Various services

Tender description

Eurofound will investigate the level linkages between the European social dialogue and the national levels at cross-sector and sectoral level. The relationship between the national affiliates of European trade unions and employer organisations and developments at EU level will be examined from a ‘bottom-up’ perspective: to which extent are national players aware of the European social dialogue, and what is their degree of interest in and influence on European affairs? A ‘top-down’ perspective and the question how information filters down from the European to the national level will also be chosen to provide a complete picture of how coordination between the EU and the national level works. The evidence provided can point social dialogue actors to areas where a better articulation between different levels could render social dialogue more efficient. The project will cover all 5 classic IR clusters (organised corporatism, social partnership, polarised state centred, liberal pluralism, fragmented/state centred), yet a particular focus shall be on the Member States most affected by the economic crisis. 1. Literature review of academic articles and policy documents of EU institutions and social partners. 2. 10 country studies covering the main 5 IR clusters, yet with a focus on the Member States which joined in 2004/2007/2013 and those most affected by the economic crisis. 3. Interviews (semi-structured) with actors at EU and national level. 4. An expert workshop to discuss the draft report. The successful tenderer is expected to use its knowledge of the insurance market and its professional experience to deliver best value for money with regard to insurance coverage for Eurofound. The service contracted contains the following tasks: 1. independent professional insurance advice on e.g.: — insurance coverage applicable and suitable to meet the needs of Eurofound, — current status of the insurance market and how Eurofound's needs can be best presented to insurers, — suitability and status of all proposed insurance providers; 2. marketing of Eurofound's insurance coverage requirements in line with agreed strategies prior to each renewal; 3. placement of Eurofound's insurance coverage requirements with suitable insurance providers; 4. ongoing management and administration of Eurofound's insurance coverage; 5. claims handling and management services. Provide evidence on ‘casual work’: • its regulation in the Member States, • the extent to which it is used and the characteristics of people involved in it (for Member States where reliable data sources exist), • the implications for working conditions and social protection, with a focus on zero-hours and very short-hours contracts. Qualitative analysis of the types of casual work prevalent in selected Member States of the European Union and their regulatory frameworks (labour law or collective agreements), including investigations whether casual work is applied in a fraudulent way: • quantitative analysis of casual work at national level: the contractor will also be requested to collect, compile and analyse the data available on casual work at national level (including specifying the ‘definition’ of casual work and the methodology of collecting the data), • case studies on casual work: as a third task, the contractor will conduct qualitative interviews with workers and employers engaged in casual work to explore and illustrate their motivations for opting for this employment form and its implications on the working conditions, social protection and employment rights (including representation) of the affected employees. The overall objective of this call for tenders is the provision of customer feedback services (lot 1) and evaluation services (lot 2) to Eurofound in relation to its work programmes and activities including provision of expertise and consultancy to strengthen Eurofound's internal project, programme and policy. The contractors covering both lots are expected to provide for timely and high-quality services delivered through qualified experts. This task concerns provision of assistance by the contractor to Eurofound in the implementation of evaluation activities. These assignments typically involve the provision of external expert input to Eurofound's internal evaluation function in the implementation of evaluation tasks, and enhancing evaluation capacity building at Eurofound, in relation to Eurofound's programmes, projects, and — as a new dimension — also in relation to Eurofound's capacity to perform policy evaluation activities, including regular, comprehensive policy reviews and where possible assessment. Tasks are typically carried out through a combination of internal and external resources. Contractors will be expected to be working in joint project teams together with Eurofound's internal evaluation and other staff as required. Customer feedback services: — customer feedback survey, — customer panels and other methods of obtaining customer feedback, — customer/user focus groups, — annual customer satisfaction index, — reporting of results is required for all requested services, — ad hoc services. To provide an assessment of the job creation effects of public innovation-support measures. The contractor will summarise the main findings of each evaluation/assessment and relate the employment effects to the characteristics of the support instruments. Through comparative analysis the contractor will derive lessons learned about the effectiveness and efficiency of specific (types of) innovation support for employment, that is discussing what works and what does not, taking into account the specific frameworks. — This exercise aims to explore the effectiveness and efficiency of these public or social partner-based innovation support instruments as regards their target employment effects. — Some effort must also be devoted to the link between the observed employment and to assess the quality of the evaluations/assessments. The draft results will be presented and discussed in an expert/stakeholder workshop in 2018. To analyse ‘crowd employment’, its regulation in the Member States and the implications for working conditions and social protection. Desk research: review of academic articles, research studies and policy documents: • expert interviews: half-standardised qualitative interviews with experts (e.g. labour law, social insurance, trade unions, business organisations) of about 5 EU Member States to explore the framework conditions of crowd employment, • case studies: crowd workers will be interviewed, following a half-standardised interview guideline, to explore their working conditions, • analytical compilation: the information gathered through desk research, expert interviews and case studies will be compiled and analysed, • expert/stakeholder workshop: about 10–15 experts (for example, labour market experts, trade unions, business organisations) will be invited. — Development of a strategic ICT plan to align with Eurofound's work programmes. — Annual updates to this plan. The major features of the strategic ICT plan are that it will: — develop a strategy and approach to align ICT with Eurofound's work programmes, — analyse Eurofound's ICT status and recommend improvements, — identify trends and new technologies for ICT development, — aid in software selection and hardware to meet Eurofound's needs. To initialise research on the concept of labour market segmentation, indicators of labour market segmentation and policies to combat it being implemented in Europe. Which aspects of segmentation are the most acute and of most relevance for creating policy relevant indicators of segmentation and which are available in existing statistical sources? How can these indicators be best combined to provide some overall measures of segmentation? Mapping of policies that have recently been developed to combat labour market segmentation. To identify game-changing technologies in services through case study research. To assess the employment implications of automation in services. The main body of work will consist in the compiling, generating and analysing of information on each of the selected technologies. Some of the methods to be used are: • desk research: compilation and analysis of published data, reports, specialised literature, etc., • interviews with practitioners: mostly innovators themselves (scientists, technicians and entrepreneurs); but also social partners and government representatives, • identification and detailed analysis of specific cases of companies, local innovation systems or individual innovators, to be used as examples in each of the specific technology studies. To provide in-depth analysis of developments of European societies in terms of trust in institutions. Eurofound wishes to conclude a contract that will result in a report that will include a review of research literature with regard to trends in institutional trust in Europe. Both EQLS and other social survey data shall be used to depict and analyse the trends over time, and a review of trends in Europe since the year 2000 will be produced. Research findings regarding other countries or regions will be considered for comparison, depending on the availability and comparability of the data. — To provide in-depth analysis of European societies in terms of social cohesion and social tensions, and in terms of perceived social exclusion and community engagement. — To analyse the links between societal characteristics (quality of society) and well-being of different social groups. The contractor will write a report that shall briefly overview recent approaches to measuring social cohesion in Europe. In terms of empirical analysis, it will report on the EU 28 countries and will cover 2 aspects: — individual perspective — including items of perceived social exclusion, mental well-being, sense of insecurity and sense of belonging, — societal characteristics — including trust in people and tensions in society. The report will cover changes over time with regard to perceived tensions on which trend data are available in the EQLS (perceived tensions between poor and rich, management and workers, men and women, old and young people and different racial/ethnic groups have been measured in each of the 4 EQLS waves; items added later cover different religious groups and people with different sexual orientations). To finalise survey design and draft tender specifications. Under the assumption that fieldwork will start in the second half of 2018, in 2017 the main steps for the development of the questionnaire as well as the specifications of tender have to be taken and a decision on survey design has to be made. This includes a thorough review of recent literature on the main topics that shall be covered by the ECS. Background papers reviewing literature and policy agendas should be prepared by contractors. Provide evidence on the links between employment status (including contract) and working conditions (based on EWCS data) relevant to ensure sustainability of work over the life course. Literature review, statistical analysis of EWCS and LFS, tripartite inputs on the elaboration of scenarios and review of framework. The tenderer is expected to deliver language training services for all Eurofound's staff, via classroom training, individual training and/or via e-learning, at the appropriate level of the learner by using the most suitable pedagogical method(s). Certified tests for B2 level (CEFR) should be available for at least French, Italian and German. In principle, language training may be required in all official EU languages, in particular in the context of the ‘third language requirement before promotion’. If needed, the tenderer should be able to produce language tests and provide specific scientific report writing courses and coaching for Eurofound's non-native English speaking research staff. The tenderer is expected to report monthly on the progress and attendance of each individual learner. The tenderer will organise the training sessions within Eurofound's premises by liaising between the language trainers and the learners and will inform Eurofound's HR unit on the agreed dates of all training. The tenderer is expected to deliver language training services for all Eurofound's staff, via classroom training, individual training and/or via e-learning, at the appropriate level of the learner by using the most suitable pedagogical method(s). Certified tests for B2 level (CEFR) should be available for at least French, Italian and German. In principle, language training may be required in all official EU languages, in particular in the context of the ‘third language requirement before promotion’. If needed, the tenderer should be able to produce language tests and provide specific scientific report writing courses and coaching for Eurofound's non-native English speaking research staff. To provide an assessment of the job creation effects of public innovation-support measures. Evaluations/assessments of the identified innovation support instruments (or, depending on the number of identified instruments, a selection thereof) and to conduct a systematic review of the available evaluations/assessments. The main intention of this exercise is to explore the effectiveness and efficiency of these public or social partner-based innovation support instruments as regards their target employment effects (ideally — if such information is available — differentiating between short-term and long-term effects, that is their sustainability). However, some effort must also be devoted to the link between the observed employment effects and the effectiveness of the instruments in terms of the measures actually improving innovation. The contractor will summarise the main findings of each evaluation/assessment and relate the employment effects to the characteristics of the support instruments. The research will focus on measures taken to assist employees dismissed to find a new job. A specific focus will be on collective redundancies, measures geared towards older workers and the uptake of these support measures by the target group. The final output will be a report on support measures in the case of redundancies with a focus on older workers (2018). The contractor will be asked to develop a typology on measures explicitly aimed at assisting older workers affected by dismissal and to provide short descriptions of examples of measures for each of the category. Illustrative examples (e.g. the most interesting, innovative and effective ones) will be selected for further analysis on ‘what works’, i.e. the characteristics and framework conditions of the measures. This analysis could include a combination of quantitative (available data) and qualitative (expert interviews) approaches. A comparative analysis of the illustrative examples should result in policy pointers as regards the most meaningful measures to support older dismissed workers. To start monitoring convergence in the dimensions employment and the socio-economic environment and provide analysis of developments for selected indicators. Through desk research and statistical analysis, an investigation over socio-economic convergence of European Union Member States will be performed. Then, through descriptive statistics the heterogeneity and convergent trends of Member States performance in employment will be mapped. The set of indicators considered will include objective and subjective measures over labour market participation in European Union Member States such as employment and unemployment rates, worked hours, wages, mobility of workers. Finally, policy implications from our analysis will be drawn and options for reducing unemployment and labour market disparities in the European Union and to restore an upward convergent trend will be explored. To establish the feasibility of creating an industrial action monitor. An external provider will be asked to conduct the feasibility study, and to review options for both concept and methodology, including resource requirements. Software tools, databases and newswires will be identified and tested in-house to assess their relevance for capturing key information on industrial action as well as to determine their geographic coverage. Particular attention will be given to assessing data comparability across the EU 28 Member States. The exploration of the wider implications, costs/benefits and overall viability of establishing an industrial action monitor will be part of a feasibility study to be procured. The results from the feasibility study will be presented and discussed at a Eurofound internal seminar. In-depth case studies to document patterns of access and use of information and support services among young people and to identify inequalities in access for young people to information and support services. Eurofound would like to conclude a contract in order to obtain a concept paper that would explore social problems facing the current generation of young people: apart from the standard age groups of 18–34 or 18–29 it will also focus on those aged 12–18. It will include a detailed overview of different segments of youth in terms of their socio-economic characteristics, their needs in the area of information and support services and the way in which young people access information. To develop a concept and research approach for investigating the impact of digitalisation on social services. Research will focus on digitalisation and service users. More specifically, it will look at a) how social services can be made more accessible through digitalisation; b) how digitalisation can be made more inclusive; c) and how digitalisation can be used to gather feedback from service users and involve them in service design and delivery. This work paper will be contracted and will include exploratory case studies. Particular attention will be paid to countries with a strong focus on ICT in health and social services. In the framework of the implementation of its work programme, Eurofound requires qualified and experienced editorial resources to contribute to the development of Eurofound's Web publishing activities and ensure the delivery of high-quality print and online publications. The contractor will carry out editorial tasks as requested by the in-house editorial team. This involves the editing and proofreading of reports destined for publication either in print or online (PDF format), as well as editing other products for publication on the Eurofound website. The products are based on the programme of work and delivery is in line with the publications schedule which is developed by the publications team in coordination with the research teams. The deliverables included are: 1. provision of standard editing services; 2. provision of complex editing services; 3. provision of proofreading services. The above information is given as a guideline only and is in no way binding on Eurofound as regards the volume of the contract. The actual allocation may be lower depending on the needs that arise. Subscription to blog platform advertisement and dissemination. Subscription to blog platform advertisement and dissemination.