I recently attended a conference with a trio of panellists from the business world, hailing from three pillars of our economy: CDP, Alcan and Bombardier. The debate promised to be very interesting, and was moreover sponsored by one of the leading strategic consulting firms and Commerce magazine. There were 150 people in the room waiting to hear all about globalization—businesspeople, consultants, financiers, etc. Were they expecting to discuss numbers, dashboards, or the results of socioeconomic/political studies? Surprise—the discussion was all about talent management, recruiting, skills development and employee retention!
Very few human resources professionals were there, except for a few head-hunters. What a pity. . . What do you think the representatives of Bombardier, Alcan and the Caisse de Dépôt discussed? They talked about their main challenges: how to expand abroad but without experienced managers for the Asian subsidiary, the problems of managing cultural diversity on management teams and the new face of the multi-faceted, many-hatted, polyglot, chameleon-like leader. While some companies are still having their managers learn English, others ask them to be fluent in Portuguese and Mandarin (and that’s in addition to French and English)! The biggest question was the difficulty they were having in “recruiting globally,” facing these new issues in their companies and finally how to manage expatriates to keep them loyal without promising them the moon. Some recruiting and human resources managers, and others, would have greatly benefited from listening to the panel.
Competition between companies is increasingly intensifying as regards recruiting. Candidates have become customers—consumers like everyone else—who are continually solicited from all quarters. Thanks to globalization, they are two clicks away from their next job and just a short plane ride away from their next career destination. Some are only now discovering what others have dealt with for a long time.
The brain drain of 1999–2000, with science and computer specialists leaving for the U.S. in droves, has just struck manufacturing and financial services full force, affecting senior managers as well as specialists. The siren call of the plains of Calgary, the Rockies and Vancouver (ranked way ahead of Montreal in terms of quality of life in the Mercer 2007 survey) comes with benefits that are hard to turn down. And this is without even considering the new work/life balance requirements of employees, often in dual-career families. This means that companies must nowadays not only manage the careers of their managers and professionals, but of their spouses! It’s quite a headache, especially if shared custody arrangements and the increasing number of divorces are factored in. So what’s a poor recruiter to do? One potential solution is to consider the over-50 crowd, whose children are no longer dependent and whose relationships foundered a long time ago; in short, the new singles, as well as. . . homosexuals! Yes, you heard me—gay employees are a hot new commodity, especially for leadership positions, because of their intellectual prowess, emotional intelligence, availability and adaptability! Finally some progress against taboos—a nice comeback for the gay community and a thumb of the nose to the job market.
So here’s a good idea for recruiters and human resources professionals: check out business and economic forums more often, in order to learn a tip or two. I would also bet that your next interview questions might just challenge the Charter of Rights and Freedoms!