We are bridging betweencompanies in Southern Denmark and the greatest talents

Strategy plan2016 - 2020

English edition - short version

2016 – English edition - short version 1

“Short-version”

Strategy 2016-2020

work-live-stay southern denmark

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"From set-up to establishing"

work-live-stay southern denmark creates cohesion and a network between the most important actors in Southern Denmark. In this way, we can attract the necessary, highly-qualified talent and thus increase

possibilities for growth amongst the region’s businesses, a goal which cannot be achieved alone.

“For Region Southern Denmark, an active participation with WLS means that we gain both sparring and tools to help us both attract and retain our highly-qualified talent. Through our membership of WLS, we are also actively taking ownership of the collective growth potential for the whole region.”

-Carsten Lysdahl Søgaard, Region Syddanmark

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Background

A lack of highly-educated talent is a major obstacle to maximising Southern Denmark’s growth potential. This challenges the entire region’s growth and development, with regard to businesses’ growth potential and productivity. It also challenges the local community’s possibilities for population growth and development.

The hunt for talent is global. It is significant that for many of Southern Denmark’s professional growth areas, there is the same lack of super talent that is missing on a global level, too. This means that in order to compete for this talent globally, it is vital that Southern Denmark can succeed in branding and highlighting itself as both an attractive career destination and a desirable place to live.

“The Southern Denmark Growth Forum, of which Horesta is a member, has collectively supported work-live-stay’s activities. One of the biggest challenges facing Southern Denmark over the coming years is acquiring enough skilled labour for businesses. This is precisely the kind of challenge WLS can help to solve. We are confident that WLS will be able to make a difference and, across businesses, municipalities and regions, WLS can create the necessary focus on attractive jobs and possibilities in our region and for the businesses located there.”

-Grethe Johnsen, Member of WLS and Growth Forum for Horesta

work-live-stay southern denmark is supported by the majority of Southern Denmark’s municipalities, Region South Denmark and an extensive number of leading businesses in the region.

“Through our membership of WLS, Sønderborg partakes in a vital co-operation giving local companies a better opportunity to attract and retain their workforce. WLS has helped specifically in breaking down barriers regarding such things as visa applications for our foreign workforce, especially at times when the process has come to a standstill. Additionally, the Settlement Co-ordinator actively co-operates with other Settlement Co-ordinators, and between the municipalities in Southern Denmark we share a single specialist who can give skilled advice and assistance regarding jobs for spouses. Through co-operation, we gain a lot more added value as well as better quality. Our businesses receive a better and more defined service which in itself creates the foundation for local growth.”

-Søren Bonde, Director, Sønderborg Municipality

Who we are

WLS Is THE recognised regional actor in our field in Southern Denmark. We are transparent in our ways of working, allowing every company and municipality in the region to see a clear connection between WLS and the maximisation of growth potential.

“Our membership of WLS ensures that businesses receive the candidates they request, so our students both now and in the future, will be part of the “food chain” of businesses in Southern Denmark. Membership of WLS contributes to growth in Southern Denmark, and through co-operation we are able to increase the visibility of SDU’s initiatives. The materials designed for ‘Talent Attraction’ have been both proficient and useful, as with the newsletter and events. Our co-operation with WLS concerning the conference “Qualified Worker Talent – Yes Please” was highly productive, and strengthened the synergy between SDU’s talent projects and the additional talent projects in WLS. Most significantly, the joint conference provided a greater impact on decision makers and businesses in Southern Denmark.”

-Henrik Dam, SDU

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Our vision:

Southern Denmark’s businesses are amongst the largest and fastest growing in their fields. Together, we are preparing to attract, receive, house and retain highly-qualified talent in Southern Denmark.

“At Interacoustics A/S, we view our membership of WLS as a natural part of a shared effort to attract, receive and retain a highly-qualified workforce in the region, which in turn will allow us to maximise the great growth potential that we believe Region South Denmark has. We are especially pleased that, through WLS’s initiative, there are now Settlement Consultants within virtually each municipality, and both ourselves and our colleagues have benefited greatly from daily co-operation with these consultants.”

-John Pedersen, Interacoustics A/S

Our mission:

Our mission is to exploit Southern Denmark’s high level of international head office jobs in order to generally prepare the region’s businesses for possibilities for growth. We do this by providing an optimal framework for attracting, receiving and retaining highly-qualified talent, thus ensuring the skills are available in the region.

“WLS highlights the advantages and opportunities for working and living in Region South Denmark, and Danfoss certainly supports this. We also take an active role in this co-operation, because WLS contributes with both new knowledge and methods that we can use in our efforts to attract highly-qualified talent.”

-Jens Gad, Danfoss

Moving towards 2020, WLS will place special focus on releasing the region’s full growth potential. This will be done by launching initiatives and projects which contribute to three strategic focus areas: attracting, receiving, retaining (see figure at the front page)

“Our membership of WLS has inspired our efforts in the process of attracting and helping to settle highly-skilled talent. Through the association’s events, we have gained an understanding of different companies’ needs and challenges, as well as an insight into the life of a foreign settler. We use Settlement Co-ordinators from other municipalities to exchange ideas with.”

-Bettina Høst Poulsen, Faaborg-Midtfyn Municipality

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Our strategic goals and roles as we head towards 2020:

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We work together to reach our goals

We want to ensure that Southern Denmark is a known and acknowledged international and national career destination. We also want to safeguard that all municipalities have a tried and tested reception system prepared which, in co-operation with local companies, ensures that all highly-qualified employees are offered the right support when starting their careers in our region. This highly-qualified talent must be retained in Southern Denmark by ensuring that both they and any family members who accompany them are met with support and opportunities. This in turn means that the whole family will settle in and perceive Southern Denmark as an attractive career destination.

“Workindenmark” endeavours to attract and retain highly skilled international talent. As a state-run organisation we need to know the challenges facing companies and convey to them what help we can offer. WLS helps us in promoting relevant recruitment opportunities abroad, and we co-operate in promoting our job-matching effort for spouses. The co-operation with the Settlement Co-ordinators is vital in this process. Through our involvement in WLS, we can make certain that we have the best dialogue and co-operation regarding the challenges faced.”

-Berith Madsen, “Workindenmark South

WLS wants to co-operate. We therefore work from the idea that together we are stronger, with a commitment to all the relevant actors in Denmark who have an influence on growth potential for Southern Danish businesses, such as local companies, municipalities and business promotion organisations. This functions both in practical work development terms, but also on a more strategic political level.

“The primary task of Business Development Centre Southern Denmark is to assist businesses with their growth potential, their business sparring and the way they deal with relevant offers which can strengthen their competitive abilities. This is why it makes very good sense for us to contribute with our knowledge and experiences concerning how to attract the necessary workforce to the area. There is still a need for clarity concerning Southern Denmark’s strengths and growth potential, and this is precisely what WLS helps to achieve.”

-Liselotte Hohwy Stokholm, Business Development Centre Southern Denmark

work-live-stay as a member-driven assosiation

As an association, we can only exist because of our members, and we are driven by the need to ensure coherence, knowledge-sharing and the development of actions that can increase growth potential for our members. We wish to increase the number of our members because together we are stronger. Our target is therefore to extend the number of members to 140. This is an ambitious target that can only come to fruition if we are more visible in our ability to solve our members’ own tasks by attracting, receiving and retaining highly-qualified talent to Southern Denmark.

work-live-stay has a three-pronged role to fulfil:

1. Act as a knowledge house for members and actors regarding attracting, receiving and retaininghighly-qualified talent.

2. Provide method-developing project organisation.3. Undertake concrete tasks under market conditions with services within core business which

support the direct activities in the focus areas.

work-live-stay southern denmark ∙ Lysholt Allé 6, 7100 Vejle ∙ T: 30 58 56 95 ∙ M: chs@worklivestay.dk