Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Where are all the jobs?

by Personnel Today 1 Jul 2002
by Personnel Today 1 Jul 2002

Progressing from the land to the office isn’t always all it’s cracked up to
be, as Vance Kearney discovers

I can’t say that I am ageing well, with four kids, one close to graduating
in computer science just as the boom becomes a bust – and I’m thinking about
bouncing grandchildren on my knees.

My grandfather worked on the land as a tied agricultural labourer and my dad
was a toolmaker. The few people left who know what that is will tell you it is
the elite of the engineering craft trades. Here I am now, head of HR for a
successful global multinational in Europe. It seems the family has progressed
well from the land to the office, from poverty to relative riches. Yes, life
and Larry Ellison have been good to me.

Can you remember the bad old days when we were all in coal mining,
shipbuilding, steel production and manufacturing? That was dirty old work,
wasn’t it? Luckily that all went to the Far East. The West was too expensive.
Those businesses couldn’t support our economic and social needs, and today we
are all far happier as knowledge workers with our service industries,
air-conditioned offices and Starbucks.

We never had it so good, what with full employment, generous state pensions
and welfare states and good health and education services, despite what the
papers say. Until now, that is, when it all became too darned hard.

Hands up all employers that like employing people in Europe – and don’t tell
me you like 50 per cent payroll taxes, and 30 months pay to lay people off,
every decision challenged in a workers’ court or a workers’ council. What are
you, masochists? I know it keeps us HR types busy, but get real – this is utter
lunacy.

But fear not, it’s going to get easier. Not because governments will wise up
(no-one gets elected by facing hard facts) but because all the jobs are going
away. Don’t you believe me? Where’s the fastest growing centre for shared
services and back-office functions (such as HR and finance)? It is Bangalore.
What’s the predicted global market for back-office outsourcing? $200bn in five
years. Where can you deliver most of the functions we excel at in Europe and
the west: financial services, travel and distribution, publishing, technology
and media? India again. An almost limitless supply (by European standards) of
highly educated talent just itching to take over the work we do best.

There are as many software developers in Hyderabad as there are in Europe.
We lost manufacturing and the service sector will go the same way as telecoms
and the internet make physical locations irrelevant. Read the article Back
Office to the World Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai in The Economist, 3 May, if you
think I have a screw loose.

So, as Europe’s social agenda moves ahead on a wave of popular electoral
support, while the governments of Europe promise pensions they can’t pay for
and employment rights that no one can afford, I have some advice: invest that
bulging severance cheque wisely; your grandchildren may have to live on it.

The Economist article is available to subscribers at http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=610986

Vance Kearney is vice-president of HR for Oracle-Europe, Middle East and
Africa. However, the views represented here are solely his own

Personnel Today
Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
Call centre initiative gives staff recognisable qualifications
next post
Britons turn to drink to relieve stress

You may also like

Employees going into office just 1.5 days a...

15 Aug 2022

Barrister wins gender critical belief discrimination claim

27 Jul 2022

‘Patchy’ mental health services failing ethnic minority communities

11 Jul 2022

Global study highlights hypertension treatment failings

8 Jul 2022

NICE sets out new guideline on managing depression

8 Jul 2022

Half of employees struggle to switch off on...

8 Jul 2022

Five steps for organisations across the globe to...

8 Jun 2022

The Search for Talent: Six Major Employer Pitfalls

24 May 2022

Grants scheme set up to support women’s health...

16 May 2022

How music can help to ease anxiety at...

9 May 2022
  • 6 reasons why work-based learning is better than traditional training PROMOTED | A recent Fortune/Deloitte survey found that 71% of CEOs are anticipating that this year’s biggest business disrupter...Read more
  • Strengthening Scotland’s public services through virtual recruiting PROMOTED | This website is Scotland's go-to place for job seekers looking to apply for roles in public services...Read more
  • What’s next for L&D? Enter Alchemist… PROMOTED | It’s time to turn off the tedious and get ready for interactive and immersive learning experiences...Read more
  • Simple mistakes are blighting the onboarding experience PROMOTED | The onboarding of new hires is a company’s best chance...Read more
  • Preventing Burnout: How can HR help key workers get the right help? PROMOTED | Workplace wellbeing may seem a distant memory...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+