Where do we get workers if all are grey?Waar halen we werknemers vandaan in een tijd van vergrijzing?Where do we get workers if all are grey?Where do we get workers if all are grey?

About 30-40 years ago, some entrepreneurs came up with ways to make the labor markets in Europe more flexible. Because labor laws in most European countries are very strict, it’s hard for companies to fire people. To solve that problem, employment agencies and staffing solutions were ‘invented’. Today, it’s common to engage people on short term contracts through an external company to remain more flexible. Or by hiring freelancers.

Ongeveer 30 tot 40 jaar geleden ontwikkelden een aantal ondernemers manieren om de arbeidsmarkt in Europa flexibeler te maken. Omdat arbeidsvoorwaarden in de meeste Europese landen erg streng zijn is het moeilijk voor bedrijven om mensen te ontslaan. Om dat probleem op te lossen zijn employment agencies en staffing solutions ‘uitgevonden’. Vandaag de dag is het gebruikelijk mensen aan te nemen op basis van korte termijn contracten die door een extern bedrijf geregeld worden om zo flexibeler te blijven. Of door freelancers aan te nemen.

About 30-40 years ago, some entrepreneurs came up with ways to make the labor markets in Europe more flexible. Because labor laws in most European countries are very strict, it’s hard for companies to fire people. To solve that problem, employment agencies and staffing solutions were ‘invented’. Today, it’s common to engage people on short term contracts through an external company to remain more flexible. Or by hiring freelancers.

About 30-40 years ago, some entrepreneurs came up with ways to make the labor markets in Europe more flexible. Because labor laws in most European countries are very strict, it’s hard for companies to fire people. To solve that problem, employment agencies and staffing solutions were ‘invented’. Today, it’s common to engage people on short term contracts through an external company to remain more flexible. Or by hiring freelancers.

The next decades, Europe will face a much bigger issue: we won’t have enough people. The population is growing old. By 2030, Europe will have twice as many seniors older than 65 than children under 15, while the population is stagnant. In the US, this figure is different: by 2030, there will be 65 million more Americans, while children keep on outnumbering seniors (source: ‘The post-American world’, Fareed Zakara).

The US is also open to immigrants. As Fareed Zakara puts it: ‘Without immigration, U.S. GDP growth over the last quarter century would have been the same as Europe’s. America’s edge in innovation is overwhelmingly a product of immigration. Foreign students and immigrants account for 50 percent of the science researchers in the country… In 2010, foreign students get more than 50 percent of all Ph.D’s awarded in every subject in the US’.

At the same time, the US is embracing offshoring. They pioneered offshoring and they still dominate the industry, sending much more work offshore than Europe.

The US has one main objective: grow and stay competitive in a globalized world. Europeans tend to think in another way. Some governments are coming to power who try to limit immigration (recently, in Holland and in Sweden, right wing parties have entered the government). When foreign workers from Eastern Europe come to our countries to work in construction and similar fields, people wonder ‘why are they taking our jobs at much lower rates?’. And offshoring is still in its infancy.

For Europe, the main way to remain competitive and to keep on growing in the decades to come, is to embrace offshoring on a big scale. Our population will become grey, there is no doubt about that. We don’t like to invite large groups of foreigners to our country (as has been done in the 50’s when Northern Africans joined our labor forces to fill the gaps), because it causes ‘integration problems’. So if we don’t have enough local people, if we don’t want to take people to the jobs, then we should take the jobs to other people in other countries.

I believe that companies in Europe should start today with learning how offshoring works. They should start working with people abroad because there is no other way to remain competitive. IT has been the pioneering industry in showing that offshoring brings benefits, but in many other business processes, Europe should start involving colleagues from around the globe into their teams.

It would be nice to receive some views from others on this topic. Do you think that Europe has a challenge? How do you think Europe can face this challenge? What can we do today in order to remain competitive in the ‘global village’ of today?

Europa zal in de aankomende decennia een veel groter probleem hebben: we zullen niet genoeg mensen hebben. De populatie wordt oud. In 2030 zal Europa twee keer zo veel senioren ouder dan 65 hebben dan kinderen onder de 15, terwijl de populatie stagneert. In de Verenigde Staten is dit anders: in 2030 zullen er 65 miljoen meer Amerikanen zijn, maar er zijn meer kinderen dan senioren (bron: ‘The post-American world’, Fareed Zakara).
De Verenigde Staten verwelkomen ook immigranten. Zoals Fareed Zakara zegt: “Zonder immigratie zou de GDP groei van de Verenigde Staten over de laatste kwart eeuw hetzelfde zijn als in Europa. Amerika’s voorsprong in innovatie is een product van immigratie. 50 procent van de wetenschappelijke onderzoekers in het land zijn buitenlandse studenten en immigranten …In 2010 krijgen buitenlandse studenten meer dan 50 procent van alle doctorale graden die in elk vak uitgereikt worden in de Verenigde Staten.
Tegelijkertijd maakt de VS gebruik van offshoring. De VS was een pionier in het gebied van offshoring and domineert nog steeds de industrie, het land zendt veel meer werk offshore dan Europa.
De VS heeft één hoofddoel: groeien en competitief blijven in een geglobaliseerde wereld. Europeanen denken vaak op een andere manier. Sommige nieuwe overheden proberen immigratie te limiteren (recentelijk zijn in Nederland en Zweden rechtse partijen toegetreden tot het kabinet). Als buitenlandse werknemers uit Oost-Europa naar onze landen komen om in de bouw en vergelijkbare gebieden te werken vragen mensen zich af ‘waarom doen zij ons werk voor een veel lagere prijs?’. En offshoring staat nog steeds in de kinderschoenen.
De enige manier voor Europa om competitief te blijven en te blijven groeien in de komende jaren is om op grote schaal gebruik te maken van offshoring. Onze populatie zal vergrijzen, dat is zeker. Wij houden er niet van om grote groepen buitenlanders naar ons land te halen (zoals gedaan is in de 50’er jaren toen Noord-Afrikaanse werknemers onze arbeidsmarkt betraden om de gaten te vullen) omdat het ‘integratie problemen’ veroorzaakt. Dus als we niet genoeg lokale mensen hebben, als we de mensen niet naar het werk willen halen, dan moeten we het werk naar andere mensen in andere landen brengen.
Ik vind dat bedrijven in Europa vandaag nog moeten beginnen met leren hoe offshoring werkt. Ze moeten gaan werken met mensen in het buitenland omdat er geen andere manier is om competitief te blijven. IT is de eerste industrie geweest die heeft laten zien dat offshoring voordelen met zich meebrengt, maar in veel andere werkgebieden moet Europa ook beginnen met het betrekken van collega’s van over de hele wereld in hun teams.
Het zou fijn zijn om wat meningen van anderen over dit onderwerp te horen. Vindt u dat Europa een uitdaging heeft? Hoe denkt u dat Europa deze uitdaging kan aanpakken? Wat kunnen we vandaag de dag doen om competitief te blijven in het ‘global village’ van tegenwoordig?

The next decades, Europe will face a much bigger issue: we won’t have enough people. The population is growing old. By 2030, Europe will have twice as many seniors older than 65 than children under 15, while the population is stagnant. In the US, this figure is different: by 2030, there will be 65 million more Americans, while children keep on outnumbering seniors (source: ‘The post-American world’, Fareed Zakara).

The US is also open to immigrants. As Fareed Zakara puts it: ‘Without immigration, U.S. GDP growth over the last quarter century would have been the same as Europe’s. America’s edge in innovation is overwhelmingly a product of immigration. Foreign students and immigrants account for 50 percent of the science researchers in the country… In 2010, foreign students get more than 50 percent of all Ph.D’s awarded in every subject in the US’.

At the same time, the US is embracing offshoring. They pioneered offshoring and they still dominate the industry, sending much more work offshore than Europe.

The US has one main objective: grow and stay competitive in a globalized world. Europeans tend to think in another way. Some governments are coming to power who try to limit immigration (recently, in Holland and in Sweden, right wing parties have entered the government). When foreign workers from Eastern Europe come to our countries to work in construction and similar fields, people wonder ‘why are they taking our jobs at much lower rates?’. And offshoring is still in its infancy.

For Europe, the main way to remain competitive and to keep on growing in the decades to come, is to embrace offshoring on a big scale. Our population will become grey, there is no doubt about that. We don’t like to invite large groups of foreigners to our country (as has been done in the 50’s when Northern Africans joined our labor forces to fill the gaps), because it causes ‘integration problems’. So if we don’t have enough local people, if we don’t want to take people to the jobs, then we should take the jobs to other people in other countries.

I believe that companies in Europe should start today with learning how offshoring works. They should start working with people abroad because there is no other way to remain competitive. IT has been the pioneering industry in showing that offshoring brings benefits, but in many other business processes, Europe should start involving colleagues from around the globe into their teams.

It would be nice to receive some views from others on this topic. Do you think that Europe has a challenge? How do you think Europe can face this challenge? What can we do today in order to remain competitive in the ‘global village’ of today?

The next decades, Europe will face a much bigger issue: we won’t have enough people. The population is growing old. By 2030, Europe will have twice as many seniors older than 65 than children under 15, while the population is stagnant. In the US, this figure is different: by 2030, there will be 65 million more Americans, while children keep on outnumbering seniors (source: ‘The post-American world’, Fareed Zakara).

The US is also open to immigrants. As Fareed Zakara puts it: ‘Without immigration, U.S. GDP growth over the last quarter century would have been the same as Europe’s. America’s edge in innovation is overwhelmingly a product of immigration. Foreign students and immigrants account for 50 percent of the science researchers in the country… In 2010, foreign students get more than 50 percent of all Ph.D’s awarded in every subject in the US’.

At the same time, the US is embracing offshoring. They pioneered offshoring and they still dominate the industry, sending much more work offshore than Europe.

The US has one main objective: grow and stay competitive in a globalized world. Europeans tend to think in another way. Some governments are coming to power who try to limit immigration (recently, in Holland and in Sweden, right wing parties have entered the government). When foreign workers from Eastern Europe come to our countries to work in construction and similar fields, people wonder ‘why are they taking our jobs at much lower rates?’. And offshoring is still in its infancy.

For Europe, the main way to remain competitive and to keep on growing in the decades to come, is to embrace offshoring on a big scale. Our population will become grey, there is no doubt about that. We don’t like to invite large groups of foreigners to our country (as has been done in the 50’s when Northern Africans joined our labor forces to fill the gaps), because it causes ‘integration problems’. So if we don’t have enough local people, if we don’t want to take people to the jobs, then we should take the jobs to other people in other countries.

I believe that companies in Europe should start today with learning how offshoring works. They should start working with people abroad because there is no other way to remain competitive. IT has been the pioneering industry in showing that offshoring brings benefits, but in many other business processes, Europe should start involving colleagues from around the globe into their teams.

It would be nice to receive some views from others on this topic. Do you think that Europe has a challenge? How do you think Europe can face this challenge? What can we do today in order to remain competitive in the ‘global village’ of today?