{"id":3944,"date":"2022-06-30T13:21:08","date_gmt":"2022-06-30T10:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogit.jamk.fi\/turbinaattori\/?p=3944"},"modified":"2024-02-09T15:38:26","modified_gmt":"2024-02-09T12:38:26","slug":"the-airport-queue-thoughts-about-the-labor-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogit.jamk.fi\/turbinaattori\/2022\/06\/30\/the-airport-queue-thoughts-about-the-labor-market\/","title":{"rendered":"The Airport Queue: Thoughts About the Labor Market"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I have just dropped off my bag and I am trying to find my way to the gate on Schiphol Airport. The signposts are contradicting and confusing which, to my experience, is a typical Dutch style. There shouldn\u2019t be a problem, I don\u2019t even need to go through passport control. I pass through a queue which is continuing up the stairs. This couldn\u2019t be my way, I think, but I decide to ask the staff and they confirm that I need to be on this queue, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m now trying to find the queue\u2019s end. I\u2019m walking and walking, but it never ends. I reach a door going to airport\u2019s yard. There is a tent set up as a continuance of the building and it is hundreds of meters long. I realize that I need to go to its end to even join the queue. While walking, I count and confirm in my head that I have arrived the traditionally suggested two hours before the flight, but now I regret my decision to kill my last two hours in Amsterdam on a sightseeing boat. Did I just miss my plane over sightseeing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the end of the queue a staff member is screaming:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-Before or after two o\u2019clock?
-At two sharp, I say.
-Go to the queue, you should make it, he reassures me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now on the queue, I meet the confused faces of those arriving after me. A few minutes ago, I was as shocked as them, but now I am just bored, dragging my feet slowly forwards. There is a sense of helplessness on this queue \u2013 no one can get around it. It is curving through the airport as a mythical snake \u2013 from the yard to the interior, the stairs, and the multifold labyrinth of security check. I now think, I have never seen a queue like this. I know though, I only need to concentrate on getting through, while my activity bracelet is documenting the distance for me. I just take a few photos as evidence of this craziness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Picture 1. The measurement of my activity bracelet on the queue of Schiphol \u2013 one hour of walking and a distance of 2,68km.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time I reach the security check I\u2019ve received feedback from Finland that this situation has been on the news and is due to shortage of staff. I don\u2019t see any shortage of staff, everything is working on its full capacity and looks busy, unlike Helsinki-Vantaa Airport two days earlier, which seemed half-empty, although there were warnings of possible congestion due to the post-pandemic summer holiday season starting (Toivonen, Karhu & Ker\u00e4nen 2022).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Picture 2. View of Schiphol\u2019s queue from the tent, upstairs and downstairs<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A global phenomenon<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I have been travelling for a month, both for business and leisure, so I have been detached from the news about the situation on several airports around the world (e.g., Kr\u00f6ger 2022). On my first day back at the office, I learn on a webinar that Schiphol has become a symbol of the shortage of staff worldwide. It is evidence of a demographic trend we\u2019ve been warned about many times through the years, but somehow the covid-19 pandemic catalyzed this process too (e.g., Dolan 2022), and the humanity is once again surprised and unprepared. In this case, the airports around the world are not able to react to the new wave of tourists after the harsh layoffs of staff going on for two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a webinar of Nordic Business Forum (Psychological Safety with Amy Edmonson, 2022), Eivind B\u00f8e, a CEO of Randstad Norway, talks about how to recruit and retain talents in an uncertain market. It is a battle for talents, he says, in a world where there aren\u2019t enough people. According to the 2022 Randstad Employer Brand Research (Randstad Employer Brand Research 2022, 2022), the unemployment rate in the EU is at its lowest for the past 15 years, and also in the USA and Norway there are about double vacancies compared to the number of unemployed. B\u00f8e points out that still 8 out of 10 companies have the plan to grow by recruitment. But how?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Norwegian HR company suggests the key is a strong employer brand, which means that the employer must be attractive, recognizable, and likable (Psychological Safety with Amy Edmonson, 2022). B\u00f8e pulls up a figure from the report, presenting five main ways to attract and keep employees:<\/p>\n\n\n\n