Field study 05/Tests Thesis 007
Moving people, not skills
A training budget was rising every year while output per trained worker fell. Was the skill the problem, or where it was being used?
Narrowed- Organization
- Manufacturing · 9,000 people · 6 plants
- Duration
- 3 quarters · 2026
- Sponsor
- Chief people officer
- Institute
- Erin Eatough, Claire Fontaine
Thesis 007 · The Workforce Transition Has No Owner
The workforce transition has no owner.
Displacement, retraining and the shrinking middle bounce between HR, policy and nobody. The system is a transition framework companies can run, and in time a policy position the institute will defend.
Quarter by quarter
- Q0
Baseline written with the sponsor before any intervention.
- Q1
Intervention designed against the thesis under test and put into practice with the operator's own people.
Against the written baseline
41% of trained workers were redeployed to a new context rather than retrained.
0.6× cost per productive redeployment versus retraining.
2 of 6 plants where the effect did not appear.
This study is recorded against Thesis 007. Its verdict (narrowed) is reflected in that thesis's revision history.
What this study cannot establish
- Effect absent in two plants with union-negotiated role boundaries. The thesis was narrowed to contexts where redeployment is possible.