Back to the overview
June 9, 2007 - Wolfgang Clement
In a recent high-level Brussels meeting we discussed demographic change in EU member states, particularly with respect to the ever more apparent shortage of qualified personnel. One of the participants dared to predict – in a semi-serious, semi-humorous fashion – and in this case it was one of the best-versed EU Commissioners: he said that HR solutions companies with well-trained, flexible employees will be the “oil sheikhs of the future”. That implies that work, rather than capital or raw materials, will become the greatest factor of production and catalyst of future progress and growth worldwide.
Not too long ago, in November 2003, the former Dutch premier Wim Kok campaigned for “Jobs, jobs, jobs” in Europe in a task force set up by the EU Council. He explained that only an enormous increase in jobs would give Europe the opportunity to catch up with the United States and other major regions of the world.
Is this an indication of a great change of paradigms, a transition from mass unemployment to global competition in the field of human resources? In truth, both statements are typical of the build-up of tension in our globalized economy. If we take a closer look, Wim Kok and the Commissioner have reached the same conclusions: the rapid changes in the population pyramids of our countries require a radical shift in thinking. No national economy can tolerate myriads of insufficiently trained and qualified young people, and, at the same time, the loss of countless productive citizens sent off prematurely to early retirement by government decree.
My fear is that we will fail if we rely solely upon governments to come up with solutions to these problems, particularly as quite a few of the undesirable trends originate in political decisions rather than business decisions. What is urgently required is business activity, and in this field temporary staffing businesses have a key role to play.
Their skill in job placements, and in making available flexible and mobile workers tailored to companies' requirements, is certainly not inferior to that of state employment offices or agencies. By their very nature, they are closer to business than even the most motivated state employee can be. And this is what is required when it comes to jobs.
What I want to stress is that the temporary staffing industry is faced with a major challenge. It too will have to change to adapt to the changing requirements of the global labour markets; which is why we have recently founded the London-based Adecco Institute on behalf of the world's number one provider of employment opportunities. It will use the international experience of the company, and work from within a network of renowned public and private research institutes, to find the best political and entrepreneurial solutions for the labour markets of the future.
For the first time, we have issued our Demographic Fitness Index (DFX) for eight European economies. With that index we intend regularly to check whether, and to what extent, European companies of all sizes are prepared for demographic change.
To put it bluntly, so far the results are nothing to write home about. At best, just twenty percent of the companies in the survey deal with the topics of health and knowledge management, career management or lifelong learning, as well as age structure, in a serious manner. With our index, we want to provide stimuli that could give our companies a competitive edge. We want to tempt them through regular benchmarking and showcasing of best practice.
We are making a similar attempt with our White Paper that has just been presented on the occasion of the European Business Summit in Brussels. It is dedicated to the apparently difficult transition between school and working life.
I think it is a scandal that, in Europe, the unemployment rate of young people is still twice as high as the overall unemployment rate – which is already too high anyway. Governments and the economy, schools, universities and companies, have to overcome the often hermetical sealing between these spheres that still exist in most of our countries.
They have to establish different, more productive links, and start to build very concrete bridges from the school world into the world of employment.
One tool to bridge this gap is public-private partnership - the cooperation of public institutions and private business in the fields of education and training, the transition between school and working life, and job placement. Public-private partnerships can serve as an important enabler and facilitator in coping with the changes caused by globalisation and demographic change in our countries. It is these new partnerships that will become crucial in the present and future world of employment.
Contributing to building those bridges is worth all our efforts.
Back to the overview