Identifying business developments early
Economic Committee
We help economic committees interpret financial and business information, identify potential implications for employees and provide well-informed advice to the works council or central works council.
Interpreting information and identifying implications
Keeping financial and business matters in focus
The company is required to provide the economic committee with timely and comprehensive information on financial and business matters. This gives the committee insight into a wide range of issues that may become important for the works council or central works council and for employees. It allows developments to be identified and assessed at an early stage, before key decisions have been made.
The economic committee brings together information on a broad range of topics. This is not limited to financial figures, but also includes investments, organisational changes, new working methods, acquisitions and other plans that may affect employees.
We work with you to assess the company’s business developments and decisions. We examine the rationale behind its plans, identify information that is still missing and consider the potential implications for employees. In this way, individual pieces of information become meaningful insights that you can use in your ongoing work and when advising the works council or central works council.
Providing advice tailored to your committee
Developing the right questions together
Every economic committee works differently and requires a different level of support. We tailor our advice accordingly. In some cases, we attend meetings with the company without having received any documents in advance. We then help you assess the information presented and raise the relevant questions there and then.
In other cases, we analyse documents before or after a meeting and discuss our findings with you. Together, we identify outstanding issues and develop questions for the company. We can work with you on an ongoing or ad hoc basis, depending on what your committee needs in each situation.
Connecting the economic committee and the works council
Turning information into actionable insights for employee representatives
The economic committee is an important source of information for the works council or central works council. Its insights not only help identify relevant issues at an early stage, but also provide a clearer understanding of the background, assumptions and rationale behind the company’s plans. On this basis, the works council or central works council can develop its own positions and demands and respond accordingly. In this way, the economic committee strengthens employee participation and broadens the scope for action available to employee representatives.
The economic committee is particularly effective when it works closely with the works council or central works council. Together, they should agree on which financial and business matters are most relevant to employee representation and which developments require closer attention.
Building effective structures and strengthening expertise
Strengthening new and experienced economic committees
We support newly established economic committees in developing ways of working that suit both the company and the committee. Together, we determine what information you need on a regular basis, how meetings can be prepared and findings documented, and how best to work with the works council or central works council.
We also provide training for both new and experienced economic committees, covering essential business and financial principles as well as specific issues arising in their day-to-day work. An effective economic committee does not need to be made up entirely of financial experts. What matters is curiosity, a willingness to ask questions and a desire to understand how the business works.
Would you like to strengthen your economic committee’s expertise or receive ongoing support in its work? Get in touch.
