Headlights, accelerator pedal depressed: for many years the German economy was in the fast lane. Today, however, the leisurely convoy ride dominates.
When determining the current position, the emphasis is on “stand”, the navigation system of the industrial nation Germany only shows distant goals: Successful measures against the climate crisis? Mobility turnaround? Speed of digitization? Nowhere do we find ourselves in the top group. At best, the taillights of the competitors who have left us behind can still be seen.
Too pessimistic a picture? Hardly likely. With almost no innovation and no patent, we achieve our goal without raw materials and components that we have to import, where we are therefore dependent on others. At the same time, we afford the luxury of ignoring a critical resource that we have in abundance: people who live in economic and social shadow.
We mostly see them as a problem, more specifically: We argue about the amount of their support or funding. Otherwise we leave them standing on the side of the road like needy hitchhikers.
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Anyone who takes the term “entrepreneur” seriously must urgently give up this view. Anyone who believes that, given the shortage of skilled workers, it is easy to buy young professionals “a la carte” is wrong. We have to make sure that “our” people fit in with “us” – keyword retraining, post-qualification, training and further education, personnel development, talent promotion.
Companies and their employees are now in a permanent change process. It challenges our managers, our investments and our creativity. If we ignore that, it would be better if we don’t want to be an entrepreneur.
Get out of the comfort zone
What applies to the economy applies to those who, for whatever reasons, have a difficult time, as well as to society. In order to properly activate recipients of unemployment benefit II, for example, we have to say goodbye to “comfort zone D” – for example, to “beautify” the stay in the shade with financial support and social benefits. The associated administrative effort is immense, and we also darken the perspective so that it is worthwhile to reach the light at the end of the tunnel on your own.
We also have to say goodbye to our impatience to immediately and relentlessly siphon off the added value when people reach the threshold of prosperity thanks to their performance: taxes and levies could become “entrance fees into the light” if their amount did not immediately cast a shadow again.
We also have to give up our ignorant way of dealing with the individual skills of migrants. Since the first “guest worker” recruitment agreement in 1955, we have hardly learned anything. This group in particular has shown great will and strength to gain a foothold in their new home and to secure their own existence. From the Swabians in the Banat to the Turkish-born Biontech founders – history is full of examples of successful integration. Why? Because they were given the freedom to develop their powers.
In addition, we should leave behind the helpless attempts to establish social balance through transfer payments. Child benefit alone does not result in participation in the good school system, it needs “the big cutlery” from early childhood support to real-life support. As a society, we can no longer afford to be as carefree as before with our most valuable resource.
Taxes and duties are too high
The current system of taxes and duties makes it difficult for companies to attract unskilled or low-skilled workers. If you have made it anyway, you usually look into frustrated faces after the first wage payment, because the bottom line is that the deductions mainly signal: Despite the new job, you are still dependent on the social system.
The humiliating experience of having to “go straight back to office” in order not to get into existential difficulties has a thoroughly demotivating effect. No boss and no employment contract can compensate for that. And certainly no internal motivation program.
A long-standing example of how bureaucracy prevents people from moving out of the shadows into the light is in employee housing. Until the beginning of 2020, rents that were noticeably below the local average were considered a pecuniary benefit – and that was taxable. On the one hand, this thwarted the intentions of companies that wanted to invest their money in attracting employers. At the same time, the chance to create affordable living space close to the workplace in expensive metropolitan regions was wasted.
In the meantime, the legislature has recognized this contradiction and acted: rents are now accepted as long as they are not less than two thirds of the comparative rent. That sounds social at first, but in the end it isn’t. It would be social not to set any limits at all. If only because in metropolises completely different prices are “customary” than in more remote regions. Here as there, however, companies need affordable housing in order to attract workers.
Work and performance need to be reevaluated
In terms of business and economics, it is just as useful as it is expedient to set the course for personal development at an early stage. Companies have learned that “human resources” are not an object for administration and remuneration, but for design and development. This approach is all the more required where the foundations are laid – in early childhood support and education.
In some areas of our society, such support is an unthinkable luxury that cannot even begin to be achieved with alimony such as child benefit. Particularly for people with a migration background, well-thought-out, holistic offers and support are required so that, with the acquisition of the language, it is also possible to discover one’s own abilities and recognize individual perspectives. Participation and advancement begin long before the first employment contract.
From all of this it follows: In the current location scenario in Germany, characterized by a shortage of skilled workers and dependency on raw materials, strategies work like they are out of date. For our location and our economic system, it is high time to reassess work and performance – especially where simple work is at stake.
If we ignore this, we not only lose the ability to get back into the fast lane in the global race. Then we get stuck in the breakdown bay. So let’s take the hitchhikers with us that we’ve been driving past carelessly. Let us activate their skills, their drive and their ideas. That can bring about an economic miracle.
The author: Eberhard Sasse is director of the Dr. Sasse Group, whose spectrum ranges from facility management to building cleaning.
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