This year’s iconic World Employment Confederation event will take place September 6-8 in Madrid. It will be a unique event co-organized by ASEMPLEO, the Spanish employers’ association. Staffingamericalatina, media partner of the World Employment Conference 2021, spoke with Andreu Cruañas, President of ASEMPLEO.

“We take on being the hosts with a lot of pride and responsibility”.

S: Andreu, always a pleasure to talk to you, how is the sector in Spain?
AC: The sector has weathered the triple health, economic and regulatory uncertainty well. It is expectant about a labor reform in the making, but let’s say that the government values the guaranteeing elements that temporary employment through temporary employment agencies entails. All forecasts indicate that by the end of 2022 we will have pre-pandemic levels. Our sector generates 4.6 million contracts per year with more than 770 thousand candidates. Guarantees related to wages, prevention of occupational hazards, union control, employability with investment in training with 1.5% of the entire wage bill (wages + social contributions) make us key players in the world of work. Candidates come out of unemployment, develop experiences and continue to work directly in the user companies. We make a special selection for SMEs, those companies that do not have a recruitment department. After two months in the assignment, the user company can hire directly that talent at no cost. We have a ratio of 32%.

S: How interesting is the role of temporality
AC: Indefinite contract does not mean infinite. The only thing that guarantees stability is employability. Market-oriented training and a good support network. We are very good at this process. Our space is protected, we provide guidance so that the candidate does not fail or fail us. Temporariness does not mean precariousness, precariousness is when there is no contract, when there is child labor, when overtime is not paid, when there are no social security or unemployment benefits. There is a wild temporariness, loose in the economy, in nature that has no protection or orientation and that has nothing to do with our sector.

S: We have the big event in Madrid in September, the World Employment Conference will be Conferencia Mundial del Empleo.

AC: That’s right and the big novelty is the mixed character, it will be semi face-to-face or semi digital. It will depend on the moment, on the ability to travel. But it will undoubtedly be unique. It was essential to do it, we are in a crucial moment, and great disruption. We all need to learn from each other. We need light to guide the sector to play a vital role in the new economy. We need to see where the opportunities are occurring. We really assume to be the hosts with a lot of pride and a lot of responsibility.

S: What is the central theme of the Congress?
AC: The themes are talent management, safe and healthy work, the role of new ways of working and digitalization. These will be the four axes, always in the context of a concept that we have been promoting for some years: social innovation. It will be a challenge for us and for all our partners. We must all challenge ourselves. We are very excited about the process.

S: I imagine a very interesting dynamic for this event.
AC: We are working on it. We will have different blocks: one linked to the Future of Work, another to new ways of working and digitalization (of companies, workers, skills and companies in the sector); another on decent work and portability and another on safe and healthy work or how COVID has changed the way we work. There will be parallel sessions, workshops and for the first time we will have sessions in Spanish translated into English and vice versa so that all Spanish speakers will be able to take advantage of all the contents.

S: The Iberoamerican opportunity, you know that staffingamericalatina is Iberoamericanist.
AC: No doubt and they have done a lot for them. I believe that WEC’s expansion is towards Latin America and that we must deepen the Ibero-American dialogue that we developed in Madrid a couple of years ago. We are on that path and the event will be a very interesting accelerator. We must work tirelessly on integration. We see it in the most innovative and technological ecosystem; there is a very close link in this segment.

S: Very interesting phenomena are taking place
AC: Undoubtedly, new business models validated by investors, venture capital funds doing deep analysis. Surely the program will address these issues, with the opportunities that the Ibero-American environment holds.

To get your tickets to be part of the World Employment Conference click now on the following link

https://www.worldemploymentconference.org/website/1309/