"The world of work is changing. The loyalty level is down. People now look for employability, which means he/she can work for life if he/she chooses to but not for just one particular company," said Manpower Inc. vice-chairman David Arkless, who spoke before the 25th National Conference of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines last week.
Manpower is the world’s second biggest company in the employment services industry, generating revenues of $12.2 billion from a network of 4,300 offices in 67 countries. It is also the biggest non-governmental employer in the world.
"We consider Manpower as a talent management company, the talent agent of each and every one of our employees, many of whom have remained with us throughout their careers," said regional area manager for the Philippines and Hong Kong Deborah Morgan. "We are more than a paycheck. We train our people, place them in companies which best suits their skills and experiences, and then further enhance their skills through our Global Learning Center for the next job."
In the Philippines, the company is represented by subsidiary, Manpower Outsourcing Services, which, in turn, is the mother company of overseas recruitment agency, Prime Manpower.
"Since opening in May 2000, we have increased the number of temporary and contractual jobs generated from 50 to 1,000. In five years’ time, we hope to have placed 5,000. Even then, we will have only scratched the surface," said Manpower Outsourcing president Fe Panlileo.
Whether the contractual placements are for low-paying jobs such as salesladies or for high-paying jobs such as computer engineers, the company uses a unique global system that enables it to predict how well its people will perform at a specific workplace even before they are sent out.
One, fertility rates are falling. In the next four years, Europe’s population of 780 million will drop to 775 million. Even China has problems, with its population expected to expand by only 100 million in the next six years compared to India’s 200 million during the same period.
Two, populations are ageing, even in Asia.
"The implications of these irreversible trends are clear. For one, there will be a massive swell in products and services to meet the needs of customers who are more than 50 years old. For another, economies will have to work differently. In Europe, for example, there are less people out of college and this has already resulted in a two-million workers’ shortfall in the IT industry," said Arkless.
Increasingly, companies have had to also stay competitive in the global marketplace by offering best quality products at the lowest possible price. To keep costs down, they have had to narrow their operations to tasks that have added value or that contribute directly to their bottom lines and to outsource non-core functions such as recruitment and training to companies like Manpower.
"For me, outsourcing has been around for a long time. Companies have always been looking around for the best suppliers, the best distributors to do business with. Now, off-shoring–in Europe, it’s called East-shoring because it refers to doing business with Eastern Europe–is new," said Arkless.
"Many companies have found out it is not that simple because they must deal with the issue of pay rate versus productivity. For example, the pay rate in Eastern Europe is four euros per hour compared to the pay rate in the European Union of 22 euros per hour. In terms of productivity, however, EU is a better proposition. Its productivity is equivalent to 69,000 euros per worker compared to Eastern Europe’s 16,000 euros," said Arkless.
In the Philippines, the come-on for foreign companies is not so much the pay rate but the workers’ productivity, given the high level of education/skills of the labor force.
"There is a need for innate flexibility in the Philippines. It has one of the most comprehensive labor laws in the world but these laws do not always suit your culture, your people, and your level of economic development," said Arkless. "On the one hand, there is the United States, which is a job-churning model where you can get fired the next day to provide a job for another person. On the other hand, there is the Scandanavian model which prioritizes social protection. The right model–where there is reasonable protection for workers but is not punitive to employers–is somewhere in the middle."
While these are being worked out on the national level, Filipinos can individually choose their own middle ground of job creation and social protection by taking on temp jobs.