Innovation und lokale Gestaltungsspielräume in der Arbeitsvermittlung : Begleitforschung zum Modellprojekt "Mach es einfach"

"This study presents insights from an evaluation of a pilot project carried out by the German Federal Employment Agency in 2015 and 2016. It was the aim of the project that three local employment agencies should initiate a bottom-up innovation process and develop local solutions for daily tasks in service delivery. The employment agencies involved were asked to critically examine existing administrative rules and regulations in the areas of counselling and job placement, to identify unnecessary bureaucratic routines and to re-direct resources into processes which would improve their performance. A qualitative study focusing on different levels of the organisational hierarchy examined the various experiences made with the processes of employee participation and innovation generation. Quantitative analysis investigated effects of agencies' participation in the pilot project on performance indicators that are part of the German Federal Employment Agency's performance measurement system. The empirical results show that local employment agencies involved in the study generally approved the main idea of the pilot project, namely developing new solutions at local level through a participatory innovation process. Many employees were motivated to take part in creating ideas and developing concepts. At the same time, both caseworkers and managers faced new demands and requirements. New local solutions developed in the area of job placement can be described as an investment in a more individualised service provision. With reference to the project's intention to reduce complexity in order to save resources, the experiences of the participating agencies were ambivalent. Quantitative data analysis showed little effects of participation in the pilot project on single performance indicators. Nonetheless some common trends could be identified that hold for all participating agencies. The results of the study suggest that projects which put an emphasis on employee participation and local innovation may contribute to develop innovative approaches in the Federal Employment Agency. Similar projects should clearly define the framework, the objectives and the expectations (including aspects of performance measurement) beforehand and respect some conditions of employee participation and innovation processes which were identified as crucial by the present study." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))