of Employment Centres targeted to employers. The experience of Slovenia could provide helpful insights and guidance in this process. For instance, Employment Welfare Plus Centres could start providing assistance with vacancy descriptions to increase the number of jobseekers that are reached, provide help pre‑selecting possible candidates and offer post-placement support to maximise the changes that former jobseekers integrate sustainably in their new role. To this end, a sufficient number of staff and financial resources have to be dedicated to services for employers.
Box 3.3. Services for employers in Slovenia
The Slovenian Public Employment Service, Employment Service Slovenia (ESS), provides Human Resource services to employers that are very far-reaching compared to PES in other countries. Human Resource services provided to companies in Slovenia encompass a comprehensive range of support designed to streamline their recruitment and talent management processes (European Commission, 2023[18]). These services entail expert guidance in various aspects, such as formulating job vacancy descriptions, effectively promoting vacancies through advertising, supporting candidate selection for interviews, facilitating understanding of complicated employment regulations, and providing continuous support in the training and development of the hired workforce. About 20% of counsellors at ESS specialise in working with employers, and labour office offer one‑stop-shops for employers (OECD, 2021[19]).
Employers who post a vacancy with ESS can specify whether they need additional support from ESS. In 2021, this was the case for about two‑thirds of employers who posted a vacancy (OECD, 2021[19]). In this case, an ESS employer counsellor reaches out to the company to develop a tailored support strategy in line with the firm’s needs. The support can include a range of services designed to help the company find the most suitable candidates efficiently, such as ensuring high-quality vacancy descriptions attracting the candidates, leveraging various recruitment channels to reach a wider audience, providing pre‑screening services to identify fitting profiles or offering post-placement support once a candidate is hired.
Employer counsellors are the key element ensuring that ESS services to employers are successful. They are specifically trained to work with employers, which includes training on building relationships with external stakeholders and negotiation techniques. Aiming to create long-standing relationships based on trust, the employer counsellor attributed to a specific employer does not change (to the extent possible) and employer counsellors have access to a costume relation management (CRM) tool including important information on employers stemming from ESS registers as well as external sources. The CRM tool also help employer counsellor reach out to new employers who might be interested in collaborating with ESS.
3.4. Conclusion
An increasing number of Employment Centres are organised as one‑stop-shops, so-called Employment Welfare Plus Centres, hosting also staff from partner organisations providing ALMPs and social services, such as local governments and NGOs. However, despite the presence of staff members from different organisations, the linkage between employment and social services could further be expanded. Employment Welfare Plus Centres do not deliver social and welfare services to all people who are in need of them as staff levels from local governments and specialised institutions are sometimes low. This lack of effective service provision of welfare services was a particular issue during the COVID‑19 pandemic, when staff from local governments taking care of welfare issues was strongly reduced.
Reinforced co‑operation within Employment Welfare Plus Centres, e.g. through more staff from partner organisations, targeted efforts to co‑ordinate the services of different institutions and staff training on integrated service provision could help improve the efficiency of these centres. Furthermore, tailored initiatives involving Employment Centre staff and staff providing social services would contribute to ensuring that the needs of people with multiple barriers, including labour market barriers and social barriers, are met.
Employment Welfare Plus Centres focused on non-face‑to-face services during the COVID‑19 pandemic, which resulted in limited employment service provision. Systematic staff training on counselling should be continued and a flexible approach to counselling, possibly inspired by other OECD countries, would be instrumental to overcoming this challenge.
The services Employment Centres cater to employers are limited. In practice, Employment Centres mostly work with employers on financial grounds (e.g. providing employment incentives) and provide some recruitment support, but lack systematic working procedures targeted towards employers. The experience of other countries could inspire Korea to extend this area of work.
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