their skills on a permanent basis and receive career support. The 2009 Arbeitsmarktklima-Index (Human Resources Climate Survey) showed that working satisfaction increases with the tasks that employees are allowed to fulfill.
Yet it is exactly this need of employees – to contribute something, to be creative, and to prevent their suggestions from being talked to death by supervisors and boards – that many companies do not meet yet. In its “Gute Arbeit” (“Good Work”) survey, the Confederation of German Trade Unions asked 8,000 employees for their opinion, covering all regions, income groups, industries, company sizes, and types of employment according to their respective share in overall employment. The majority of participants considered their professional development and education opportunities, as well as the possibilities available to them to be creative, to exert influence, and to shape processes, to be “mediocre.”
A Labor Expert’s View
Werner Eichhorst, Deputy Director of Labor Policy at the Bonn-based Institute for the Study of Labor, frequently receives invitations from the German Government to come to Berlin – usually when politicians don’t know how to proceed further anymore. He often appears on TV as well. In short: Eichorst is a classic expert in politics. Today, even people like him have a Facebook account. His profile says that the 40-year-old likes Erik Satie, Bill Murray, Gerhard Richter, books by Montaigne, and the film “Amélie.” Thus, Eichhorst is a pretty modern academic, and that’s why I wanted to get his perspective on the Meconomy subject:
Mr. Eichhorst, the crisis is on the wane, but it has left a deep-seated fear: Many old certainties and institutions have been rocked to their foundations. Do we have to reinvent ourselves and our jobs now?
Werner Eichhorst: At least job beginners – who are currently confronting hiring freezes and questionable employment conditions everywhere – have to be particularly creative now. At the moment, a whole wave of highly qualified and highly motivated people is entering the job market. These people won’t find a job that suits their needs just like that. They will be put on hold several times, and that’s when they will come up with the idea to try something new. If there was an unlimited number of steady jobs with good pay until retirement available, I’m sure that many young professionals would be happy to accept them. However, due to structural changes and the current economic crisis, the situation is different. That’s why people will have to use all of their energy and creativity in order to get by – this is the central challenge to each individual.
What does that mean in numbers?
Eichhorst: On the one hand, our surveys show that, after all, 55 percent of working people still have permanent full-time jobs and that this percentage hasn’t been decreasing dramatically at all in recent years. Besides, the overall number of available jobs is higher than it was five or ten years ago. Thus, the labor market is bigger than it was in the past. Many women and previously unemployed people have entered the market as well. We consider a relatively stable proportion to have additional employment opportunities as freelancers, temporary workers, or part-time workers. On the other hand, transitional phases at career entry levels have become longer. Today, many high-skilled people initially work as trainees or interns, acquire additional qualifications, or have temporary work contracts. Starting a career this way has become normal for most of them. You could say that they perceive it as an extended probationary period.
Thus, soon everything will be as it was before the crisis?
Eichhorst: No. The burden of the adjustments to come will not only be carried by the margin – by which I mean part-time workers or job beginners – but also by the core of the labor market. People working for classic large-scale employers such as Opel, Quelle, Schaeffler, or Märklin are very likely to get laid off sooner or later. Jobs that were considered crisis-proof for a long time are disappearing now, and they won’t become available again to the extent that we have become used to. Thus, the structural change rather will be accelerated by the crisis. Both the mailorder business and the manufacturing sector are shrinking rapidly. The car industry – a sector that used to be relatively viable in Germany – is currently undergoing a painful reduction in size. Similar developments have recently become visible in the financial services sector. For employees, this results in a greater necessity to switch to other occupational areas, including the service sector.
Do more people in Germany start their own businesses today?
Eichhorst: This trend can be confirmed. However, Germany lags behind other nations in this respect due to our tradition of socially secure, permanent employment relationships and the widespread longing for public sector employment. Besides, up to now, it wasn’t really necessary to deal with this issue due to the relatively good condition of the job market. Recently, starting your own business has been rehabilitated and it has also received public support. Just think of the “Me Incorporated” phenomenon: Particularly in the creative industry and in the media business, this has become one of the dominant models. In any case, major cities like Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg, or Munich have virtually become “laboratories” where these trends can be observed earlier and have grown more prevalent than in other regions.
Does all of this also imply a chance? Historically speaking, many big brands and products were created during times of crisis…
Eichhorst: I agree. It is certainly possible that, just now, business ideas are being developed and companies are being established – either due to sheer necessity or due to opportunity – that we might be well familiar with ten years from now. However, I somewhat doubt that Germany provides the right basis or sufficient starting points for the emergence of something like this.
What is missing?
Eichhorst: Most notably, we need adequate support for founders of new businesses. Moreover, our educational system does not put enough emphasis on, e.g., the development of sustainable ideas in colleges…
…which isn’t the case in the United States.
Eichhorst: Exactly. The economic stimulus packages provided by the German government, however, focus on rather conservative things like scrapping incentives, road construction costs, or short-term employment – in short: things that essentially serve to slow down structural change.
What exactly should our government do instead?
Eichhorst: It should invest more money into the support of smaller businesses that are being established at the moment. This would result in more positive multiplier effects other than financing businesses that, sooner or later, shrink or disappear anyway.
Which fields should receive financial support?
Eichhorst: Energy efficiency, intelligent buildings, new forms of energy generation, modern solutions in the field of traffic engineering, education, research…and, most notably, innovative concepts in the field of healthcare – which is another sector that has antiquated administrative structures in Germany but offers enormous innovation and business potential.
How Digital Natives Change the Working World
Around the globe, experts are observing the current fundamental changes in the working world. One of them is Alexander Greisle, who formerly worked for the Fraunhofer-Institut für Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation (Fraunhofer Institute for Work Management and Organization). Today, he runs his own business, consulting clients such as the European Union, Bayer AG, and Allianz in the development and implementation of new management and office concepts. Greisle publishes regularly on, as he puts it, “trends in the working world, providing information workers with tips and dealing with the information society.” Probably the most important trend that not only Greisle has come across is the way in which so-called “Digital Natives” redefine work. This generation that has grown up with the Internet and cell phones is being
