Adjustment Advisory Program

Ontario workplaces are experiencing economic and structural changes. Employers, employees organizations, communities and whole industrial sectors are being forced to look at new ways of dealing with these changes. The Adjustment Advisory Program (AAP) of the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities helps those groups affected most often to better understand and manage these changes. AAP helps groups deal with the immediate effects of plant closures and downsizings. It also helps groups to anticipate future changes in the labour market.

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How Does AAP Work?

AAP supplies advisory and financial assistance to help clients adjust to the impacts of job loss, or threatened job loss, in the workplace. The services are aimed at helping displaced employees secure and maintain employment. Client include: individual firms, employees, communities and sectors. AAP advisors help clients identify their needs and secure appropriate support, career counselling, training, referral and job search skills. Adjustment committees are established to ensure full employer and employee participation in the process.

The committees may take on a wide variety of labour adjustment issues and tasks to help the affected groups. For example, AAP committees can:

• help employees being laid-off deal with the effects of losing their jobs, and help them review their options and plan their next steps. Committees include representatives from all the affected employee groups, as well as management and the union of the company. The committees plan and implement any programs and services the staff need, including: job-search assistance, vocational and educational counselling, information on training, personal support in dealing with the stress of job loss, financial counselling, and information on starting a small business.

• help communities to anticipate and manage the labour market changes affecting them. Community adjustment committees are made up of the various affected community groups. They may bring together services for laid-off workers (especially where many companies have been downsizing), or they could engage in community-wide strategic planning, or start specific labour adjustment projects with other local groups.

• help organizations facing the threat of downsizing respond to economic and technological changes, in order to strengthen the organization and protect jobs. Examples of labour-management committee activities include: organizational reviews, strategic planning, human resource planning and productivity, and quality-improvement initiatives.

• help industrial sectors to stay competitive. Through partnerships of industry associations, employee associations, employers, and unions, these sectoral committees identify common industry needs and goals. The needed changes are implemented by co-ordinating resources and by looking at sector-wide strategic and human resource planning.

Whether AAP is used to help laid-off workers or to bring together a community to deal with changes in the local labour market, the key elements of the program — collaboration among all affected groups to identify their needs and together create solutions — remain the same.

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The Details

The cost of operating a committee is usually shared by AAP and the groups involved. Allowable expenses include honoraria for committee members and an independent chairperson, the cost of outside consultants, and other costs agreed to by the committee.

AAP has advisors across the province. Advisors may help develop potential labour adjustment projects. When a committee is established, the AAP advisor acts as a resource, providing both technical support and guidance to the process, and as a broker of other government programs and services.

For more information on the Adjustment Advisory Program and the location of the field advisor nearest you, call (416) 212-0502. Or call the toll-free Employment Ontario Hotline at (416) 326-5656, or 1-800-387-5656.

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Adjustment Advisory Program

Adjustment Focus	Adjustment Objective	Potential Partners	Possible Activities
Displaced Worker Adjustment	To help individuals deal with their job loss and plan for their future as quickly and effectively as possible	companies that are laying off  unions  various groups of affected employees in the workplace  employees affected by receiverships or bankruptcies	The provision of:  individual needs assessment and the development of action plans  job-search assistance vocational and educational counselling information on training personal support to deal with the stress of job loss  financial and credit counselling information on starting a small business access services for special-needs groups
Community Adjustment	To help communities anticipate, respond to, and manage changes in the local labour market	local business and labour  affected employees  local business and labour  other community groups and government agencies  service providers	integrated and co-ordinated services for people who have been laid-off  community-wide strategic and human resource planning  special community-wide initiatives that promote labour adjustment
Organization Adjustment	To strengthen organizations with job-threatened workforces, and protect jobs	the management within organizations  relevant employee groups  unions	guidance to identify and implement organizational development initiatives, including:  organizational reviews strategic planning  human resources planning and the co-ordination of training  productivity and quality improvement
Sectoral Adjustment	To help industrial sectors stay competitive	any partnership of industry associations, employers, and unions	help to identify common needs and goals  sector-wide human resource planning  help to plan, co-ordinate, and monitor training within sectors