Jobs.lu has interviewed Nathalie Delebois, Business Line Manager with Ajilon-Adecco, about the new trends in temporary work in Luxembourg.
Are there distinctive features with temporary work in Luxembourg?
Unlike other countries, the temporary work is seen in a very positive light in Luxembourg. The temporary employment companies have become real recruitment partners both for the job applicants and the customers. Another distinctive feature is that the temporary work contracts often lead to permanent contracts. In the financial sector, that I represent, the temporary work assignments can be long-term tasks.
What is the profile of the job applicants who apply to a temporary work assignment?
In the financial sector, the job applicants are predominately young graduates searching a new job. They don’t know the market well; they wish to be guided through their job search and to rely on the support of our large customer network in order to get a job interview. In some cases, these are “atypical” profiles who find it hard to sell themselves. The applicants who choose a temporary job by vocation are scarce!
What positions are the most asked for?
In the financial sector, these are the accountants’ profiles with a good language background and the back-office jobs linked to the investment funds. In the service sector, the positions for multilingual secretaries and receptionists are still highly valued.
What are the new trends in the temporary work in Luxembourg?
The temporary employment companies operate side by side with recruitment agencies, but with younger profiles. The trend is to turn to temporary work when a permanent contract is at the end of it.
More and more qualified job applicants turn to a temporary job? Adecco is a pioneer as regards recruiting executives for a temporary job…
One cannot say that they turn to a temporary job but quite obviously they include temporary work in their search channels. It’s the job which defines the choice of the contract (temporary employment, permanent contract, consulting) and not the other way round. Adecco Cadres really acts as an adviser to the job applicants who don’t know how to present their CV in a good light or don’t know the market well.
What is the profile of these new qualified job applicants?
Among the job applicants with Adecco Cadres there is a great number of recently arrived applicants who followed their spouse to Luxembourg. Another example is the mother who took a break to raise her children and who has come to the point where she wants to get back her position in the professional world.
There are also the job applicants who are much more experienced (45 years and more) and who don’t know exactly where to position themselves in a job market in which the most required experience level is around 3 to 5 years.
The financial and banking sectors are requiring more and more …
Indeed, we are witnessing a real boom in the financial and banking sectors, whereas there is a slowing down in the industry and service sectors. The number of vacant jobs in the banking and financial sectors is estimated at 2000 to 3000!
What are you doing in order to respond to the new requirements of the companies?
One has to be very inventive in a market where job applicants are very few. Here are some examples of initiatives that we have taken in the Business Line Finance & Legal:
- We work in partnership with Adecco Poland and Romania to attract new talents.
- We have set up an internal program for international mobility.
- We have begun, in partnership with IFBL (Institute for Banking Training, Luxembourg), to train young graduates and experienced profiles who wish to begin a new career. These are mainly trainings linked to the investment fund professions (fund accounting, transfer agents, pricing employees).
- We have also widened our test battery and hired into our team a person in charge of staff evaluation.
What chance do the temporary workers have to get a permanent contract at the end of their assignment?
We are in a recruitment market. That means that a job applicant with the required competence or the skill to develop it and who integrates well into a company has a good chance to get a permanent contract at the end of the assignment.
Sophie Sellier
English version: Robert Mouris