Promoting the Competitive Workplace

As barriers to trade and investment fall, economies liberalize, access to technology spreads and the world economy integrates, the survival and prosperity of enterprises everywhere depend on how competitive they are in the markets in which they operate. Competitiveness results from many factors, ranging from government policies, infrastructure and exchange rates, at the macro level, to business organization and strategies at the company level. Factors involving human resources are particularly significant in the ability of enterprises to compete. They range from workplace relations to pay systems, to the education and training systems from which the workforce emerges, and the social protection systems in place. Fighting discrimination at the workplace and promoting women’s entrepreneurship also play their part in improving competitiveness. Indeed, virtually every aspect of the human element in the enterprise has an impact on how well it does. Even HIV/AIDS is a factor that is significant for competitiveness in certain countries, where it decimates the most productive parts of the population

Employers’ organizations play an important role in promoting competitiveness, both at the national level and the enterprise level. As the voice of enterprises, they negotiate the conditions in which businesses operate. This includes working with government and educational institutions towards a national human resources policy that produces a quality workforce, working with trade unions for industrial peace, working with legislators to obtain a supportive labour code, and even working with partners in the ILO to promote global labour policies that allow enterprises to remain responsive to market conditions. As service-providers to their members, employers’ organizations help enterprises to develop good workplace relations, prevent and manage conflict, develop effective human resources management, and a host of other things that help to improve their performance.

The ILO’s Bureau for Employers’ Activities conducts a programme of technical cooperation with employers’ organizations in developing countries and countries in transition, which in various ways helps these organizations to introduce new services or improve existing ones, to improve their management and institutional efficiency, and generally to become increasingly valuable to their membership. Being valuable to enterprises means helping them to become competitive, so competitiveness is the underlying framework of reference for the Bureau’s programme.

Country Information
• Addresses and Websites of Employers' Organisations Worldwide

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Projects and Activities
• Multi-bilateral projects under the responsibility of the Bureau for Employers' Activities

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Publications
• The changing focus of industrial relations and human resource management
• Developing the Training Role of an Employers' Organization
• Human resource development for continued economic growth: The Singapore experience
• Industrial relations and globalization: Challenges for employers and their organizations
• An Introduction to Performance and Skill-Based Pay Systems
• Human Resource Management, Industrial Relations and Achieving Management Objectives
• Les Organisations d'Employeurs Face Processus de Liberalisation des Economies
• Le Role des Organisations Centrales d'Employeurs
• Les Projets d'Appui a l'Entreprise Privee dans le Cadre des Organisations d'Employeurs
• See also Publications of the Bureau for Employers' Activities

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