Employers stuck in place? Knowledge sector recruitment between regional embeddedness and internationalization

ABSTRACT

Employers are of critical importance in shaping flows of workers. This paper examines how larger employers in knowledge-intensive industries tackle demand for a high-skilled workforce within their specific spatial context. The empirical material stems from a qualitative study of employers in an older industrial German city. The analysis focuses on three interrelated aspects of human resource management: experiences with shortages of high-skilled labour; scales of recruitment; and workforce diversity. It finds that the spatial setting is an important factor, yet the degree by which employers are shaped by it depends on the type of employer and its level of internationalization.

KEYWORDS:

• regional labour markets
• human resource management
• employers
• scale
• spatial context
• workforce diversity

JEL:

• J61
• M54
• R23
• R58

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author thanks two anonymous reviewers for constructive and valuable comments.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. While definitions of ‘skills shortage’ (Fachkräftemangel in German) vary, they usually refer to labour market situations where employers need longer to fill vacancies or notice a decrease in the number of applicants with appropriate qualifications (IAB, 2015, p. 39).

2. For this paper, work-related mobility comprises all types where the mobility is for work, including mobility while on the job (i.e., business trips) as well as mobility as migration when moving to a job, yet excluding mobility to work (i.e., everyday commuting).

3. Additional expert interviews were conducted with stakeholders to provide further background (labelled EXP_number), including the city’s business development department, the chamber of commerce, the University of Applied Sciences Dortmund, the TZDO (a network providing support during the recruitment of academics) and a professor from the Department of Computer Science of TU Dortmund.

4. One characteristic of the academic landscape in Germany is the substantial number of non-university research institutes, in addition to higher education institutions (public and private universities and universities of applied sciences). The more renowned of these usually belong to one of the four large research umbrella associations: Max Planck, Fraunhofer, Leibniz or Helmholtz, and receive core federal and state funding.

5. One interview was conducted over the phone and notes taken simultaneously. In another case, the interviewee declined a recording of the interview, but answered all questions in full, with notes taken during and after the interview.

6. Internationalization here refers not only to economic strategies targeting markets, resources, efficiency or assets (e.g., Cantwell et al., 2010) but also to the related process of institutional change within the company or institute such as an increase in workers from abroad.

7. In brief, the employers use a variety of recruitment channels: in-office searches, including identifying suitable candidates internally or taking on students already working for the employer; external postings, including own websites, online job portals or offline media; using networks, including digital social media career networks (e.g., LinkedIn, Xing) and personal networks of co-workers who may receive a bonus; using labour market intermediaries, such as recruiting agencies; liaising with candidates through events such as job or trade fairs or conferences; or cooperation, for example, with university faculties to identify promising students.

8. Whether the employers in this study face an actual shortage of skilled labour is difficult to assess and beyond the scope of this paper. We must rely on how interviewees responded. It is possible that employers overestimate skills demands to avoid raising salaries or to lobby for policy responses.

9. It has been noted that companies operating in international markets value such ‘citizenship diversity’ as a way of tapping into knowledge of the institutional context of different countries and enlarging social networks (Grillitsch & Chaminade, 2018, p. 2279).

10. Similar to approaches in other German cities, the objective of the Masterplan Science (Masterplan Wissenschaft) was to support the city’s transition to a ‘knowledge city’ (e.g., Matthiesen & Mahnken, 2009).