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.
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.
The Details
The cost of operating a committee is usually shared by AAP and the groups involved. In many cases, the federal adjustment service of the Human Resources Centres Canada is a partner in the program. 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
Adjustment Focus | Adjustment Objective | Potential Partners | Possible Activities |
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Displaced Worker Adjustment | To help individuals deal with their job loss and plan for their future as quickly and effectively as possible |
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Community Adjustment | To help communities anticipate, respond to, and manage changes in the local labour market |
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Organization Adjustment | To strengthen organizations with job-threatened workforces, and protect jobs |
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Sectoral Adjustment | To help industrial sectors stay competitive |
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