Allow me, first of all, to extend our warmest congratulations to the organizers and convenors of this regional symposium, and to the participants from different countries, institutions and organizations who have come to contribute their share in finding ways of being responsible for the well-being and welfare of migrant workers destined for deployment overseas.
Our presence here for this Regional Symposium on the Deployment of Workers Overseas is an affirmation of the need to take a long and hard look at the realities affecting the deployment of workers from our home countries to workplaces overseas. Our sincerity and our candidness in admitting that we all have a shared responsibility in upholding the rights and ensuring the welfare of migrant workers in search of better opportunities whom we deploy in foreign lands, is –- I believe – already a clear indication that our presence here is motivated by an earnest desire to seriously confront and provide lasting solutions to the multifarious problems affecting the overseas/global recruitment industry.
Labor mobility as a reaction to crisis and opportunitiesFrom the past decades up to the present, a combination of socio-economic and demographic factors have spurred millions of workers from all over Asia to cross borders in search of better job opportunities. The continuing economic crisis in the developing countries, the rapid advances that have reduced transportation and communication costs, the export of migrant labour to highly developed Western countries and the dynamic economies in the East Asian region and Gulf States – all these have generated a continuously growing demand for employment intermediation. And for the convenors and participants in this Symposium, we are all aware that the tripartite approach has proven to provide the most meaningful and lasting solutions to problems spawned by the global phenomenon of labour migration.
While many of the most pressing concerns today affecting labour migration are being successfully addressed through the collaborative and cooperative efforts of employer’s and worker’s organizations in both the origin and destination countries, the private recruitment industry, as well as labour-related national and international agencies, much remains to be accomplished. But significant headway is already being attained specifically through private sector initiatives aimed at improving recruitment practices and safeguarding the employment conditions of migrant workers.
The experience of our very own Company – EDI-Staffbuilders International, Inc. – virtually chronicles the peaks and valleys that the global recruitment industry has gone through over the past 28 years. From our humble origins as John Clements Consultants, Inc., a start-up local recruitment company in the Philippines in 1974 to our continuous growth and evolution into a full-service, one-stop, human resource solutions provider after 35 years, it has been our determination and persistence to strive for leadership and excellence that has enabled us to attain the status of being a world-class service provider and become one of the largest international recruitment consulting companies in the Philippines.
Best practices in global recruitmentIn all humility, we believe that our strict and faithful adherence to what we consider as the fundamental ‘best practices’ in global recruitment that we pointed out in an earlier ILO conference in Geneva sometime in 2005, can be considered by the industry as guide posts which can significantly impact on the conditions of migrant workers worldwide. These include the following:
- Market segmentation and niche marketing. This entails conducting thorough research and studies of countries with potential recruitment needs and looking for clients who share the needs and principles of your company.
- Exploring and developing new markets. This allows the company to adapt to downturns in demand for existing markets and opens up new opportunities elsewhere. It often entails sending competent executives to establish a presence in new markets.
- Institutionalizing professionalism in business. This requires the commitment to provide and deliver only quality service. It also demands continuous and updated training for your pool of consultants.
- Charging no placement fees for job seekers. Not charging any unnecessary or exorbitant fees emphasizes the professional value of the people being recruited, whether they are engineers or welders, health professionals or laboratory technicians. It strengthens their self-esteem to know that they are being chosen for their capabilities and not whether they can pay the fees which are not even required.
- Setting up branch operations in mature markets. This practice further solidifies relationships with businesses and clients in countries where the company has attained an established presence. It also ensures easy and continuing access to workers who have been deployed in these countries.
- Forming global alliances and establishing strategic partnerships with reputable recruitment companies who adhere to the same principles and standards that we maintain. This ensures that we are able to bring in and offer the multidisciplinary professions and expertise of Filipino overseas workers to a broader market, including countries where we do not yet have any presence.
- Recruiting to protect the recruitment industry and its migrant workers. This entails continuously promoting the goodwill of the Company and discouraging workers from taking unnecessary risks or situations that may lead to abuse. It also entails providing the best qualified candidates to foreign principals who in turn will provide the workers with reasonable working conditions and employee benefits.
- Establishing a cooperative, complementary and collaborative relationship with regulatory agencies. The Company has strictly followed and adhered to the regulations, rules and policies of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration.
The ability to adapt to emerging demands and challengesApart from adhering to the abovementioned best practices that we have identified, it has also been our ability to adapt to the emerging and more challenging demands and continually changing realities that has enabled us to excel in this highly competitive industry. The conflict in the Gulf region brought about by the invasion of Kuwait and the resulting tensions in the Middle East, the bursting of the dot.com bubble in the United States and Europe, the apprehensions caused by the Y2K bug, and the aftermath of 9/11 had wide ranging effects on the global movement of migrant workers, as well as on the operations of international recruitment industry. Through all these difficult times, our ability of adapt rapidly to fast-changing market conditions enabled us to implement the necessary mitigating measures that allowed us to weather the adverse effects of such situations.
The economic boom that came in the aftermath of 9/11 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Coast countries that occurred as a result of continually rising price of oil has again opened vast opportunities for job openings in a volume and variety unheard of since the first Oil Boom in the 1970s. Undoubtedly, the emerging market demands not only in this region, but in countries like Japan, Australia, Canada, Denmark, New Zealand and China, augurs well for the global recruitment industry.
In the last three years, new and potential high-end markets in certain regions and countries have opened as a result of the softening up of their previously rigid opposition that limited the entry of foreign workers. This welcome development augurs well not only for the Philippines but its neighboring Asian countries in terms of greater overseas employment opportunities, better host countries, far superior standards of employment conditions and labor practices, higher pay scales and better employee benefits.
Achieving breakthroughs in new labor marketsEDI-SBII, for one, has achieved significant breakthroughs in new labor markets like Canada, Australia and New Zealand which now seek qualified nurses, engineers and other highly skilled workers. The current boom in the hospitality industry in Macau has made it the target of thousands of jobseekers from neighboring countries. This has been aided by its proximity and the relative ease in getting into the territory due to its ‘open door’ policy aimed at boosting tourism by encouraging the constant flow of visitors into the country. Similarly, Singapore has recently experienced a surge of foreign workers, and a significant number of them are Filipinos who have found jobs in call centers, and the banking/finance and hospitality industries, among others.
Norway, Denmark and other European countries have slowly but surely started to lay the groundwork that will pave the way for Asian workers to gain employment as the respective governments have forged cooperative efforts towards this direction. In the case of Japan, presently known to have a high ratio of elderly technical and engineering work force, the infusion of a younger generation of additional or replacement workers – most possibly sourced from other countries – has become a necessity if only to bolster the ranks of the country’s own local talents and workers. Accordingly, strategic alliances and collaborative efforts to actualize such objectives have been rolled out by leading and reputable Japanese recruitment organizations in their effort to adequately address the growing demand for a highly qualified technical work force.
In the light of all these new and challenging developments, recruitment companies in deploying countries like the Philippines do not have the luxury of taking our own sweet time and dictating or imposing our terms of engagement. Undoubtedly, the demands will be high when it comes to providing world-class services, and only the best manpower available to fill up the tens of thousands of new jobs in these emerging markets will have to be supplied. As the manpower reserves of the originating countries continue to dwindle and the job and career opportunities beyond our respective borders increase exponentially, the demands on international recruitment agencies will inevitably take on greater magnitude and broader perspective. Meeting such challenges, therefore, is an imperative for all stakeholders in the industry.
Adopting new strategies to address new challengesTo respond to the growing demands of the emerging markets, our Company has embarked on new recruitment strategies designed to expand and deepen the talent pool from which it can draw recruits to fill up the growing number of job openings and opportunities. These strategies include the following:
- Partnering with education and training institutions. Establishing relationships with top universities and technical training centers for the placement of their graduates and providing valuable inputs in curriculum development based on market demands and realities will ensure the creation of a bigger and deeper talent pool from which reputable recruitment agencies can draw to fill up new job openings.
- Establishing strategic alliances with leading and reputable recruitment firms in other countries who share our principles and standards. The partnerships and alliances that we have established with recruitment companies in Malaysia, Singapore, China, Australia, the Emirates, Papua New Guinea, to name a few, have allowed us to meet our manpower demands in hotel services, construction/engineering, aircraft and petrochemical industries in the emerging markets.
- Encouraging and advocating our clients to establish appropriate technical training centers in the Philippines. This will assist in providing potential job candidates in acquiring the knowledge and skills training that fit the specific needs of the clients. Komatsu Corporation and Cape East companies have already set up their respective technical training centers to meet their manpower requirements.
- Pursuing the strategy of borderless recruitment. As a company known for its capability to recruit the best qualified candidates for managerial, technical and professional and manpower requirements for its clients, it sometimes becomes necessary to resort to overseas sourcing and recruit overseas Filipino workers who are already deployed in other countries such as Malaysia, Dubai, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. Recruitment of other nationalities like Malaysians and Indonesians has likewise been necessary to suit the demands of certain clients. This recruitment scheme provides the migrant workers with better opportunities and greater options to improve their lives.
- Riding on the new wave of labor needs and demands in the market. The expansion of new industries that do not require on-site presence and are often outsourced -- specifically those related to customer service, technical support, telemarketing and business process outsourcing -- has spawned a host of new job openings. It now becomes necessary for international recruitment companies to expand their service offerings to be able to tap into this very profitable market.
Meeting the demands of emerging markets: Some recommendations
With these opportunities wide open for the taking, it has become mandatory for international recruitment companies to start gearing up in order to take advantage of the demands of the emerging markets. Some
recommendations that may prove to be very useful include the following:
- Create a working group comprised of major international companies, reputable recruitment firms, education and training institutions from both the government and private sectors to address the emerging labor market demands – e.g., aligning curricula with industry needs, placement programs, demographic studies, and information sharing.
- Conduct intensified and comprehensive career counselling sessions with high school and college graduates for informed decision making related to education and training institutions, labor market demands and international qualification standards.
- Increase the number of sponsorships/donors for scholarship programs supported by international corporations to motivate their students and develop loyalty to the donor companies.
- Undertake programs like encouraging international firms and philanthropic organizations to adopt existing technical schools or training centers to improve the quality and increase the number of its graduates.
- Advocate and lobby for additional government support for policies that will open up additional opportunities for scholarships or “study now, pay later” programs.
- Encourage foreign companies to provide apprenticeship programs for skills training that would require on-the-job training.
- Initiate the upgrading of the proficiency levels in the language curricula of schools particularly those offering courses in hotel/hospitality and health care to include conversational English, Arabic, Finnish, Nihonggo, Spanish and Mandarin.
- Provide academic and educational institutions with an orientation on in-demand skills and job opportunities that dovetail with the requirements of the oil and gas industries.
The ability to meet the emerging demands of the global economy starts with proactive approaches that will enable international recruitment companies to hire and train a new generation of migrant workers who will be better educated, adequately trained and highly motivated to join the ranks of migrant workers who are now managing and manning corporations all over the world. For their part, foreign principals, should likewise be supportive of initiatives that provide better quality education, adequate training and a humane work environment. This will assure the emergence of a competent, highly motivated and productive work force.
For state regulatory agencies and international labor institutions who are mandated to safeguard the interests and welfare of workers whatever their nationality or wherever their workplaces may be, it has become increasingly necessary to adopt and uphold what have been identified as the “best practices” in hiring migrant workers and foster genuine human development in a sector that has brought the world to its present state of civilization.
May all the actions that we will undertake as a result of this Symposium bring about a broader and deeper sense of cooperation and collaboration between all stakeholders in order to truly protect the interests of migrant workers all over the world.
Thank you and good day.
