The shortage of skilled workers will increase enormously in the coming years – demographic change is already making it increasingly difficult for companies to find suitable employees for certain positions.
Region – But how can companies retain their staff in the long term? What can companies do to be an attractive employer? And what new ways are there of attracting the attention of potential trainees at an early stage? The specialist consultants at the Middle Lower Rhine Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) and the Mönchengladbach and Krefeld employment agencies are available to answer these and other questions. All partners have now signed the extension of the cooperation for “skilled worker advice for companies” in the IHK in Neuss – in the presence of the State Secretary from the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Matthias Heidmeier, who will discuss the design of the new skilled worker offensive of the country informed. Almost 3,000 consultations have been carried out since the start in May 2012.
“Securing skilled workers is one of the great challenges of our time. The situation in many sectors and regions is already extremely tense. That’s why we as the state government are pushing ahead with our specialist offensive,” explains Heidmeier. “We want to counteract the acute and impending shortage of skilled workers with new, improved and permanent offers and cooperations across departments. Increasing the attractiveness of vocational training is a central field of action. Our goal is to make North Rhine-Westphalia the number one vocational training state.” According to the State Secretary, it must be possible to offer all young people career prospects. “Many companies have recognized that even young people who do not have top qualifications in all areas have the potential to develop into valuable employees.”
Jürgen Steinmetz, General Manager of the Middle Lower Rhine Chamber of Industry and Commerce, confirms: “The shortage of skilled workers is the number one economic risk for companies in the region – it is all the more important that the immigration of skilled workers is made easier and that implementation is simplified for small and medium-sized companies as well.” It is actually becoming increasingly difficult to recruit new specialists via the classic recruitment channels. But not only for future employees, but also for existing employees, one’s own company must be more attractive than others. Steinmetz: “Our companies are realizing that staff retention measures such as company health management and more flexible working time models are becoming increasingly important – satisfied and healthy employees stay with the company for a long time.” – also for high school graduates. Companies could secure their future with the free offer of specialist advice.
“Especially with regard to the ever-increasing need for skilled workers resulting from demographic development and the digitization of the working world, companies in the region are facing major challenges,” says Dr. Sarah Borgloh, CEO of the Krefeld Employment Agency. “In order to meet this increased need for advice, the employment agencies and the IHK offer a wide range of support and funding. This enables the employers, after consultation and identification of the fields of action, to start the concrete implementation together. Forward-looking personnel planning is necessary right now if companies want to secure the necessary skilled workers from the decreasing resource “workforce”. “Be it through newly hired employees who require qualification, or through the qualification of our own staff, for example from helper to specialist. This is exactly where the joint specialist advice comes in,” says Borgloh.
And Rainer Imkamp, CEO of the Mönchengladbach Employment Agency, adds: “Bringing employers and the right specialists together is a big task in itself – but it is also a task that is growing for a variety of reasons. A look at the demographic change alone shows the dimension: In the next ten years, more than a fifth of all skilled workers will retire. You have to be replaced. In these challenges, however, the Middle Lower Rhine hardly differs from other regions in Germany. In another respect, however, very well: The Middle Lower Rhine is part of the Rhenish mining area, which is in the middle of the largest transformation process in Europe due to the phasing out of lignite mining. There will be specialists who are looking for new challenges.” The Middle Lower Rhine is thus faced with a significantly larger set of challenges that can only be mastered in partnership. “The cooperation between the chambers of industry and commerce and employment agencies in the middle of the Lower Rhine for specialist advice is an important step of many more that will have to be taken in the Rhenish mining area in order to give our highly qualified specialists from the opencast mining region with its adjacent energy-intensive industry a perspective at all times give.”
The State Secretary praises the cooperation project on the Lower Rhine: “This cooperation is exemplary and should set a precedent.”
