In Focus
Online culture's effect on work-life balance
A working life without boundaries puts new demands on management, employers and unions. They all need to prevent workers slaving away until they drop.
Rocketing Finnish IT business: less bureaucracy saves our spare time
Today's software businesses face demands for a shorter journey from idea to product and expectations of higher returns of investments. Finnish company Houston Inc. claims this can still be achieved with a 7.5 hour working day and a work tempo which won't lead to burnouts.
Racing against nature
For two months every year John Johansen (45) works seven days a week, 14 hours a day. He'll drive 2,600 kilometres and count some 120,000 soon-to-be-born sheep. "I start in Rogaland on 12 January, then I drive to East-Norway and then north from there. I finish in Vardø on 14 March. By then I'll have performed ultrasound scans on some 50,000 sheep."
Soft skills needed for the new White and Green jobs
The EU Commission has presented a new agenda for new skills and jobs. During the economic crisis there are still two kinds of jobs that are in extra demand – the white and the green ones.
Changes to IT affect systems as well as the social environment
Many businesses and organisations change their IT systems, yet in 70 percent of cases the change ends in failure with regard to time, budget or function. There have been many studies of what went wrong. Einar Iveroth chose to study what went right in the cases that succeeded.
Coaches compete for the unemployed Swedes
The Swedish government has charged the Public Employment Service with procuring coaches worth 1.1bn Kronor (€12m) for the year 2009. This created a fast growing market for coaching. Today 900 businesses have a contract with the employment service. The contracts don't guarantee any customers, however, and the businesses offering coaches must do their own marketing.
Why Swedes are aware of integration issues
What is it that the trade unions and employers in Sweden do to make them top a ranking of awareness of integration issues made by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA)?
Swedish employers and trade unions most aware of work place racism
Awareness of racism in the workplace is growing yet still very low in many EU countries. Swedish employers and trade unions have the highest awareness, while those in Estonia have the lowest, according to a European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) report.
Visa-free zone heralds Norwegian-Russian labour market in the North
Another milestone in Norwegian-Russian cooperation is reached as Norway and Russia agrees on visa-free travel for border region residents,. The visa-free zone crosses the Schengen border, making it a rarity in Europe. Yet there are reasons to remain patient. It could take another 12 months before the agreement comes into force.
The changes hidden behind the smokescreen
As the Iron Curtain came down, contacts between the Nordic region and Russia multiplied. Yet the image of the Eastern neighbour needs updating, even in the part of the Nordic region which has enjoyed the friendliest relationship - the Norwegian municipality of Sør-Varanger on the border with Russia. The nickel plant across the border has been a smokescreen both literally and figuratively.
Russian Arcady's weekly commute to Finland
Many travel the 400 kilometres between Helsinki and St Petersburg on business. Yet despite improved communications, a common labour market still is some time away.
Visa-free travel between Russia and the EU - what will happen?
Most people in the Nordic countries take it for granted that they can travel abroad without the need for a visa. It's only needed for exotic destinations - or Russia. And Moscow uses every opportunity to bring the issue up with the EU.
Danish Activation Centres provide link to working life
There's no better place to train for working life than in a workplace. That's the basic idea of Denmark's new Activation Centres. They work with the most challenging group of unemployed people, yet results are good. David Andersen is supported by his mentor Tina Andersen at the Kvickly supermarket.
OECD: the most exposed young must get help now
"If we want to avoid a generation of unemployed, it's time to help the most exposed to get jobs or education. In the long term we need structural measures to improve the basic system," says Stefano Scarpetta, the OECD's deputy director for employment, labour and social affairs.
IMF and ILO: young people at greater risk now than during previous crisis
The current economic crisis has hit young people harder than previous crisis. Youth unemployment usually rises fast in an economic downturn, but this time it has risen by 6.5 percent compared to an average 4 percent during earlier downturns.
Hard to export Nordic trust
The Nordic model is usually described as a social system with strong unions and employers' organisations, an active state and a generous welfare system. But one cultural trait makes the model hard to export. People in the Nordic region tend to invest a whole lot of trust in each other.
Dictates from politicians trigger crisis of trust
More and more important decisions are being made by politicians away from the parties to the labour market. Now experts fear a crisis of trust which will undermine the basis of the Danish model, which is based on negotiated agreements between state, employers and employees.
Swedish leadership traditions through Chinese eyes
Swedish leadership traditions are based on a great deal of trust in employees. Management presume people can work independently without the need for close supervision. But how do Swedish companies function abroad? How do you reconcile the Swedish Dala horse with the Chinese dragon?
When Iceland's trust vanished, comedian Jón Gnarr became mayor
Reykjavik citizens demonstrated their level of distrust in traditional politics and politicians by voting in comedian Jón Gnarr as their new mayor in last spring's local elections. Mr Gnarr's party, The Best Party, entered a coalition with the social democratic party Alliansen (Samfylkingin).
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