2008

Protectionism is the wrong answer to the financial crisis
The global financial crisis has demonstrated that all of us, Asians and Europeans alike, have harboured the illusion for too long that we would be able to avoid the American real-estate and banking disaster. Stock exchanges worldwide have suffered sudden falls in prices, from New York to Moscow, from Shanghai to London and Frankfurt to Mumbai, and formerly first-class financial institutes have filed for bankruptcy. All of this has shown us – in a frightening way – the dark side of globalisation.

The difference between a focus on creating jobs and a focus on creating conditions that allow employment
The turmoil that has overtaken the global financial system in the past few weeks has begun to feed through in to financial job losses. But new economic data shows that, even before the current crisis, the worldwide credit crunch was already starting to bite. Indicators in the Euro zone, the UK, Japan and the US all pointed to declines in manufacturing output in September. Only China among the world's biggest economies recorded gains in output during the month and that may have reflected a more confident atmosphere in the wake of the Beijing Olympics.

How should the EU respond to its population declining?
The latest population projections issued by the European Union's statistical office highlight the delicate balancing act that defines national policies on employment, immigration and social services. Eurostat forecasts that the population of the EU's 27 full member countries will rise from 495m on January 1 2008 to 521m in 2035, declining to 506m in 2060.

Does more flexibility mean the end of measuring work by time
The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, moved one step further towards removing France's statutory 35-hour week last month when legislators agreed measures that will allow employers from September to negotiate separate overtime arrangements with their employees. Mr Sarkozy, who views the shorter working week as an impediment to labour flexibility, competitiveness and economic growth, had been seeking ways to sidestep the barriers imposed by statutory hours.

Some way to go in establishing diversity
Most big employers today across the industrialised world have some kind of diversity policy. But how many of them are thinking about the meaning of diversity in their day-to-day work? Two new surveys, one carried out in the US by Adecco and one undertaken in the UK jointly by the Chartered Management Institute, The Department for Work & Pensions and The Institute for Employment Studies, suggest that employers still have some way to go in establishing diversity as an ingrained approach to management and recruitment.

The European Agency Workers Directive: A milestone in fair treatment of agency workers?
Long standing opposition to the European Agency Workers Directive folded last month when the UK - its staunchest opponent - agreed a deal on employee rights that should pave the way to broader European agreement later this month (June). A compromise that will allow temporary workers equal rights with those of permanent staff after 12 weeks in a job was agreed by the UK government in negotiation with the Trades Union Congress and the Confederation of British Industry.

How are you today? - As workforces age, company health care becomes a bottom line issue
Mervyn Davies, chairman of Standard Chartered bank, said at a recent London seminar that he regarded employee well being as one of the most pressing issues facing employers as they approach the end of the decade. Governments of all western economies are grappling with spiralling health spending that historically has been focused on health treatments typically concentrated in the final few years of people's lives. Employers too are sharing the burden of ill health through absenteeism. For this reason increasing numbers of employers are abandoning a passive approach to health and adopting instead more interventionists policies aimed at promoting fitness and health issues, thereby reducing costly absenteeism.

Job protection and optimism - not the happy couple you expect
Staff sourcing across the European Union is relying more than ever before on labour flows between member states, taking advantage of a willingness, particularly among young people, to travel in search of work. Employers seeking to make the most of these labour flows can benefit from an appreciation of young people's attitudes. But understanding that the so-called "generation Y" has different values to the previous generation is not enough for policy makers and recruiters. A recent international study of young people has demonstrated that inter-generational attitudes vary markedly, depending on nationality.

The EU and the Agency Workers Directive
I am old enough to remember a time when the European Union described itself as the Common Market. There was little that was common about it then and still less today where an enlarged EU seems united as much by its differences as it is by common practices. While different legal frameworks are an obvious source of attention in the rocky road to harmonisation, it is cultural attitudes, shaped by years, sometimes centuries of historical traditions and practices that are proving the most stubborn barriers to change.

Europe's Looming Demographic Crunch
Some years ago I became a life member of a charity that looks after journalists in their old age. None of us, I suspect, likes to think about future infirmity, but it's comforting to know there is some kind of safety net in place for our later years. Now I'm informed that life membership has been cancelled. The problem is that there are too few younger members to look after the growing number of dependents passing in to old age. The charity, like many businesses, has been forced to face up to demographic realities.

Going that extra mile – why happy workforces deliver higher profits
One of the biggest challenges facing European businesses in the struggle to compete in the global marketplace is to maintain and increase productivity among workforces that have developed under social conditions that differ markedly with those elsewhere in the world. Even within Europe there are broad differences in working conditions, regulations and wage levels from country to country and often between regions within individual states.