The Predictive Model of Industrial Employability (PMIE) - Enabling employees to effectively perform future production work

This paper highlights the development and operationalization of the Predictive Model of Industrial Employability (PMIE). The overarching objective of this model is to enable both shopfloor employees and production engineers to find or maintain employment in a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) industrial working world. The PMIE consists of the construct “Industrial Employability”, and incorporates dependent variables that are consolidated within the four dimensions “Occupational and Technological Expertise”, “Adaptability”, “Social Skills”, and “Self-Management”. The model also contains antecedents as independent variables that influence a person's employability. On the micro-level, these antecedents represent individual factors; on the meso-level, the antecedents are determined by the organization; and on the macro-level, they are determined by sociopolitical factors. In order to validate and quantify the qualitative model, the PMIE will be applied in the form of a questionnaire study to companies within the automotive and machine tools industries as well as to unemployed persons who have previously worked in these industries. The PMIE aims at helping both the European labor market in general and specific organizations to identify the antecedents that need to be addressed in order to improve employability.