2 million kronor for the profiles from the podcast 'Dumma Människor' to review and market the municipality's new 'human' job-seeking. The 'human' aspect means that Skellefteå municipality will, among other things, change the tone in its job advertisements and send out questions to candidates in advance before job interviews. The new job-seeking is described as human because candidates, despite their shortcomings, should not be discouraged from applying for jobs with the municipality.
Examples given in the press release include 'a nurse who closes their eyes when it's scary on TV' and 'a preschool teacher who sometimes forgets the children's names'. The campaign is part of the municipality's overall strategy to attract competence to the municipality, especially in shortage professions. The municipality aims to become more attractive as an employer and get more applicants for its vacant jobs.
I think that you must use advertising and marketing to reach more candidates. I don't believe that we would manage the competence supply if we didn't advertise and do campaigns.
Using advertising and campaigns for that purpose is necessary, according to Skellefteå municipality's personnel manager Joakim Lundin. The campaign about human job-seeking is a follow-up to the municipality's campaign from 2024 where applicants themselves could request work tasks and salary. Philip Syrén from the Taxpayers' Association is critical of the reasoning that the municipality must use costly campaigns to attract personnel.
He believes that it instead involves investing in salaries and good work environment. Syrén said it is a waste of public funds to pay for advertising campaigns. The Taxpayers' Association is a politically independent non-profit association that works for 'lower taxes and less waste of tax money'.
The municipality seems to measure success in reach and media attention, just like with the previous campaign. But that is not what the public should be involved in, and it is not what I believe the residents of Skellefteå care about.
Philip Syrén is the current Waste Ombudsman and has, according to the association's page, a background at the market-liberal think tank Timbro. It remains unclear how many job vacancies or shortage professions Skellefteå municipality is currently facing.