Jan Jedlinski: I'm hoping that you're enjoying the conference so far. Next, you will hear from Denis Pennel, the Managing Director of the World Employment Confederation. But before we jump in, I would love to show you a real quick Candidate.ly trailer. Thank you so much and enjoy the rest of the show.

Denis Pennel: Hi everyone. Can you hear me?

Denis Pennel: Yes. Great. Wow. I'm Denis Pennl and Managing Director of the World Employment Confederation. Welcome. I'm very happy to be the first keynote speaker of this great event representing the World Employment Confederation. Let me just say a few words by the World Employment Confederation. And then I will introduce my topic, which is indeed Working and doing business in the New Normal.

Denis Pennel: And obviously we'll be looking at the world and place for the staffing industry to play in this new environment. But indeed in the first few words, by the World Employment Confederation, We have a Global Trade Association representing the staffing industry worldwide. I said so our main purpose is to act as a catalyst for our members, sustainable growth.

Denis Pennel: We are there to make this industry bigger, stronger. We are a membership based organization, meaning we have 50 countries being represented within the World Employment Confederation, as well as seven of the largest workforce solutions companies worldwide. And yes, we are The Voice of the Labor Market Enablers.

Denis Pennel: This is how we like to introduce our industry. Educating, Influencing, lobbying international program policy makers to make sure that our industry can enjoy the most, you know, enabling environments to develop all activities. So those are the countries and members we represent. As you can see from all around the world, North America, Latin America, Europe, you know, Asia.

Denis Pennel: China Japan, a truly global representative organization for the staffing industry, but in it let's move on to our topic of today, which is the new normal and the world of work. And again, what's the role of the staffing industry in this new business on fire. First of all, I think it is good to look at what the COVID has changed, you know, the way how the COVID has changed the way we work, but more importantly, the background under which we are now operating.

Denis Pennel: And clearly as you know, the pandemic has accelerated some pre-existing trends that we have seen for a while. The most obvious one is, of course, remote working. Now everywhere or most the management of a dispersed workforce, as well as digitization companies, overnight had to turn the activities into more digital solutions due to the lockdowns taking place around the world.

Denis Pennel: We are seeing an increasing polarization of the labor markets, nothing new there, but, once again, the trend has amplified over the last couple of months or even the last two years now. And also we are seeing a wider use of diverse forms of work. A very important point. I will get back to that one later, all this means that we are now pivoting and facing a hybrid world.

Denis Pennel: Not only in terms of workspace, but even the way we are contracting. That's the trends that were there, you know, but we have also seen new trends, new impacts of the pandemic. Just to mention a few, the fact that work is becoming more and more output oriented. So more and more employers don't care.

Denis Pennel: You know, how many hours, you know, people are, are working. The important thing is the fact that, you know, at the end of the day, at the end of the week the tasks are being performed and work has delivered what it was supposed to add. I think of course, you know, wellbeing at work is also now becoming an important issue as well as, you know, the need to reinvent social interaction at work.

Denis Pennel: And also companies are now operating and moving from being, you know, in a, just in time environment to adjust in case. Because indeed we are facing increased uncertainties, you know, in the way we operate. And last but not least interesting. We have seen some trends moving backwards, actually. As you know, over the last, you know, two years it was all about, you know, unemployment and we'd get back to that one later on.

Denis Pennel: And the key topic nowadays is what some people are calling, you know, the great resignation also something that we get back later on today. You know, the pendulum swing that we have seen is the return of the welfare states. You know, governments supporting, mitigating the impact of the crisis by public subsidies and as well as business moving from growth to more, you know, focusing on resilience and efficiency.

Denis Pennel: And of course new restrictions that we have not seen, you know, for many years, in terms of restrictions of labor, mobility, borders being closed and therefore workers not being able to move around. If we try not to look really at what has been the impact of the COVID on the labor markets, where clearly we have seen, you know, some people, you know, leaving the labor market, jobs are disappearing.

Denis Pennel: Unemployment has raised, you know, dramatically in 2020. Now it is starting to decrease. We are not yet back to the level we were, you know, two years ago, but close but still at the OCD level. We are still lagging behind. We have seen more people, you know, becoming inactive. Some people have left the labor market.

Denis Pennel: I will also get back to that train later on today. And more people have been unemployed for a longer time than previous. So very strong, strong and direct impact on the labor market. We have also seen, you know, the number of working hours decreasing over the last two years, especially for the lower paid people.

Denis Pennel: And of course, you know, we like to talk about remote working. But what we are seeing is that some people were not able to grow and working remotely, you know, the frontline, you know, workers as they are being cold. And what you see is that the higher educated you are usually the more able you wear to work remotely. And last but not least with the CDC, you know, gap between youth unemployment and the rest of the working population.

Denis Pennel: The young people are facing a higher impact in terms of employment due to the, to the COVID.

Denis Pennel: Moving on. If you look at the mock, I would say the qualitative impact of the COVID on the word of work. Clearly we have seen some positive trends, you know, like the use of digital tools. Obviously this has increased, you know, within company flexibility in terms of where and when people have been able to work, I think that's a great, you know, benefit of the pandemic.

Denis Pennel: That's, you know, gained some autonomy and flexibility in the way they want to organize their work. But then on the more negative side of the coin, clearly work-life balance has not been seen as a benefit of the pandemic. Probably people working longer hours, you know, over time due to the stress, the quality and the stand of leadership also as not probably adapted fast enough to the new situation that would be the, the theme of my presentation. The second part of my presentation, and finally, the wellbeing of employees, again, a big issue. It seems that for many people, you know, working and living through this pandemic has not always been that easy and pleasant. And finally looking at the overall impact of the pandemic on the world of work.

Denis Pennel: And that clearly, as I mentioned earlier, the COVID accelerated the rise of diverse sourcing and that's something we need to take stock of and work has never been so hybrid and mixed in terms of contractual arrangements. And we are now seeing a diversification of the different types of labor contracts. That you know, the staffing industry can offer to candidates.

Denis Pennel: We are seeing an increasingly diverse form of working time with a full-time part-time temporary shift time and last but not least really the latest trends due to the pandemic. The fact that work location is no longer, you know, one place to go. Of course you can keep on working on site, but more and more, of course remotely can be online, can be working from home.

Denis Pennel: Can be working from co-working spaces. So this is really the ultimate, you know, diversification of the world of what.

Denis Pennel: And this is all leading to what I call The Great Mismatch. And this is my own expression that coins, you know, you've, you have probably heard the expression by the great, you know, resignation, the great attrition, the great revaluation whatsoever for me, if I had to characterize the labor market of today.

Denis Pennel: This is really about the great mismatch, the mismatch between, you know, employers and employees expectations. So a big gap in, in management practices, but as well as in the way we operate on a daily basis. And what are the main symptoms of this great mismatch, where first of all, if you look at the level of job vacancies, you know, they are above pre pandemic levels.

Denis Pennel: In most of the countries, you can see that there are comparisons between the current situation and only, you know, two years ago in June, in January. So in 2020, and you can see in most of the countries, a significant increase of the job vacancies. And this is clearly confirmed by many pieces of research, you know, asking employers whether they have, you know, difficulty to recruit.

Denis Pennel: And this figure has never been that high. And this is based on manpower research. The employment outlook research that they publish on a quarterly basis. And the latest figure shows that 69% of employers from all around the world are facing difficulties in hiring. So it seems that we are now back in very tight labor markets where candidates are not that many, and that companies are struggling to access and to take your access to, to the right talents. So something can lead the industry. The staffing industry has a world to play to tackle. And this is clearly not going to improve with the next coming months.

Denis Pennel: This is also some research coming from McKinsey, you know, And stating that 53% of employers are experiencing greater turnover. And indeed they do expect the problem, not only to.

Denis Pennel: So it seems to have been disconnected and reconnected again. I hope so. So I'm just putting my presentation online again, talking about.

Denis Pennel: Talking about recruitment.

Denis Pennel: Okay. I'm just waiting for my presentation to come online. I'm not sure you can see it.

Denis Pennel: I don't know whether I can get any support here. Because indeed

Denis Pennel: I've lost my presentation. So if we can get back to my presentation, it does not, does not load on my computer. It should be coming so sorry for that.

Denis Pennel: so you can enjoy a short break to grab a cup of coffee or stretch your leg. The presentation it's on its way. 

Denis Pennel: Yeah, we should be able to see the presentation back.

Denis Pennel: Yeah on the next one yet. That's the one I wear. Thank you very much. Yes. So you can see from the employer side, difficulty to recruit and at the same time, looking at the employees, what we are seeing is that many employees are willing to leave their current position. Again, quite impressive.

Denis Pennel: That's how. From McKinsey that 41% of employees worldwide are considering leaving their current employer. So clearly again, some, an expression of dissatisfaction from the workforce on the next slide. You see that indeed in, this is what people are talking about, the great resignation.

Denis Pennel: We have seen people quitting their jobs. You might have heard the latest figure from the US Department of labor. Then I think it was in November that more than 4 million workers in the US left their job, the highest figure never seen for the last, I think, 20 years. And then indeed we are seeing that in the US but not only in the US the level of employment has decreased.

Denis Pennel: And so we are definitely not back to the pre-crisis level. Some people have disappeared from the labor markets. They have decided not to remain active for some reasons for that on the next lap. It's clearly related to two main trends. Nope. Yeah. Thank you. It's clearly about sickness. Some people have left the labor market because they have been, you know, on the sick, less on the sick leave.

Denis Pennel: Sorry. And not only a short-term one, but a longer term one. So clearly the COVID has had a long-term impact on the wealth and the health of people. And on the other hand, also, it seems that all the workers decided not to stay in the market. So we, in the US, it's clear that we are seeing, you know, a higher level of early retirement compared to the pre COVID situation.

Denis Pennel: So, some explanation of the fact that indeed some people have left the labor market. And that means of course, for the staffing industry, less candidates to put, you know, at work on the next slide. You will see indeed that this facts I, I really reflected in some more qualitative surveys where, you know, people are being asking how they, they, they went through the crisis, whether they were, you know, more on the, on the leadership role, more on a manager, on a manager role, or just as, you know, basic workers.

Denis Pennel: And then you can see some of these you know, whether, you know, the working life has, you know, improved on the contract, we worth them over the last two years. And very interesting is indeed the gaps between the perception from the leadership or even the manager and the workers.

Denis Pennel: And this is specifically to, for two items. First of all, you know, on the, on the assessment, on how much I am trusted to get the job done, then you can see that, you know, 60% of the managers think, yes, I think this has improved, but it's only true for 29% of the workers and then you can see also in the, in the frame, you know, when people are being asked, you know, what about my ability to collaborate on new ideas and to be more creative at work, 59% of the managers and leaders say yes, but only 21% of the workers.

Denis Pennel: So you see the gap that different perceptions, different assessments on how people have faced this crisis and over the next slide. You will be also seeing that when it comes to the confidence, you know, the satisfaction from the workers were getting their leadership. You also see very different situations according to country, but overall, only half of the working population said that they are satisfied with the senior leadership of the company.

Denis Pennel: So there is also their lack of trust, a lack of confidence between the workers and the employees and this is coming from the next slide by. The different views, you know, we got in expectations being met at work, so they have, again, a, and this is based on a very interesting research conducted by the Adecco group.

Denis Pennel: You know, when we ask some items to once again leaders versus, you know, workers, so employers versus, you know, employees. Clearly, there is a huge gap in the perception on whether the expectations have been, you know, fulfilled. And this is, and the gap is especially. Big and important and worrying. I could even say, if you look at, to what extent, you know, workers have been provided guidance and check-ins during the crisis, 70% of the leaders think yes, we have delivered them.

Denis Pennel: Why only 34% of the workers recognize that this has been met as an expectation, the same for, you know, checking on the mental health and well-being of the workers shoot gap between the view. From the leaders and the workers, and it has been not pleased or so on whether you know, the leadership has been encouraging, you know, training reskilling, there again, a big gap between the two perceptions.

Denis Pennel: So you see that, you know, this is a term that I coined. The great mismatch is really reflected in this, you know, different assessment of the situation and the impact of the crisis. And then on the next slide it will be good to look at indeed what could be the world of our industry, of the staffing industry in trying to tackle this great mismatch and how we can help, you know, use our companies to deal with this new business environment. And there are clearly, you know, of course speaking on behalf of the staffing industry, there is a clear world to play for industry on the next slide.

Denis Pennel: You will see what are the main HR priorities. For companies for 2022, this is based on the goverment research and the five top priorities are related to skilling, reskilling. We already mentioned that point, then change management within organizations. But also looking at, you know, how to adapt the leadership to this new situation, trying also to understand what will be the future of work and last but not least, you know, the topic of diversity, equity and inclusion at work.

Denis Pennel: And the good news is that on those five topics, clearly the staffing industry, the keywords play, I can really deliver added value. So the next slide.

Denis Pennel: You indeed. What, what can be the world of our industry in coping with these different challenges that, you know, HR directors, HR managers. And clearly there are five main, I would say, answers or solutions to be provided for industry. The first one is that as an industry, we are there to manage HR certainties.

Denis Pennel: This is the world of our industry to cope with seasonal peaks, you know, replacing people, being sick or people leaving a position for another one. So, you know, filling in gaps in terms of HR sources. That's I would say the core business of the staffing industry, but more and more. So we are there to improve business agility.

Denis Pennel: So we are there to reduce the reaction time, you know, by providing flexibility, making sure that companies can adapt, you know, quickly and faster actually to the changes we are facing. And that means that when you look at the labor market, we are there as an industry to, to, to speed up, you know, the job matching.

Denis Pennel: And this has specifically been done over the last years by developing new digital solutions for sourcing and hiring. And that we'll get back to this point later. Not before we are there to deliver, you know, demand driven skilling. I think that's the main asset of our industry. You know, we are there to engineer training solutions, but we do so because we know the needs of the end users of the employer.

Denis Pennel: So we can make sure that the Skilling or reskilling program we are putting in place will definitely meet the expectations of the company. And last but not least yet we are there to design tailor workforce solutions, offering diverse forms of work. And we'll get back to this point or so we did the next couple of minutes, but moving on to the next night let's not, you know, under estimates, the keyword played by the staffing industry in sourcing and placing, you know, people and the figures we have from the World Employment Confederation.

Denis Pennel: Shows that on a yearly basis, you know, this industry is assigning more than 60 million people at work, whether on temporary positions, whether on permanent positions from all around the world. So 60 million people. Huge. This is what we all do on a daily basis, you know, sourcing, recruiting, hiring, and placing people.

Denis Pennel: So really, really impressive and something we should be proud about because we are definitely contributing to better functioning labor markets on the next slide. You see that we do not only place these people or maybe a reason why we are placing so many people is that we are offering a wide range of workforce solutions.

Denis Pennel: So in a way there's always a solution that we can offer to both companies and individuals. To meet the different needs and expectations from either the companies that the employers or the employees. And indeed we have post-solution workforce solutions where, you know, companies can buy talent by buying, I mean, you know, recruiting on a permanent basis.

Denis Pennel: So, with full-time and open-ended contracts. But we can also have company to reward the right talent. So this is definitely a time limited contract, you know, and this is usually done via agency work or direct fixed term contracts, but we can also have a company to rent the right talent, and this is more.

Denis Pennel: Based on the contract for services. So we are no longer talking about an employment relationship, but more about in theory, independent contractors and last but not least already mentioned, we are there to build or so talents. So to develop training schemes and to provide career guidance to the workforce something the industry has been very good at, as you will see in the next slide.

Denis Pennel: But before talking about training also indeed re-stressing how innovative our industry has been over the last years and decade, I would say to embrace, you know, digital solutions to make sure that the services that the staffing industry is delivering is as fast and as you know, comprehensive as possible.

Denis Pennel: And really the role of our industry in today's labor market is becoming more digital, diverse, and specialized. You see all the different online solutions that we can offer from job boards. To provide, you know, BPO consultancy services. Agency work, but being done purely online but also, you know, RPO and MSP freelancing or crowdworking even so.

Denis Pennel: And there you see that, you know, I put there a couple of, you know, brands that most of these brands, you know, belong to large, you know, workforce solutions companies operating in agency work, but having developed and expanded that. The range of services via, you know, IT, eh, Digital Solutions. So clearly an industry that has been, you know, adapting and creating new digital solutions wants to, again, cope with the new expectations from the liberal markets.

Denis Pennel: On the, on the last, on the next slide, sorry. Yeah, back to my point on training those are, have the figures that we managed to collect from the World Employment Confederation on indeed the amount of workers being trained on a yearly basis. This is the latest figures available for 2020. And you can see both for a certain number of countries, the percentage of the agency workers being trained, you know, every year and then the total number.

Denis Pennel: And again, the total number is really impressive, you know? It's more than 20 million people, agency workers being trained on a yearly basis, or actually one third of all the different agency workers. We are placed worldwide. So most of them were most, I would say third of them at least are getting indeed some, some training over the years.

Denis Pennel: So this is really, really. Impressive. And again, I think that the big difference that we make as an industry, when it comes to training, is the fact that once again, we do not train people for the sake of training people we do. So because we know exactly where the needs are from the user companies.

Denis Pennel: And also what is not mentioned on this table is all the training on the job that we deliver, you know, just putting people at work because agency workers, usually I'm moving from one sector to another one moving from one job to another one. They are gaining experience, new skis, new competencies, you know, almost on the daily basis.

Denis Pennel: So that's why agency work is also quite well. You know, receive from from a worker's point of view, because this is a great opportunity to increase your skills and competencies on the next slide. You will see that we are not the only one, obviously as the staffing industry operates in the labor market and to act as a labor market intermediary.

Denis Pennel: We are also facing, you know, Of course by competition, you could say from public employment services, but also for me, no job portals from Google, from companies, websites from LinkedIn, you know, or any job fairs, what we are seeing. And this is based on a very interesting research conducted by Randstad.

Denis Pennel: That is that if you compare all these different channels, you know, we could people clearly, you know, the staffing industry or the, the employment and we recruitment agencies, whether you call it the top and the first channel to be used by job seekers to find a place again, we are not the only. Usually job seekers are using different channels.

Denis Pennel: That's why you have, you know, two per person tells, you know, that goes beyond 100%, but we have the first one and the preferred one as a channel for job seekers to find a job, not only to look for a job, but to find a job. So I think something, again, the staffing industry can be very happy and proud.

Denis Pennel: Oh, the next slide and moving towards slowly about my conclusion. But if I can see the next slide. Yes. That's kind of my conclusion there. Clearly this industry is uniquely placed to face the new challenges of the labor market. This is part of, you know, DNA. We are there to facilitate adaptation to change.

Denis Pennel: So we are there to contribute to the adaptation, to the new normal, I mean, these labor markets that are becoming more and more complex, volatile and predictable or industry has a key role to play. We, as an industry, have always developed in times of, you know, complexity in terms of shortages of labor.

Denis Pennel: As you know, the history of this industry, you know, dates back to, to, to the, to the first two world wars where, you know, many men went to the war and became. So we had to replace them, you know, in the factories. And this is where this industry started to develop. So clearly the, the new context is as challenging as it was probably during this very dark period of our age, you know, the, the two world wars, but clearly we have a key role to play.

Denis Pennel: In terms of supporting the transition to new economies, you know, reskilling will be key there really mention it and delivering, you know, diverse working models and carry management to facilitate transitions delivering adaptation to change. But most important probably is the fact that this industry.

Denis Pennel: And this is also something that is not fully, always recognized. We are there to drive social purpose and social innovation. This industry has been amazingly innovative over the last years and decades to adapt to the new situation, to develop new workforce solutions, to manage, to reconcile, you know, flexibility and security.

Denis Pennel: So to provide, you know, agility to the user company. And to the workers, but at the same time, developing new forms of safety nets, new forms of protections for, for the workers. And indeed, this is probably one of our keywords. And I like to use this word sometimes, which is a new word.

Denis Pennel: I invented simplicity. We deliver simplicity in the sense that we haven't had to simplify the complexity of the labor markets. This is one of our key roles providing ready to use solutions to workers and user companies making sense of this complexity and also using new technologies to make things easier and see.

Denis Pennel: Let's not forget that we are also acting as a solution provider in terms of risk management and many employers are now turning to the staffing industry, telling us that, you know, we don't want to manage the responsibility.

Denis Pennel: We just want to get to, to, to, to, to, to outsource this to, to you, you are the experts, so let's do, let's do it for us. And last but not least yet we are there to deliver responsible intermediation and make jobs market work. I think the staffing industry has been there for while we started, you know, many decades ago without proper regulation on this industry.

Denis Pennel: And that was not good because it was the wild west. And we have seen, you know, at the time. Nowadays, we are calling for proper regulation of our industry. We are calling for proper enforcement of the regulation, so we can make sure that this industry is operating under the highest standards, quality standards.

Denis Pennel: And we want to make sure that we are competing in a labor playing field. That's the new forms of intermediaries that are developing and a search. We are not against competition, but we want to compete on same terms as you know, other intermediaries providing similar services as the staffing industry.

Denis Pennel: So this is also something the, the World Employment Confirmation is fighting for on a daily basis.Really making sure that our industry is being recognized that the positive or we play in the labor market is being accepted and recognized also, and doing so in the most supportive, you know, an enabling on the environment so we can continue to grow for the, this industry.

Denis Pennel: I thank you very much for listening to me. I hope you enjoy the presentation. And of course, I'm happy to take any questions via the chat.

Jan Jedlinski: Denis Thank you so much for this presentation. And thanks so much for making this little presentation, hiccup. We were still able to manage and we still have seven more minutes. So I'm going to put up some questions on the stage here that you can maybe answer. Let me see if we have one here.

Jan Jedlinski: Here's one from Tom. What progress is being made on overall reputation and perception of this industry across the world? Has the pandemic been an opportunity to showcase the positive contribution? 

Jan Jedlinski: What do you reckon? 

Denis Pennel: Yeah. Thanks Tom. For the question we know Tom very well. Obviously yeah, very good question.

Denis Pennel: As usual. Every time we face a big crisis, as you know, for our industry. We have always managed to exceed the crisis in a stronger position. And I would say, this is also the case this time, you know, you might remember two years ago when we, when we experienced the first lockdowns, actually in most of the countries, Oh, industry has been recognized as being an integral part of the economy and of the, the, the, the, the services economy.

Denis Pennel: And therefore, while some of those sectors were closed, we managed to remain open because governments recognized among the world that's in terms of managing, you know, not only the labor market, but to make sure that the supply chains, you know, would still be working and that, you know, that would be still food, you know, in the shelves of the Of the supermarket.

Denis Pennel: It was essential to keep our industry operating and being open. I think this is the best, you know, recognition of the keyword we play during the crisis. And we find that yes, the major industry has improved. Again, it can always improve further. We are still facing some work triggers, you know, damaging the image of the industry because they don't comply with any regulation.

Denis Pennel: But overall, the recognition of our industry has increased thanks to the crisis. 

Jan Jedlinski: Awesome. Thanks for the need for this deliberation. Let me see if I can find a motor question here. If you have questions either put them in the chat or the Q/A section on your right-hand side, I'll bring them up to the stage and maybe then you will be able to answer them.

Jan Jedlinski: There is one question from Darren on stage. It seems to me that post pandemic, the entire supply line of talent will shift. What are your thoughts on that? 

Denis Pennel: Yeah, well, clearly we see the, the overhaul supply chains, you know, being disrupted then with the COVID when it comes to, I don't know, for instance, the car making industry, you know, if you want to, to buy a new car, you will have to wait probably 6 to 10 months before getting your car because there is some shortages of chips and some of the parts of being produced, you know, or around the world, it will be the same for the, for the talent supply chain. Clearly I've tried to show that, you know, the expectations from the workers are very high today. I think many people realize that, you know, they don't want to work for, you know, use less and, meaning less jobs any longer.

Denis Pennel: That could also explain why some people have left the labor market. So clearly people, you know, reassess the place of their work in their own life and therefore becoming more demanding, probably. So it will be even more difficult for companies to recruit. Again. We are seeing that might now. I think also companies, you know, have to adapt to the new expectations from, from the workers in terms of, you know, flexibility in terms of gaining autonomy, independence at work, being able to work remotely.

Denis Pennel: And nowadays, if a company does not offer any remote working, you know, solutions, if, of course they can, you know, they can do it. It would be very difficult for these companies to recruit the best talents. So that's now it's immersed and no longer an option. So yeah, I think the crisis has really reshaped the world of work as really reshaped, you know, expectations from both sides.

Denis Pennel: But again, Not a high loss stage for me, there's still a gap. As I mentioned in my presentation between the employees' expectations and the employers want, when it comes to working conditions you know, I'm hearing many companies, you know, saying, Ooh, let's hope that at some stage, we'll be able to bring back, you know, all of our workers, you know, within our premises.

Denis Pennel: And let's forget about these remote working policies. This is not going to change and disappear. So we have to adapt to that. But then again, as the staffing industry, we have a key role to play on the one hand to educate the user companies and the world of work, but also to accommodate indeed the new expectations from workers.

Jan Jedlinski: Thank you, Denis. And I know we have another three minutes before we jump into the next session. And I have one question, maybe the quick statements on this question. Let me open it here. What's your view on talent platforms, which grew dramatically during COVID-19? Oh, then he left the stage.

Jan Jedlinski: I'll wait for him. Hey Denis, good to see you back, like, what's your view on talent platforms, which grew dramatically, dramatically during COVID-19 maybe for a minute, you can give us a quick statement. 

Denis Pennel: Yeah. And thanks for the question. Yeah, I say a new form of, you know, labor market, immagration, contrary to what some people say, not a new form of work.

Denis Pennel: It's just a new way to contract labor. Again, we are very favorable for platform work. As long as they are properly regulated. And again, we're back to my point on the fact that we need a level playing field in terms of regulation. It's not fair. If platforms online talent platforms can deliver the same types of services as.

Denis Pennel: Temporary work agencies for instance, but the fact that they do not have to comply with the same regulation, this is not fair. This is not fair competition. So that's something we are calling for to reach a level playing field, but of course, welcome new forms of competition. 

Jan Jedlinski: Cool. Thank you so much, Denis.

Jan Jedlinski: For joining us here today, super exciting that you were the opening keynote speaker for the World Staffing Summit 2022. I really appreciate that. And for everybody who is watching now stick around. We have a really cool session hosted by Jobadder on redesigning the ROI in a candidate short market. And I will do a keynote and fireside chats mix with Randstad source, right CEO, Michael Smith.

Jan Jedlinski: So we'll have a short conversation right after and please make sure to go to the networking session, visit our partners and you also find the session recording once you're on it. 

Denis Pennel: Well, thanks very much Jan and everyone and wishing you a great event for the next five days.

Denis Pennel: Thanks. Bye-bye everyone.