Solving skills shortages

The Greek government enacted legislation on 1 July to introduce what was widely reported as the six day working week. This allows private companies that operate 24 hours a day – such as chemical manufacturers – to give employees the option to work an extra eight hours a week, either by extending their existing shifts or by working an additional day.

While the extra working day is supposed to be used only in response to urgent operational demands, one of the justifications for its introduction is to combat a shortage of skilled workers. This is an issue that is of increasing concern to many sectors of the chemical industry worldwide. It’s hard to find a trends forecast or state-of-the-industry report that doesn’t mention a looming skills shortage, attributed to there being insufficient young people entering the workforce to replace skilled workers who are approaching retirement age.

The six day week might help to address that problem, but only if it is a short-term solution. Longer working weeks increase the risk of employees burning out (or, especially if working with heavy machinery, injuring themselves), exacerbating the rate of attrition. And with younger generations tending to place more focus on work–life balance and wellbeing, normalising a six day week will make it even harder to attract fresh talent to the sector.

The only viable long-term solution is to make sure that these jobs – and the entry routes into them, such as apprenticeships – are an attractive career prospect. While that depends to a large extent on the salaries, working hours and other benefits that employers are willing to offer, wider legislation has a role to play too.

The European Year of Skills ended in May, in which the European Commission promoted lifelong learning and investigated ways to support organisations facing skills shortages. Following on from that, the commission intends to take several actions. For example, as well as funding new training routes, the commission will also analyse sick leave policies and the impact of pension reforms in an attempt to minimise the attrition of existing workers. Individual EU countries are also taking action; in Poland, 100,000 new childcare places will be created for children under three years old, helping parents to return to work.

It will take time before we can tell if these measures will effectively address specific skills shortages; they at least appear to introduce improvements that will benefit the workforce more generally. The challenge until then is to make sure short-term fixes don’t overwork existing employees, driving them out of the sector.