Alexander Wilhelm

International Cooperation

Public Employment Services and Employers

– The approach of the Bundesagentur für

Arbeit (BA) in Germany -

• Population: 83 million,

Capital Berlin: 3.6 million inhabitants

• Economy– Proportion of GDP

• Services: 68,9%

• Manufacturing: 25,7%

• Construction: 4.8%

• Agriculture: 0.6%

• Employment: 43.82 million in employment

• of whom 32 million in employment subject to full social security contributions (others:

self-employed, civil servants, etc.)

• Unemployment rate in April 2017 ca. 5,8 % (= ca. 2.56 million persons)

Large Regional differences remaining east/west; north/south:• Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania : 10.3 %

• Berlin: 9.6%

• Bavaria: 3.8%

• Ongoing positive trend on the labour market:• 2005: 5 million unemployed

• 2017: 2.56 million unemployed

Key data: Federal Republic of Germany

Board of Governors

Regional DirectoratesManagement Board

MD Operations Chair MD HR/Finance

Head OfficeProduct Development, Finance

and Controls, HR, ITP,

Management Support

Executive BoardChair of Executive Board

Structure of the Federal Employment Agency (BA)

Exec. Board Member

responsible for

Labour Market

Exec. Board

Member

responsible for

Regional Policy

Employment AgenciesManagement Board

Employers

(associations) Trade unions Public bodies

Germany

ca. 400

districts and cities

National level

State level

Local level

16 states

Taxpayer-funded Basic Income SupportUnemployment Benefits funded

Federal Ministry for Labour and

Social Affairs

1

10

156

Branches604

Job Centrejointly run by Agency and local authority

303

Service Units

Operational

services

Internal services

Service centres

40

40

52

IAB Institute

for

Employment

Research

with regional

offices

BA University of

Applied Labour

Studies

specialized college

Family Benefits Officewith regional support offices

Unemployment

Benefit

Taxpayer-funded

Basic Income

Support

Main Staff

Council

Employees: 98.739

Offices: 1,000

ZAV

International

and

Specialized

Services

with regional

offices

IT Systems

House

Leadership

Academy

BA Service

House

Training Centres

➢ The BA is primarily financed by social insurance contributions by employees and employers (50:50)

➢ The planned budget of the BA for 2017 = Income of 37.4 billion Euros and expenditure of 35.9 billion Euros

➢ 98.739 Men and Women work at the BA – Six percent of them are employed in the employer´s service (AGS)

➢ Record high in job vacancies in 1/2017: ca. 1,1 Mio. Job vacancies, around 2/3 are reported to the PES by Employers

➢ Occupation of 193.618 reported job vacancies in April 2017 – 23% of them via BA.

➢ Which general services are offered to employers?

• Labour market counselling, preparation of job advertisements and granting of integration benefits

• preselection of candidates (involving the medical/vocational psychology service if necessary)

➢ Which channels do we use to provide services to employers?

• Telephone contacts, on-site visit and Key Account Management

• Also provision of e-services like JOBBÖRSE, employer account, HR-BA-XML interface for all employers

General Information – PES funding & services for employers

(Joint) employer service (AG-S) in figures

370 AG-S teams with approx. 5,900 skilled agents and executives

(4,500 in Employment Agencies / 1,400 in Jobcentres for long-term unemployment)

156 Employment Agencies

303 joint facilities (of that 88 % in the joint employer service AG-S)

Volume of orders 2016

approx. 2.2 m reported vacancies

approx. 550,000 reported vocational training

vacancies

Organisation of BA´s service for employers (AG-S)(AG-S) in Zahlen

The aim of the Federal

Employment Agency is to

provide the first contact

and to be a competent

service provider

for employers in all

aspects of the labour

market

• The AG-S is an independent organizational unit

within the Federal Employment Agency

• The personnel structure and technical content are

determined by the strategic orientation and the

business policy focus (profiling of employers), which

are determined by the local PES-unit in decentralized

responsibility.

• Regional structures of the AG-S and provided services

for employers are determined by the industrial /

economic structure in the region.

• services for employers are supplied by specialists,

e.g. in general labour-market counselling, qualification

of staff, integration of disabled employees

Employer´s Service (AG-S) On-Site

Schnittstellen- und Netzwerkpartner des Arbeitgeber-

Service

Stronger Together

AG-S

AN-V SGBII/

SGBIII

Ärztliche

Dienst

ZAV

Berufs-

psycho-

logischer

Dienst

U25/BB

BCA

SGBII/

SGBIII

Wirtschafts-

förderung

Kommunal-

politik

Landes-

politik

Sozial-

versicher-

ungsträger

Integrations-

ämter

InnungenKammern

Schulen/

Berufs-

schulen

Bildungs-

träger

INQA-

Netzwerk

TBD

…external network partners

…internal interfaces

Interface and network partners of the AG-S

SME: Small & medium-sized enterprises;

LE: Large enterprises;

TEA: Temporary employment agencies;

General and strategic classification

1 Company differentiation

SME

Strategically seen: What

kind of employer is it?

Goal: Effective and

economic use of resources

in line with the need of the

company

Starting point and where

do we want to go?

Goal: Individual planning of

future cooperation with

Employers under strategic

aspects

Develop and expand customer relationship, select and implement service

Strategically:

• Build up customer• Extend customer relations

Operational:

• Vacancies-oriented job placement• Cooperation with

an applicant-oriented placement• (Labourmarket) consulting• Information

Customer care How do we get there?

Goal:

Convince of BA`s

services and build up

professional partnership

Analyse current situation of company

• Employment structure & turn-over, communication channel, quality of cooperation

• Relevance for the regional labor market from the perspective of the Employment

Agency

Customer differentiation

Determine customer group

• Potential

customer

• New customer • Active

customer• Employer without active

client relationship

Set goal

Initialise cooperation, develop, hold, recover, react

LE TEA

2

3

Profiling employers as customers

Understanding the market – employers needs and challenges

General structural conditions in the region

labour market

education

social affairs

demographics

In-depth analysis of the regional market to

identify local potential for action

Basic measures & general services of the PES

Additional services of the PES

(Further) development of local employment strategy with regional network partners

Assessing overall trends

assessment of chances /risks by branches of industryon a national level

local verification in close cooperation with employer representatives in the PES board of governors at national and local level

Tailor-made & need-based services for employers

• General services (e.g. preparation

of job advertisements, granting of

integration benefits, preselection and

proposal of candidates)

• In-depth Support for small and

medium-sized enterprises (e.g.

counselling on skill development)

• e-services and key-account service

(Großkundenbetreuung”) for large

companies (e.g. shared interfaces)

• Cooperation with Temporary

employment agencies as mediators

in the market

Life and work are

becoming more mobile,

flexible and volatile

Markets are becoming

more international

The knowledge and

information society is

developing rapidly

Demographic change is

becoming noticeable

Public finances remain

in short supply

Staff

requirementPlacement order

Professional support with

securing the supply of

skilled workers

Best match

placement

proposal

Labour market

counsellingCounselling on

alternative

approaches for securing

the supply of skilled

workers

PlacementTapping and “marketing”

of all applicant potentials

SME

Large

companies

Temporary

employment

agenciesE-services

High customer

satisfaction

High utilisation

rate

High degree of transparency

about the labour market

Bringing

people and

jobs together

Our aims and solutions for employers

Extended counselling requirement

regarding other corporate fields of action

e.g. cooperation with regional partners for holistic counselling

Qualification counselling

Labour market counselling &

counselling on alternative corporate fields of action to

secure sufficient supply of skilled workers

Integration of

internal

interface partners/

external

network partners

Employer

customer

Placement

order

Extended counselling requirement

regarding questions of in-company

further training/personnel development

Placement

difficult

Extended requirement for

implementation support

Additional services for employers

Employers are advised on and informed about the following topics:

Filling of vacancies/

vocational training

opportunities, e.g.

➢ alternative recruitment

strategies, e.g.

• initial training of young

adults

➢ including alternative

applicants, e.g.

• disabled people

• low-skilled workers

and skill-development

• refugees

• long-term unemployed

people

• Recruiting foreign

skilled labour

➢ Information on subsidies

supplied by the PES for

employing

disadvantaged groups

Design of work-

places & working

conditions, e.g.

➢ measures for work-life

balance

➢ in-company health

promotion

➢ age(ing)-appropriate

workplace design

➢ working hour

arrangements

➢ diversity

Vocational training

and further

training, e.g.

➢ qualification

counselling

➢ further training of low-

skilled and elderly

employees in

enterprises and

respective subsidies

supplied by the PES

Current situation

and trends on the

labour market, e.g.

➢ Demographic

development & supply

of applicants

➢ labour demand &

further development of

occupations on national

and regional level

➢ new job profiles (e.g.

digitalisation)

What is labour market counselling?

➢ To prepare placement agents for the employers service, AG-S staff is trained in different fields.

➢ General training includes especially the fields of sales orientation, labour market counselling and

training placement.

➢ For offering professional services, AG-S staff is also trained in contents regarding the design of

workplaces, addressing employers and communication and conflict management.

➢ Training in legal backgrounds regarding the employment of foreigners – not only due to the large

number of refugees and immigrants in Germany over the last couple of months – is another

important aspect of the qualification programme for placement agents and counsellors in the

employer service.

➢ Beyond that, placement agents and counsellors are also qualified regarding topics of data

protection, operator's rights and handling and counselling on IT processes in the BA.

Qualification of agents and counsellors in the AG-S

Future challenges in the AGS

Growing complexity of processes and growing shortage of skilled-labour:

• Matching demand and supply on the labour market is becoming increasingly difficult due to

the decrease in applicants improve job placement services and profiling of candidates.

• PES-internal exchange of information and interaction between employee- and employer-

oriented placement agents and counsellors is becoming more important.

Tapping the potential of all groups on the labour market:

• Offering tailor-made measures and subsidies for the integration of disadvantaged groups

(e.g. low-skilled worker, long-term unemployed and refugees) becomes more important.

• Support in recruiting skilled workers from abroad gains importance.

Digitalisation and growing need for ongoing skill-development in SMEs

• Requirement for targeted counselling of SME employers and growing variety of counselling

topics requires intensification of counselling services.

• Further professionalization of labour market counselling and specialised PES consulting

services is necessary.

Thank you!