Popular manifestations throughout the world highlight the role that work or the lack of it, plays in society. High rates of youth unemployment followed by welfare cuts have led thousands of people to stop believing in politics and start demonstrating for what they truly consider is fair: home, work, culture, health and education. These are social rights that are no longer within the reach of everyone. Activists for social justice, called “Indignants”, take to the squares in the main cities of the world to raise their voices against an economic system that marginalises and excludes them from having a dignified future.

HR can be a key agent inside organisations for shaping a positive experience of work. The question is whether HR professionals should remain behind their desks and do more of the same or use their experience to harness the underused potential of talent and offer work experience. Although the underlying reasons for the demonstrations go far beyond action on joblessness, experts place the activity of work as being central to combating helplessness and injecting positivism and hope for the future. However such a complex situation calls for other players and government policy in particular and the role of constituted bodies are important variables that have to be considered.

FHRD has been at the forefront in supporting work placement experiences – especially those provided by the ETC, the University of Malta, foreign universities and even women who plan to return to full-time employment in the near future and found FHRD offering niche opportunities, where they could keep in touch with work and their chosen career. Solutions at the macro level can be found more easily when operators at the micro level are innovative and forward looking, says FHRD CEO Joe Gerada.

Spain was one of the first European countries – after the economic crisis of Greece in 2008 – to be criticised by its citizens and urged to start reforms. More than 6.5 million Spaniards were on the streets demonstrating in favour of radical changes to the Spanish political and economical systems. Spain has been hit hard, with one of the highest unemployment rates in Europe, reaching eurozone record of 21 per cent, while youth joblessness stands at 43 per cent. In order to reduce the unemployment rate and revive the economy, the government launched a reform of the labour market that made it easier to hire and fire people. It was a shortsighted measure that kept the people on the streets of 58 major cities for no less than three months and eventually brought about a change in government. People understood the government’s predicament but refused to carry all the burden themselves.

There have been similar situations in all the major industrialised nations, including the USA. The ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement began on 17 September in the Wall Street financial district of New York. With more than 2,000 activists, the protests have focused on social and economic inequality, political corruption and the stagnation of employment, with a jobless rate of 9.2 per cent. With the slogan “We are 99%,” referring to the growing difference in wealth between the wealthiest one per cent and the rest of the population, demonstrators have been complaining about an economic crisis that has been disproportionately affecting the low and middle classes and young people who see no hope for the future. On 10 October, a campaign was launched on Facebook for protests to take place at the London Stock Exchange in support of the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protests. This prompted the British civilian platform ‘Occupy London’. Established in a moment of uncertainty, after the Conservative and Liberal Democratic parties entered into a coalition government together and initiate sharp spending cuts, this British movement demanded structural, political and economic change. Against jobless rates, economic inequality and unaffordable housing, among other complaints, thousands of demonstrators assembled outside St Paul’s Cathedral to work on an “alternative and sustainable system”. In a situation where unemployment has reached 2.62 million, its highest level for 17 years, young people in the UK now account for more than a million of those without a job. Activists called for urgent government action to avoid losing generations of talent that could otherwise make an effective contribution.

The spark that ignited in Spain spread like wild fire across most cities of the world and this time globalisation was working to spread the common feelings of the people as opposed to the global marketing strategies and major corporations. The reality that gripped most western societies compelled them to speak with one voice. It is the voice of the people who are holding their leaders accountable for a system that seems to move from one crisis to another, where the lower and middle classes are always at risk of poverty and where the difference between the haves and the have nots, keeps growing. The people or “Indignants” were able to mobilise consciences, they drew the attention of the media, they spread their demands among civil society while remaining apolitical, they were self-sufficient and they managed with fund-raising by not accepting charity of the system itself. They showed the world initiative, commitment and powerful leadership skills, making leading political and economic systems teeter. In short, they were entrepreneurs of their ideas and their convictions. These people have a passion, creativity, desire and energy of which many companies can only dream.

In their quest for leadership potential, the search for talent, the need for fresh ideas and passionate drive, HR professionals would do well to think differently and take careful note of those who can really deliver the dream talent for which they have always hoped. They may be surprised to find it in the most unexpected of places: not in the universities but on the streets. The potential shown by activists throughout the world during the demonstrations should not go unnoticed by HR professionals, whose organisations need to nurture the talents of people of all backgrounds and capabilities who can manage to make their teams successful and competitive.

Oozing huge potential, but dragging high rates of unemployment on their backs, dissatisfied young people have managed to launch real demands on societies that still cannot make out their future clearly. It would be a challenge for HR professionals to transform all that passion and potential into fuel for feeding the business community, realising their corporate social responsibility by opening the right paths into work.

Ms Garcia Reche is a Spanish journalist at the Foundation for Human Resources Development