The knowledge-education-labour market triad plays an important role in organising young professionals and human capital optimally. How can companies strengthen themselves in this new era where we are facing ageing, greening and labour shortages?
During a roundtable discussion, four experts will give their views: Claudia Portengen (Manager Adecco Training), Wim Davidse (flex and labour market strategist), Hans Aarts (Director Gilde Opleidingen) and Geert Vergeldt (HR Manager at Vostermans Companies). She From their own expertise and experience, they will tell how companies and institutions can work (together) to create a sustainable labour market and training programme that fit together seamlessly.
Tightness in the labour market is one of the main issues that employers are currently concerned about. How are you guys looking at that?
WIM DAVIDSE: "That won't come right again. We are facing radical issues that never occurred on this scale before. Take ageing. There came each time since the end of World War II. Now it's over. Your is no longer just pulling out a can of new employees."
HANS AARTS: "There is a lot of demand for MBO graduates. But the recruitment from that side is too low, then processes come to a standstill. Robotisation is not always the solution. That cannot be done at all functions and certainly not in a short time."
DAVIDSE: "Processes have to be adapted. Just automating does not mean installing a piece of software or a new machine. Working methods, personnel and protocols require organisational adjustment. But there is no single solution. The are several."
So is bringing in migrant workers the solution?
YELLOWED: "Migrant workers are part of the solution, however focus and attention on the employees already employed may prevent you from having to deal with the tight labour market a lot. The preventing yards can avoid disappointment and capital destruction."
CLAUDIA PORTENGEN: "Labour migration is sometimes simply necessary because we no longer find candidates in the Netherlands who can or want to do the work. People who come here often want to stay. There includes plenty of well-qualified staff. We desperately need these people. Accredit those degrees and, above all, make sure they learn the language. Look at people from Ukraine how well that integrates them. Being allowed to work immediately makes people independent and self-reliant faster."
Then robotisation and automation is another part of the solution. How fast can this development go?
DAVIDSE: "It's not going as fast as some people think. Of course it is in the top software business, but not beyond that. Not even in the manufacturing industry. There are so many different sectors in which artificial intelligence can play a role. That is endless and it is impossible to implement in record time. We have 30 years of internet and email, but our productivity has not really advanced during that period. In that sense, digitisation delivers little except more hassle. The is easier to type, so we type more. The As a result, you don't get three pages of text, but three hundred pages. Daily, you receive not two emails, but eighty. We are going nuts. How many people work in a back office instead of production? Meanwhile, a quarter of working Holland does something to control or get in someone else's way. We will have to come up with very different processes all together."
So how should it be?
DAVIDSE: "Think more about solutions on a psychological or sociological level. We no longer trust each other, that has to come back. Technology can help a little, but it's about organising. We have become especially bureaucratic in the digital age. Meanwhile, the crunch continues to increase."
PORTENGEN: "Laws and regulations change so fast that organisations and employees no longer have the time to understand and regulate them properly. A lot of time goes into merging and checking data. Developing knowledge and skills remains necessary."
AARTS: "This is how the BV Nederland is put together. Take education. There was an incident somewhere at a college. Retrieved from national scale is relatively small. But the entire education system had to bleed for it as people started putting in extra control mechanisms. That was at the expense of teaching students."
So the employee/human being should be more central?
DAVIDSE: Above all, the employer should be an energy giver. Give people the opportunity to realise personal goals. . Everyone will benefit from that. Challenge, good working conditions, development and things like that, then you offer contagious employment. The economy can grow thanks to the huge productivity boost it will bring. Ideal for a tight labour market. Go to treat your employees like you treat your friends, not as if they were subjects. The alpha monkey should realise that."
RELATED: "It's customisation. Different generations equals different needs. You offer young professionals different conditions than the over-40s or colleagues who have passed 60. Young talent needs freedom, variety, recognition and development."
Collaboration is therefore essential. Is there a great opportunity to grow there?
RELATED: "Collaboration is an opportunity and not a threat. Especially in the manufacturing industry, you have to deal with fluctuations when it comes to workload. At In the past, this was solved with temporary workers. Die time has passed. During the credit crisis, the order intake increased, resulting in rapid expansion of the workforce. Then we called fellow companies and were able to quickly fill vacancies through collegiate hiring and borrowing. This form of cooperation now also exists within the Land of Makers. A win-win situation and besides, any cooperation is based on trust."
AARTS: "This also allows companies to train internally themselves in collaboration with education. That we do, for example, at Canon or Rockwool. That is also a form of collaboration, but between companies and knowledge institutions."
DAVIDSE: "There are different forms of employment contracts. The politics has been dabbling with that for years. We need to do something with that in the Netherlands. There too little attention is paid to businesses and jobseekers. Listen to practitioners. Dan you are really working on solutions. A large part of working Netherlands wants flexibility. The politics does just the opposite. Listen and look at reality. Dan we can really move forward with the Netherlands BV. Otherwise it will get stuck."
vostermanscompanies.com - adecco.nl/training - Dzjeng.nl - gildeopleidingen.nl
Text and photography: Rob Buchholz
