Empleo: Búsqueda en soledad. Receta para el desaliento.

Pienso, por experimentarlo, que el desaliento llega cuando pasa el tiempo y no se consiguen ver los resultados del trabajo de buscar trabajo. La soledad del que busca empleo es terreno fértil para el desaliento.

Y que quede claro, que casi nadie está solo en el trabajo de buscar trabajo, pues se suele apoyar uno bastante en su red de contactos. Pero es un trabajo para el que uno no cuenta con equipo. Suele ser un trabajo que hace uno solo. Si los resultados no llegan suele llegar el desaliento.

Me vino una idea a la cabeza a raíz del curso «Social Physics and Big Data». Un curso online en la plataforma Edx. Alex Pentland, comentaba que el incentivo a la relación funciona mejor que el incentivo al individuo.

Explicaba que en una empresa eléctrica suiza, tras muchos intentos infructuosos de fomentar el ahorro con subvenciones al individuo para comprar de equipos más eficientes, cambiaron de estrategia. Asociaron a los clientes de dos en dos. Por cada kW ahorrado por un miembro de la pareja, la compañía eléctrica le pagaba un pequeño valor económico al otro miembro de la pareja. Consiguieron un ahorro del 17% en el consumo. El cambio de comportamiento perpetrado por los clientes perduró en el tiempo. El incentivo a la relación de pareja funcionó mucho mejor que el incentivo al individuo.

Trasladé ese concepto al buscador de empleo. El incentivo del trabajo de buscar trabajo es el trabajo que se va a conseguir. Como he dicho antes, si no llega el trabajo llega el desaliento.

Haciendo equipo para encontrar empleo.

Pienso que una forma de mitigar este efecto puede ser emparejarse con un buscador de empleo como uno mismo.

  • Tiene que ser un buscador que busque un puesto diferente al que uno busca para sí mismo.
  • Un buscador que busque en el mismo nivel de jerarquía que busca uno mismo.
  • Alguien que tenga una experiencia similar a la propia.

Pensemos en un compañero de estudios. Pensemos en un progenitor de los compañeros de clase de nuestros hijos.

Los dos miembros de la pareja buscarán trabajo para sí y para el otro.

Añadimos así a nuestra propia motivación, la motivación de ayudar a otra persona. Potenciamos de esta forma nuestra vocación de servicio.

Empezamos a formar equipo para el trabajo de buscar trabajo.
Hay otra persona que filtra las oferta de empleo. Debemos reconocer que cuando el desaliento llega, a muchas ofertas de empleo les encontramos algo que nos hace pensar que no vamos a encajar. Quizás experiencias pasadas nos hacen desistir de candidatarnos. La objetividad de nuestra pareja analiza con otro espíritu.

Yo, mientras que rastreo las ofertas que a mi me interesan, cuando veo que se busca una secretaria ejecutiva se lo envío a una amiga que está en transición profesional. Si buscan un fiscalista internacional se lo envío para un amigo que quiere mejorar su posicion actual. Si encuentro oferta para director financiero para otro amigo que está desempleado …

Sólo saber que voy a ayudar a otros, me da ánimos para empezar a rastrear ofertas por la mañana temprano.

Os animais?

Luis Miguel Casado Diaz

China ESCO market. Does not ramp up?

As everybody knows, the China ESCO market has huge potential. China is the world’s biggest energy consumer and its energy efficiency technology in residential, commercial, and industrial installations is highly inefficient.

A 2013 Master´s Thesis by Ding Ma, Aalto University School of Economics, offers a detailed vision of the Chinese energy services companies. When it describes the barriers and drivers of China’s ESCO market the immediate conclusion is that ESCO model barriers are universal.

China ESCO market issues

Ding Ma identifies as problems: the lack of financial solutions, expertise, clear technical standards, and trust. The Chinese legal framework doesn´t help.

Seen from the Spanish point of view, here we have to remember what the European ESCOs Market Report 2013 formulates as legal and political barriers inside the EU:

  • “Erratic and incalculable legislation can block ESCO markets”
  • “The lack of official and/or generally accepted ESCO definition and/or certification scheme and/or standards hinders the ESCO market”

On the other hand, the same authors P.Bertoldi, B. Boza-Kiss, S. Panev, and N. Labanca with T. Serrenho and C. Cahill in the ESCO Market Report For Non European Countries 2013 have a positive vision of the Chinese Government attitude front the energy efficiency issues. With respect to the China ESCO market obstacles, they literally say:

China ESCO market a long road to walk
The Great Walk, shot by
Bernard Goldbach

“Two major barriers to ESCO market development in China are represented by the low energy prices and by a low level of market integrity (Pengcheng et al., 2011). Low energy prices, partly due to energy subsidies applied by the government to foster the economic development of the country, discourage companies and energy end-users in general, to invest in energy efficiency, whereas the low level of market integrity can be partly associated with a situation of scarce awareness among the energy end-users about the ESCO concept. This situation is determined both by a lack in the provision of information to energy end-users and by a lack of skills and technical competencies often registered within companies acting as ESCOs.

The latter aspect has probably to be considered as the most important obstacle to the provision of proper information, as competency and expertise on the supply side are the first pre-requisite to make people aware of the ESCO business and related opportunities. Barriers related to lack of information and technical competence combine then with the absence of standardized procedures for energy audits and measurement and verification (M&V) of energy savings in China. All together, these obstacles create a situation of mistrust in ESCO business among potential clients. This situation is then worsened by a lack of laws and regulations guaranteeing the application of the clauses included in EPCs in case expected energy performances are not achieved by projects implemented by ESCOs”.

ESCO business model: Key points.

We found the key points of the ESCO business model in a research report that the British «Department of Energy and Climate Change», DECC, commissioned to Carbon Trust and SPA Future Thinking.

«Exploring the design of policies to increase the efficiency of electricity use within the industrial and commercial sectors”, dated in November 2012, had to build an evidence base on a system of incentives to stimulate efficiency solutions in the ESCO business environment.

That happens because the Department of Energy and Climate Change pushes the project Electricity Demand Reduction, EDR. This project aims to ensure the effectiveness of efficiency measures and that potential energy and cost savings are actually realized.

Two key points in the ESCO Business Model

Modelo ESCO publicado en ESCOs, Myth and Reality: Negotiation misunderstandings when outsourcing energy efficiency

The researchers interviewed end-users and ESCOs. Opinions revealed that there´s no unanimity about the best payback period, but, on the other hand, there´s consensus about two key points in this business model:

  • Trust in ESCO model. Literally:
    • End users: ‘No upfront cost’ offer is ‘too good to be true’
    • ESCOs : “The biggest barrier for ESCOs is selling and getting the concept accepted”
  • Efficiency project size. A single large project is easier to finance than a lot of small projects.
    • “If [the banks are] going to lend you something, they want to lend you £1m shall we say rather than £10,000.”

Barriers in the ESCO business model. Show me the money

The ESCO business model has a particular characteristic. At the risk of one of the contracting parties, benefits for both parties are obtained. Despite this peculiar feature, some barriers in the ESCO business model break a faster development.

In July 2011, the Environmental Defense Fund, EDF for short, published a report titled Show Me The Money, Energy Efficiency Financing Barriers and Opportunitiesort that goes thru barriers in the ESCO business model.

We want to share with you the summary I made for myself.

The financial dimension of barriers in the ESCO Business model.

Sawley level crossing with the barriers down by David Lally. Used under CC BY-SA 2.0. No changes were made.
  1. Universal Barriers to MUSH , Commercial and Industrial sectors.
    • High upfront capital cost.
    • Uncertainty of savings and perceptions of risk. A matter of confidence and reliability
    • Budgets do not prioritize energy efficiency: Maximizing energy efficiency is not generally part of the core mission statement of an institution.
    • Lack of secondary markets.
  2. Municipalities, Universities, Schools, and Hospitals (MUSH) Barriers
    • Policies that fail to incentivize investments.
    • Limited capacity and staff resources to pursue energy efficiency.
  3. Commercial Property and Industrial Facility Barriers
    • High development costs. Protection from risk requires higher overall development costs that in MUSH sector.
    • Long payback periods vs. corporate focus on short-term profits.
    • Mortgage lender limitations on external financing of equipment and systems because are considered part of the assets securing the original mortgage.
    • Limited external financing products available.
    • Landlord and tenant split incentives problem. The landlord has to pay the buildings´ efficiency upgrading. The tenant is responsible for paying the energy bill.
    • Operational interruption.

It makes obvious that the enlargement of the real ESCO market has to do with the development of new contracting models tailor-made around the needs of each customer. New contracts have to offer specific solutions to specific financial and risk perception problems.