Please summarise the information collected in the three interviews conducted with each enterprise below.
Please provide your summaries in English language
You can provide information in bullet points or as narrative text.
Please ensure that you complete all sections and sub-sections. Where no information is available, please indicate accordingly.
We encourage you to highlight where views between different interviewees diverged and set out these differences clearly below.
Please ensure filling in the accompanying Excel-template on firmographics.
In brackets, we have indicated which question or questions from the topic guides should enable you to complete each bullet point.
Training in Enterprises
New Evidence from 100 Case Studies
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Getting Skills Right
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Annex D. Data recording template
Interviewer instructions
About the interviewees
Management
Describe the interviewee’s career background (Q1_M, Q2_M, Q3_M, Q5_M).
Describe the interviewee’s attitudes to learning over the life‑course. Please provide your own judgement of this, not only based on the interviewee’s self-reported attitudes, but also their answer to other interview questions (mainly Q4_M, but drawing on other answers too).
HR
Describe the interviewee’s career background (mainly Q1_HR, Q2_HR, Q3_HR, Q5_HR).
Describe the interviewee’s attitudes to learning over the life‑course. Please provide your own judgement of this, not only based on the interviewee’s self-reported attitudes, but also their answer to other interview questions (mainly Q4_HR, but drawing on other answers too).
Employee representative
Describe the interviewee’s career background (Q1_ER).
Describe in what role the interviewee represents employees (Q2_ER).
Describe the interviewee’s background as an employee representative (Q1_ER).
Describe the interviewee’s attitudes to learning over the life‑course. Please provide your own judgement of this, not only based on the interviewee’s self-reported attitudes, but also their answer to other interview questions (mainly Q3_ER, but drawing on other answers too).
About the enterprise
Composition of the workforce
Describe the composition of the workforce (Q12_M)
Age profile
Gender breakdown
Educational background
Fixed vs. permanent contracts
Organisational structure
Describe the organisational structure of the enterprise (Q13_M)
E.g. functional structure, divisional structure, market-based structure, matrix structure, project‑based structure
Levels of hierarchy
Strategic orientations
Describe the enterprise’s strategy to stay competitive (Q16_M)
Describe investment priorities in the past 3 years and reasons behind these investments (Q17_M)
Financial situation
Describe the financial situation of the enterprise pre COVID‑19 crisis (Q11_M, Q18_M)
COVID‑19 Crisis impacts
Describe the impact of COVID‑19 crisis on the enterprise (Q11_M, Q18_M, Q19_M)
Impact on profitability
Impact on orders
Impact on employee numbers
Application of short-time work
Other
High-performance work practices
Performance management system
Describe the performance management system of the enterprise (Q24_HR, Q15_ER)
Describe the links between performance assessment and pay, promotion prospects, training opportunities (Q24_HR, Q15_ER)
Please give your view on how formal the performance management system is, or if it mainly relies on informal rules (Q24_HR, Q15_ER)
Autonomy, flexibility and dealing with mistakes
Describe the degree of autonomy and flexibility of employees to plan their work (Q22_HR, Q13_ER)
Share of employees deciding how and when best to fulfil tasks
Share of employees working in autonomous teams
Describe the attitude of the enterprise towards making mistakes (Q23_HR, Q14_ER)
E.g. avoiding mistakes at all costs, seeing mistakes as an opportunity for learning
Social dialogue and employee voice
Describe how dialogue between employees and management is organised (Q4_ER)
Existence of works council and/or trade union
Form of interaction between management and employees
Opportunities for direct interaction between individual employees and management
Describe what role the issue of training plays in negotiations between management and employee representatives (Q6_ER)
Offering training
Extent of the training offer
Describe to what extent the enterprise provides training opportunities to its employees (Q20_M, Q6_HR, Q5_ER)
Share of employees taking part in training in given year
Typical number of days of training per employee
Describe if and which groups in the enterprise train more than others (Q20_M, Q6_HR)
People in specific jobs
People with specific individual characteristics (age, time in enterprise, education level)
Describe if the enterprise offers specific training for employees in disadvantaged position on the labour market (Q20_M, Q6_HR)
People at risk of automation
People with low skill levels
Reasons for and benefits of providing training
Describe the reasons of the enterprise for providing training (Q22_M, Q14_HR, Q10_ER, Q11_ER)
E.g. productivity gains, staying competitive, adapting to change, employee satisfaction and retention, lack of skilled personnel, skills shortages, regulation or legal requirements, common practice, government incentives
Please give your view on which of these reasons is most important for the enterprise (Q22_M, Q14_HR)
Obstacles to providing training
Describe obstacles to providing more training (Q23_M, Q15_HR, Q12_ER)
E.g. Limited time for certain staff to participate in training, difficult to assess skill needs of different employees, difficult to find time to organise training internally, training is too expensive, difficult to find suitable courses offered by external providers
Alternatives to offering training
Describe other ways the company ensures that it has the skills required to perform its activities (Q25_M)
E.g. hiring, outsourcing, technological solutions, automation, informal learning
COVID‑19 Crisis impacts
Describe to what extent the COVID‑19 crisis has affected the decision to provide training (Q21_M, Q10_HR)
Describe if these COVID‑19 is expected to have a lasting impact on the extent to which training is provided (Q21_M, Q10_HR)
Describe to what extent the COVID‑19 crisis has affected the reasons for providing training (Q24_M, Q16_HR)
Describe if these COVID‑19 has permanently changed the reasons for providing training in this enterprise (Q24_M, Q16_HR)
Planning training
Workforce strategy
Describe the workforce strategy, where it exists (Q7_HR, Q8_ER)
Time horizon
Methods for assessing skill levels of employees
Methods for assessing current and future skill needs of enterprise
Stakeholders involved in developing the strategy
In particular:
Level and type of involvement of employee representatives in the development of the strategy (advisory vs. decision-making)
Direct involvement of employees in the development of the strategy
Describe alternative approaches of workforce planning in the absence of a strategy (Q8_HR)
Decision-makers
Describe who plans training in the enterprise (Q14_M, Q7_HR, Q8_ER)
Existence of HR department
Existence of person with specific training responsibilities
Describe how decisions around training are co‑ordinated between HR and other departments (Q15_M, Q7_HR, Q8_HR, Q8_ER)
Describe the role of employee representatives in making training decisions (Q14_M, Q9_ER)
Describe the role of individual employees in making training decisions (Q14_M, Q7_HR, Q8_HR, Q8_ER)
Describe how employees access training in the enterprise (Q9_HR, Q7_ER)
Assessment of skills and training needs
Information about training offer
Decision-making about what training is offered
Voluntary or obligatory training participation
Assessing if expected benefits materialise
Describe to what extent the enterprise assess if benefits of training materialise (Q17_HR)
E.g. existence of certification of skills or knowledge, assessment of skills use at work and/ or employee behaviour or performance, assessment of departmental or enterprise performance, assessment of employee satisfaction, assessment of individual wage or career progression
External support
Describe to what extent the enterprise is getting external support, e.g. from government bodies, employer associations or sectoral bodies in the planning or provision of training (Q13_HR)
Use of external information, resources and/or financial incentives
Set out if the use of external support has changed in the context of the COVID‑19 crisis (Q13_HR)
Developing and delivering training
Decision-makers
Describe who develops training programmes in the enterprise (Q11_HR, Q12_HR)
Role of individual employees and employee representatives
Role of external training providers
Providers
Describe how training is being delivered (Q11_HR, Q12_HR)
Through in-house staff or by external providers
Describe what drives these choices (Q11_HR, Q12_HR)
If relevant, describe how external providers are being selected (Q11_HR)
Types of training
Please give your view on the distribution or balance of different training offers in the enterprise (Q21_HR)
Formal, non-formal and informal learning opportunities
Class-room vs. on-the job training vs. online
Internal vs. externally delivered training
Name the three most frequently taken up trainings in the enterprise (Q18_HR)
Describe two of these trainings in further detail (Q19_HR, Q20_HR)
Reasons for offering this training
Expected learning outcomes
Target group
Duration, mode of delivery
Degree of formalisation (qualification, certification)
Benefits from training
Fostering a learning environment
Describe to what extent and in what ways employees have opportunities to learn in their day-to-day work (Q25_HR, Q16_ER, Q17_ER)
Frequent assignment of new tasks or formal job-rotation
Exposure to unfamiliar problems
Pairing with more experienced employees
Opportunities for learning by observing colleagues
Opportunities for information sharing amongst colleagues
Please give your view to what extent these opportunities are formalised – in the sense that they are encouraged and/or organised by the enterprise on a large scale (Q25_HR, Q16_ER)
Describe to what extent and in what ways employees are encouraged to keep up to date with new products and services, processes or other recent developments in the industry (Q26_HR, Q18_ER)