It is challenging for any company to find qualified employees, develop them and ultimately make them stick with the company. For companies that operate predominantly from rather rural areas, this task is even more challenging wherefore they need a special set of strategies to find the right set of professional and executive employees

The regional association „Fachkräftebündnis Südniedersachsen“ organized an open space that dealt with the issue of lacking availability of professionals in rural areas. Around 100 people from companies, governmental- and non-governmental organizations as well as prospect professionals followed the invitation to openly discuss current and future regional developments. In her opening remarks Hanna Rammig quoted some core insights from a ScMI study that was published last year on the future of professional employees in Germany. She outlined the various possible alternative developments professionalism in Germany could take and concluded with the main uncertainties being further education, migration and life quality.

The approach to different, conceivable scenarios offers the possibility of sharpening and classifying own strategic considerations. First of all, challenges and tasks to support companies in the Südniedersachen region were identified. The collection of these topics was followed by concrete approaches to the solution inspired by the presentation of the two scenario studies. Both, the companies themselves as well as the politicians and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) took on tasks to further promote the development of professionals in the Südniedersachsen area. Thinking in scenarios – meaning thinking open-minded – helped the participants to face the specific challenges of the future.