The Centre for Applied Labour Market Research and Innovation is one of the instruments Hanze University Groningen employs to invest in knowledge circulation and applied research in order to boost the labour market in the north of the Netherlands. The Centre for Applied Labour Market Research and Innovation consists of four professorships.

The Flexicurity professorship aims at improving the rules of the game surrounding labour in general, as well as the balance between flexibility and job security in particular. A case in point are the agreements involving more flexible working hours,  free worker movement in the EU, and formal and informal rules involving absenteeism and staff training. The mission is ‘achieving greater flexibility and greater job security through better rules’.

The Labour Participation Professorship focuses on raising labour participation in the north of the Netherlands. The mission is ‘back to work again.’ An example of this is the approach of employers towards job seekers. The professorship is co-funded by the municipal social services departments of Groningen, Assen, Emmen and Leeuwarden. The professor is Louis Polstra, who also works for the social services department (SoZaWe) of the Municipality of Groningen.

Mission
The mission of the Sustainable HRM Professorship is ‘more people at work’ and it  focuses on labour participation specific to the life stages of employees. In January 2009 Ben Emans who also works at the University of Groningen, became Professor of Sustainable HRM Policy.
The mission of the Work Organisation and Productivity Professorship is ‘Working smarter’: improving the labour productivity while stabilising or improving the labour conditions of employees. The professorship was also launched in January 2009. Its Professor is Jac Christis who also works at the Radboud University Nijmegen. One of the partnerships of the professorship will be with the Nederlands Centrum voor Sociale Innovatie (Netherlands Centre for Social Innovation).

We look forward to talking with you about your needs in terms of applied research and labour market knowledge circulation.

Harm van Lieshout
Harm van Lieshout studied Sociology at Utrecht University. His internship/final research project for the Scientific Council for Government Policy led to a PhD project at the research school Arbeid, Welzijn en Sociaal-economisch Bestuur (Labour, Welfare and Social-Economic Governance) of Utrecht University. He made a study of the organisation of vocational education in Germany, the United States and the Netherlands, and its responsiveness to the labour market. His career took a new turn when he became senior researcher at the Hugo Sinzheimer Institute (HIS) of the University of Amsterdam where he acquired and carried out various projects. Since 2003 Van Lieshout has been a professor of Hanze University Groningen. Up to the summer of 2007 he was Professor of Labour Relations, since September 2007 he has been Professor of Flexicurity and Co-ordinating Professor of the Labour Market Centre of Applied Research and Innovation.