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Gli effetti della pandemia sul mercato del lavoro
I riflessi della crisi pandemica sull’economia e il mercato del lavoro. I casi americano e indiano. Una breve analisi di Guido Bolaffi
La pandemia ha terremotato l’economia mondiale. Nella quale sembrano essersi arrestati, se non addirittura rovesciati – molti si chiedono chissà per quanto tempo – alcuni trend considerati fino a ieri irreversibili, come la spinta all’integrazione globale dei mercati o quello, davvero imprevisto, del potere contrattuale della mano d’opera. In particolare nelle grandi aziende e nei settori industriali d’avanguardia, che dopo anni di costante, pesante, declino sembrano oggi rialzare la testa sia per quanto riguarda i salari che le condizioni di lavoro dei dipendenti. Visto che le imprese di mezzo mondo sono costrette ad usare tutti gli incentivi possibili ed immaginabili pur di riuscire a trattenere i propri dipendenti e, alla bisogna, attrarne di nuovi.
Una novità di cui, tra gli altri, davano conto due recenti articoli del New York Times. Il primo, apparso il 7 gennaio nella sezione Daily Business Briefing, diceva: “Jobs are plentiful, but workers are hard to find: wages are rising swiftly, job openings are at elevated level, and the share of people quitting their jobs just touched a record […] intense competition, especially in lower-wage sectors, has presented workers with opportunities to demand and seek higher wages and better working conditions”. Nel secondo, What Testing Shortages, apparso a pochi giorni di distanza, Andrew Ross Sorkin rivelava che “As the Omicron variant of the coronavirus surges across the country, tests are in short supply. But for a select group of employees at corporate America’s largest firms, tests are free and often readily available. These companies have been buying tests in bulk, some as part of their return-to-office protocols and others as a perk to offer workers peace of mind — even for those not yet coming into the office”.
Un fenomeno che indagini e studi di mercato definiscono, forse con eccessiva enfasi, come una vera e propria “guerra globale dei talenti”, riferendosi al braccio di ferro in atto, con caratteristiche pressoché identiche, tra chi dà e chi presta lavoro in paesi pur tra loro contraddistinti da enormi, storiche differenze economiche e di reddito. Basta leggere, al riguardo, due illuminanti reportage sullo stato delle relazioni industriali in importanti imprese degli Stati Uniti e dell’India.
Trade Briefs nell’articolo 2021 Talent Attraction and Retention Survey: highlights of key findins, North America scriveva: “Challenges attracting and retaining employees have spiked during pandemic, leading employers to adopt new strategies and plan future actions to remain competitive. Those that don’t risk getting left behind in their ability to get and keep talent […] Nearly three in four employers (73%) are currently having difficulty attracting employees. That’s nearly triple the number (26%) who reported difficulty last year, and up from 56% during the first half of this year. Roughly the same percentage of employers (70%) expect the difficulty to persist in 2022. Retaining employees has also been challenging. Six in 10 respondents (61%) are having a hard time keeping workers, and similar percentage expect the problem to continue into next year. Last year, only 15% of employers reported difficulty retaining employees”.
Problemi della stessa natura per molte Tech Companies dell’India, di cui riferiva lo scorso novembre Varsha Bansal, giornalista free lance di stanza a Bengaluru nell’articolo Indian tech companies made big WFH promises. Now they’re calling millions of workers back: “As attrition rates spike, Indian Tech companies scramble to bring workers back to campuses […] One of the reasons experts believe Indian IT companies are keen on bringing back employees is a recent spike in attrition rates. The top six software outsourcing companies, which includes Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and Wipro, recently reported an overall voluntary attrition of 17% during the third quarter of fiscal year 2021, a jump from 11% the same time last year. Both Infosys and Wipro had one of the highest attrition rates, at 20% from July to September this year, while attrition rate at TCS stood at almost 12%. During the same time last year these companies were experiencing talent loss at the rate of 8% to 11%. Experts believe that IT companies are now hoping that employees deciding between multiple job offers will eventually see in-office employment as a perk”. Così facendo, però, le imprese rischiano di aggravare anziché curare gli alti tassi di abbandono del loro personale: “Over one million Indians who work at IT outsourcing companies may not have a choice in the matter when it comes to coming back to offices as companies renege on their promises to transition to more-flexible working conditions”.
L’idea di lasciare il lavoro a distanza per ritornare, dopo tanti mesi, a farlo in azienda è cosa poco gradita dai dipendenti, come spiega a chiare lettere una progettista dell’indiana Tata Consultancy Services. La quale, nascondendosi dietro lo pseudonimo di Sakshi, confessava a Varsha Bansal: “Previously our login and logout time we were monitored regularly, break sessions were looked down upon, and leaving early was not appreciated, irrespective of no work […] Now that we are comfortable working from home, and entire set up has been changed, it will be a big challenge for us to go back to work because it will disrupt our entire work-from-home life”.
Ma i cambiamenti prodotti dal Covid-19 e le sue varianti nel mondo del lavoro non si fermano qui. Infatti, a conferma del fatto che una crisi non porta con sé solo potenzialità negative e di distruzione ma anche potenzialità positive, Sarah Maslin Nir, recente finalista del Premio Pulitzer, nell’articolo The Pandemic Brought Seismic Changes. They Changed With It apparso il 3 gennaio scorso, scriveva: “For some people with disabilities, cultural shifts the pandemic forced, like flexible and remote work – for which they long advocated – have already improved their lives. The employment rate for disabled people is currently at an all-time high, though still profoundly below that of people without disabilities […] For many disabled people the benefit like home working comes alongside frustration, that it took a pandemic to make something their community has long pushed for – and was frequently denied – into a norm”.
