Commentary

Laying off workers - a necessary evil!

Laying off workers is not a new phenomenon. Over decades it has hit all type of industries, big and small companies, white and blue collar workers worldwide. It is a necessary evil for businesses to survive and also to 'die'.

The continuous revolution in science and technology, combined with globalisation, is rendering economies more knowledge-based, transforming organisational structures and operations. Thus, during their lifespan, organisations need to be remodelled to face this revolution.

Organisations need to take this phenomenon more seriously. From the managerial point of view, bosses are to be good managers rather than looking for popularity. They should always seek to hire doers and starters, even if the latter are so good that probably they would not stay long with the company.

It is argued that the best people will have a beneficial effect in the company even in a short time on the job, by raising the level of performance of those around them. Moreover, good managers are those who train their people, retrain them and give them opportunities to grow within the organisation, by offering them various routes for further learning and skills development.

However managers are in duty bound to take action with laid back workers, who can contaminate teamwork and render their organisation uncompetitive.

Moreover, professional managers should build an environment on open communication and trust, and therefore when bad news needs to be communicated, employees might be more willing to accept the measures necessary to get the company through such bad times.

Laying off workers requires a new mindset by all workers and by society as a whole. The philosophy of a job for life has long been obsolete. However, until bad news does not knock on our door, we would never believe it can hit us.

Most workers ignore the new trends of the economy and are not geared up to face the challenges when their organisation is obliged to take a quantum leap to follow new trends.

All this means that workers should take more interest to understand the dynamics of the labour market, where low value companies are moving to low cost countries and new companies demanding high skilled jobs are moving into our labour market.

Workers should continue investing in their lifelong learning to better combat any eventual trauma of a job loss. They should not rely on their employer to fund their education, develop their career and achieve higher skills.

Enriching their portfolio will make them more flexible, adaptable and employable. Workers should set a vision for their future and face life's challenges with strong determination. If their present work environment is not offering them the self-actualisation they have aspired to achieve, they should look for new challenges elsewhere.

The same applies if their organisation is planning to restructure or downsize operations. Life's challenges should be embraced with boldness and any trauma that these might bring about should be faced.

Moreover, workers can now seek recognition and accreditation of their formal, informal and non-formal learning through the Malta Qualifications Council, set up by the government to also ensure that vocational education and training qualifications reflect relevance to the economy.

These measures, besides offering better job opportunities to workers, will reduce the gap between the demand and supply of the labour market.

Despite that the local labour market will continue to be threatened by the phenomenon of job losses, we are already experiencing some positive trends. Statistics show that, despite the number of workers who have lost their job recently, the unemployment rate is at its lowest level in seven years (4.9 per cent against 7.3 per cent in 2005).

New jobs have been created, some existing high value companies, especially in the manufacturing sector, are expanding their operations and other high value companies will be moving to Malta, creating more jobs. With regard to vocational education, between 2000 and 2004 the participation rate has increased by 65 per cent.

Moreover, the government has allocated huge funds from the EU Budget for 2007-2013 to generate more and better jobs, create a knowledge-based economy and improve the environment and infrastructure. Details of these objectives can be found in The National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) on www.mfin. gov.mt/page.aspx?site=MFIN&page=NSRF.