Growing the service industry: Seriously, let’s start simple, "Dienas Bizness"
Riga, Latvia − Planned immigration and the promotion of service centers are recommended to attract foreign investors to Latvia, Kaspars Kauliņš, Principal at Pedersen & Partners in an interview for “Dienas Bizness.”
“The population is decreasing, the labor supply is shrinking, and the increasing competition is actually inhibiting new investment. This is something that we also observe in the outsourcing industry here – although this field is relatively developed, we do not have enough employees that are proficient in languages such as German, English and Swedish. Moreover, we face a shortage of managerial candidates with international experience in shared services.
The Latvian labor shortages are to be expected due to the local demographic and geopolitical situation, and the way in which the workforce is structured here. One problem is the relatively high rate of structural unemployment – there is no work for people in the regions due to the lack of industrial companies, and there are no such companies in the regions due to the lack of skilled labor.
Let's be realistic and start with what we can do. The outsourcing field provides a wide range of possibilities – from simple first-level assistance call centers to advanced technological support and remote management. Therefore, in this field we should seriously start simple.
However, limited population growth in turn limits the possibilities for expansion and breakthrough in the outsourcing field, and it will be difficult to expand rapidly and build the infrastructure to a critical mass. If we could hire experienced managers who know how to organize outsourcing, we could then bring in a larger workforce or manage a workforce located outside Latvia. All this is possible but we have to start somewhere. We will start by looking at what is currently available, and will then develop opportunities and base our immediate planning on that.”
Kaspars Kauliņš is the Country Manager for Estonia at Pedersen & Partners. Mr. Kauliņš brings over 20 years of solid expertise in Executive Search, organisational development, HR and strategic business consulting. Throughout his career, Mr. Kauliņš has held various senior positions within the Consumer Products, Financial Services, Professional Advisory, and the IT & Telecommunications industries such as the Managing Director for the Estonian Business Centre in Riga, and the Managing Director & Chairman of the Supervisory Board with a regional Executive Search firm. He has also held senior HR positions with Hansabank, Swedbank Group, and served as the Group HR Director for SPI Group. Additionally, he was the International Business Development Director at the largest regional ITC company. Prior to joining Pedersen & Partners, Mr. Kauliņš was a leadership & strategy consultant with one of the leading training companies in Latvia.