Beyond job matching: Reflections on holistic employment support

Beyond job matching: Reflections on holistic employment support

There is more to employment services than matching jobseekers to vacancies.

13 July 2026

For many people facing multiple barriers to work, unemployment is not only a question of skills, job search behaviour or labour demand. It may also involve health concerns, disability, social isolation, care responsibilities and disrupted work histories.

A recent ILO study visit to Ingeus Lausanne offered an opportunity to reflect on what more holistic employment support can look like in practice. Ingeus works in partnership with both the Canton of Vaud's Labour Office and its Disability Insurance Office to provide employment services, including support to jobseekers facing complex barriers to entering or returning to work. The visit provided a useful setting to examine how labour offices, employment service providers, social protection institutions, health actors, employers and community-based organizations can work together around the needs of jobseekers and inactive people.

Looking beyond the unemployment rate

Vaud's labour market was presented during the visit as relatively strong, with unemployment around 4.7 per cent at the end of May 2026. Yet this overall picture sits alongside growing concerns around inactivity, sickness absence, disability-related claims and mental health. "Over the previous 12 months alone, there has been around 20 per cent increase in newly reported disability and illness-related cases," shared Serge Cogliati, COO at Ingeus Switzerland.

Strong aggregate labour market indicators can coexist with hidden risks of exclusion. It is therefore important for employment systems to also look into support services that prevent health, disability and other employment disruptions from becoming a long-term detachment from the labour market.

A "whole person" approach

One of the strongest messages from the visit was that employability cannot be understood separately from health and well-being. Employment service providers can act as a point of connection between jobseekers and the wider support they may need, especially when fragmented systems leave individuals moving between institutions without coordinated assistance.

Mental health can no longer be treated as peripheral to employment policy. A 2022 WorkMed and SWICA study of sickness daily allowance cases in Switzerland found that mental-health-related work incapacity lasted an average of 218 days, excluding cases of less than 15 days, and involved complete work incapacity from the outset in 95 per cent of cases. Mental health is therefore not only a health-system concern. It increasingly shapes job retention, return-to-work outcomes and the effectiveness of labour market activation strategies.

In Ingeus Lausanne, responding to this complexity means combining employment coaching with psychological, health and practical employment support. The visit highlighted joint jobseeker assessments involving employment and health professionals, and group workshops focused on well-being, stress management, movement and nutrition, alongside more conventional job-search skills.

From reactive support to prevention

A second reflection concerns timing. Early intervention should not only be a social objective, but also a labour market strategy. Once a person moves into prolonged sickness absence or social welfare following long-term unemployment, returning to work becomes progressively more difficult.

The Vaud experience illustrates that employer engagement can be supported through practical measures that reduce uncertainty and make retention or reintegration more feasible. The Vaud Disability Insurance Office provides advice and accompaniment to employers when an employee's health situation or repeated absence raises concern. This can include personalized guidance, workplace-health advice, early identification of risk situations and coordination between social insurance actors. Support may also include workplace adaptation, reorientation to a new role or sector, and training in a new activity with the same or another employer.

Within the broader Swiss disability insurance framework, employers may also access counselling and follow-up, trial placements, work-introduction incentives, service leasing arrangements and other measures that help manage the risks associated with reintegration. The broader policy question is not only how to encourage employers to act, but how to create the conditions that make early action feasible for employers, workers and institutions alike.

Measures of success

Employment services are often assessed on the basis of number of placements made. Yet for people facing multiple barriers, labour market reintegration is rarely quick and one-off. It may involve rebuilding confidence, stabilizing health, improving language skills, understanding workplace expectations, reconnecting with employers, clarifying career goals or making interrupted experience visible.

Anton Eckersley, Director for International Relations at Ingeus, pointed to the value of employability measurement tools that assess several dimensions of readiness and progress rather than focusing exclusively on placement outcomes. This is particularly relevant for jobseekers whose pathways into employment are non-linear. For such groups, indicators such as retention, job quality, health stability, progression and sustained labour-market participation may be as important as initial placement.

Lessons for displacement and fragile contexts

The visit also generated lessons relevant to displacement and fragile contexts. Marc Hanke, CEO of Ingeus Germany, shared reflections from supporting refugees following the arrival of Syrians after 2015 and people displaced from Ukraine more recently. A lesson that stood out was the importance of empowering coaches from affected communities to support their peers.

Community-based coaches can bring language skills, cultural knowledge, trust and lived understanding of displacement experiences. Their role extends beyond job counselling, they can also help people navigate institutions, interpret labour-market expectations and build confidence in unfamiliar environments.

For displaced jobseekers, barriers are often cumulative. A person may have valuable skills and work experience but lack recognized credentials, host-country language proficiency, social networks, childcare, digital access or familiarity with recruitment norms. Others may be managing trauma, disability, chronic illness or uncertainty about legal status.

Digital tools can help newcomers navigate fragmented support systems and employment processes, but a human-centred approach remains critical. Automated screening systems and algorithmic platforms may be less effective at recognizing complex work histories, informal skills, interrupted careers or displacement trajectories. Coaches can help translate experience across contexts, identify transferable skills, support candidates in explaining career transitions and help employers look beyond formal credentials or linear career histories.

The discussions also highlighted the value of linking language learning to practical exposure to work, as language acquisition can become more effective when connected to occupational tasks, workplace communication and on-the-job learning. Intercultural preparation is equally important for both jobseekers and employers, helping bridge differences in expectations, recruitment practices and communication styles.