HRM and skills development - February 2019

Re-skilling adults is key to future employment
A new OECD report (Getting Skills Right: Future-Ready Adult Learning Systems) says that new technologies, globalisation and population ageing are changing the quantity and quality of jobs as well as the skills they require. Providing better skilling and re-skilling opportunities to workers affected by these changes is essential to make sure the future works for all. You can read the report online.

Robots and people together: positive news
Will robots and people become the best buddies in the workplace? That mainly depends on what kind of work it is about and what is meant by 'the workplace'. Manpower has conducted a major study that shows that companies that invest in automation also attract more employees (or at least stay constant). You can download the report after filling in your details.
Fraunhofer reports on a technology to teach large industrial robots to interactively and 'intuitively' take on tasks and thus - literally - collaborate with other production employees in the same space.

Robots and people together: not everybody enthusiastic
According to a new study published by scientists from Johannes Kepler Universität Linz and Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, people in Europe are more reserved regarding robots than they were five years ago. The research based on population statistics (Eurobarometer), shows that Europeans are relatively positive about robots as long as they have a more or less theoretical concept in mind. They are increasingly critically when the robot is specified and personal interactions appear imminent. It shows that men tend to see robots as positively, while women are more sceptical. Blue-collar workers have more negative attitudes towards robots than people with office jobs. And in countries with a high proportion of older people, the attitudes towards robots are more positive. An article about the research is published in Computers in Human Behavior. The summary can be found here.

Staff shortage hampers growth
Research by ING Bank (in Dutch) shows that the Dutch labour market is tightening further and further. Two-thirds of the companies surveyed in the Netherlands expect to face a shortage of staff in 2019. According to the companies, the biggest problem on the labour market is the mismatch between supply and demand in terms of knowledge and skills. This is the conclusion of a survey of more than 1,000 Dutch companies. In one in ten companies with personnel shortages, the scarcity is expected to lead to a 6% or more drop in turnover this year. In order to cope with staff shortages, companies are forced to train their employees themselves. You can download the report here (in Dutch, 736 kB).

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