PES Recruitment Services for Employers

Transcription

1 PES Recruitment Services for Employers PES to PES Dialogue Programme Brussels, March 11th 2014 Martin Dietz Holger Bähr Christopher Osiander

2 Preliminary remarks Increased demand for PES due to economic crisis. New labour market challenges arise. PES have a stronger focus on the demand side. Market knowledge is the basis for a good performance. SMEs are an important factor in the labour market. Variety of services for employers increases. Technological change alters the communication and delivery of services between PES and employers. 2

3 Research questions How are recruitment services for employers organised? Universal vs. segmented services universal: provided to all enterprises regardless of size, type, sector or region segmented: restricted in at least one dimension, e.g. only for SMEs How are recruitment services delivered to employers? Small survey among five countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Sweden, Slovenia). 3

4 Outline PES objectives, strategies and structural constraints Recruitment services for employers: universal provision rules Channels for delivery: does one type fits all? Implementation matters: challenges for the organisation and the staff Conclusions and open questions 4

5 PES objectives, strategies and structural constraints Different PES pursue similar goals (most important: balancing demand and supply, but also labour market advice and human resource consultancy). High importance of working at the local level. High importance of market transparency with respect to large enterprises and the SME category. Legal and political frameworks matter. The actual labour market situation leads to different challenges for PES. 5

6 PES context (labour market challenges) Favourable labour market situation with decreasing unemployment. Challenge of convincing employers to cooperate when the mismatch between jobseekers and job requirements becomes worse and best matches are rare. Need to offer (costly) incentives for second-best matches (special counselling, subsidies, training measures). Poor labour market situation with high/rising unemployment. Convincing employers to cooperate when filling vacancies is easy and best matches can be reached without the PES. Need to offer (costly) "value added" although PES will have to shift resources to the support of jobseekers. Consequence: Establishing long-term relations as one way to become more independent from short-run labour market trends. 6

7 Recruitment services for employers: overview Provision of labour market information Services related directly to the matching Process: Recruitment services in a narrow sense: matching, use of ALMP, advice with respect to matching. Recruitment services in the broader sense: Additional advice with respect to recruiting channels or training, human resource consulting. Services are deeply intertwined and should not be regarded in an isolated way. Labour market information as the basis of successful matching Additional services offer an added value thereby supporting the matching process and helping to achieve the main objectives by securing customer satisfaction and establishing long-term relations. 7

8 Universal recruitment services for employers The core set of recruitment services for employers is universal. Demand and supply of services may lead to a (unintended) factual segmentation of services. Supply side: PES actively offering some services to certain groups of firms Demand side: Firms ask for services they need Reasons for differing needs: Level of experience: large companies or firms with a high amount of job vacancies vs. small companies. Level of HR competences: SMEs often do have a less professional HR department. Activities to reach a second-best match Tailor-made solutions: financial incentives, e.g. recruitment subsidies, training measures. Long-term partnerships with firms. 8

9 Segmented recruitment services as exceptions The German and Austrian PES think about shifting resources to SMEs in order to concentrate their services on firms really needing them. The active use of personal visits may focus on enterprises with a high vacancy potential (Austria, Slovenia). Exceptions of targeted segmentation: few services are restricted to specific segments of firms, e.g. Flexibility counselling for larger enterprises in Austria. Counselling programmes with respect to qualification needs of SMEs in Austria and Germany. 9

10 Channels for delivery - multi-channel approaches Customer orientation and openness are vital. One face to the customer is an important device for the employer services. PES-Questionnaire asked to indicate most important channels with respect to different services Seven channels: Internet, , e-accounts, telephone, call centre, personal visits, postal contacts Seven tasks: labour market information, vacany registration, technical matching, counselling with respect to matching, administration of ALMP, additional counselling, acquistion of new employers Multi-channel approaches are common purposeful segmentation with respect to firm size is the exception. But again, there may be factual segmentation. 10

11 Which channels do PES use to which extent? The example of medium-sized firms in Austria, Bulgaria, Germany and Slovenia Austria Bulgaria Germany Slovenia Average Internet E-platform (online accounts) Personal visits Telephone contact Call Center Postal contact, letters, print media 11

12 How are different channels used for delivering services? Internet E-platform (online accounts) Personal visits Telephone contact Call Centre Postal contact / letters / print media Labour market information Vacancy registration Technical matching Counseling with respect to matching Administration of measures of ALMP Additional counseling Acquisition of new employers Note: Germany does not use call centres at all; Slovenia does not provide additional counselling; Austria and Germany use e- platforms, Slovenia partly. 12

13 Channels for delivery: e-channels vs. personal contacts Personal contacts remain an important channel for complex and firmspecific services, for the acquisition of new customers and for firms not using the services of the PES frequently. E-channels are most suitable for "heavy users" of PES like larger enterprises or temporary work agencies. Standardised (e-) channels are seen as a good choice for routine services or administrative issues saving costs for both the PES and the employers. Some PES developed e-platforms to offer individual services within the use of new technologies that also build up longer lasting ties between the enterprises and the PES. Reducing the input for administrative tasks by using e-channels is a good way to shift human resources to more complex tasks of the PES, e.g. specific counselling services. Different channels serve different purposes or are used in a complementary way. 13

14 Challenges for the organisation and the staff Formal qualifications with respect to e-skills are regarded important, but can be handled. It is more important to convince employees to promote new channels of delivery to the firms. Skill challenges: objective to become a partner at the same eye level (counselling, HR consulting, development of long-term relations). New strategies have to be implemented in the target system. Local practices have to be adapted to the organisational objectives on the central level. 14

15 Conclusions There are no easy answers to complex questions Trade-off between the objective of an increasing market penetration and the claim to achieve high customer satisfaction. Trade-off between increasing the market share of the PES and finite resources, especially with respect to the acquisition of SMEs. Challenge to convince employers to cooperate with the PES under different labour market situations to solve the conflict between the firms desire of a best match and the PES objective to integrate hard-to-place jobseekers Future challenges 15

16 Open questions Which limitations exist, when PES use public funds for supporting enterprises within their recruitment processes? How to use the PES resources efficiently? Allocation of resources between jobseekers and firms Allocation of resources between larger enterprises and SMEs How should PES deal with possible conflicts of interest between overall organisational objectives and their implementation in the local job centers? How may PES best deal with a possible conflict of interest between quantity and quality of matches? 16

17 Thank you very much for your kind attention! Martin Dietz Holger Bähr Christopher Osiander

18 Additional slides

19 How are different services delivered? Labour market information Vacancy registration Technical matching Counseling with respect to matching Administration of measures of ALMP Additional counseling Acquisition of new employers Internet E-platform (online accounts) Personal visits Telephone contact Call Centre Postal contact / letters / print media Note: Germany does not use call centres at all; Slovenia does not provide additional counselling; Austria and Germany use e- platforms, Slovenia partly. 19

20 How does the PES view its role vis-à-vis employers? Austria Bulgaria Germany Slovenia Sweden Average of 5 sample countries Average of 15 countries Partner in addressing the needs of jobseekers Human resource consultant Job broker and filler of vacancies Labour market advisor Source: Own figure based on data from de Koning/Gravesteijn (2012). 20

21 Special services: qualification counselling Special services in Austria and Germany: Advice with respect to further training ( Qualifizierungsberatung ) Reaction to demographic change and need for education Austria: for enterprises <50 employees, duration up to a maximum of 3 days content: checking training requirements, search for suitable training programmes, support in choosing appropriate suppliers of further training Germany: content: analysing the characteristics of the work force, identifying needs for further training and planning measures and networking with other firms 21

22 Special services: flexibility advice Special service in Austria: advice for larger enterprises focusing on measures of a flexible use of human resources ( Flexibilitätsberatung ) Target group: enterprises >50 employees that have to deal with volatile workloads, many search processes or larger layoffs Duration: Up to a maximum of 9 days Different forms of advice re-alignment of organisational structures facilitating of employees job mobility within or between firms higher flexibility of working hours diversity management 22