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Human Capital

Economic Uncertainty Creating New Opportunities and Challenges for Corporate Leaders

�Thanks in part to an aging workforce and global economic growth, the demand for executive talent continues to increase while the threat of a recession looms.” says Mark Anderson, president and chief economist at ExecuNet.

Published on: Thursday, April 24, 2008 Comments (0) Category: Human Capital, Leadership, Reality Check,

Posted by: Robyn Greenspan

Despite evidence that the economy could continue to shed temporary and entry-level jobs, recruiting and retaining executive-level talent will remain a challenging priority for companies in 2008. Following a healthy 24 percent increase in search assignments in 2007, more than 70 percent of search firm and corporate human resource professionals believe there is a shortage of executive talent, and two-thirds (67 percent) say the war for executive talent has intensified over the last year amid increasing economic uncertainty.

Highlights from the 2008 Executive Job Market Intelligence Report:

Executive recruiters expect search assignments to climb 17 percent in 2008, while corporate recruiters are forecasting a 10 percent increase in executive-level job opportunities at their companies.
The industries expected to generate the most executive job growth in 2008 include: high tech, healthcare, business services, pharmaceuticals/biotech, and energy/utilities.
Approximately 60 percent of all employed executives report they are satisfied with their current jobs. However, for the 40 percent who are not, boredom and a lack of advancement are the most cited sources for their discontent.
Just 12 percent of executives pointed toward compensation as the reason why they�re looking to leave their current company.
Total executive compensation increased 5.7 percent in 2007 and is expected to grow another 6.2 percent in 2008.
Despite increasing shareholder scrutiny, approximately half of all executive compensation packages negotiated in the past 12 months featured perks, including company cars, club memberships, housing, and favorable loans � up from 38 percent in 2006.
Nearly all (86 percent) corporate human resource executives and 61 percent of search firms report that they do not routinely post positions with a total compensation of $200,000 and above on public websites.
A staggering 74 percent of executives believe their resume probably never reaches the decision-maker when submitted electronically through a company website, and 72 percent agree or are unsure that most positions listed on online job boards are phony or already filled.
Despite an average age of just 49, 44 percent of executives expect that their age will negatively affect their ability to land their next position.
Recruiters don�t deny that age can be an issue, but 71 percent of search consultants say their clients are less focused on age than they were in prior years; and 57 percent of corporate HR executives say that when over 50, the candidate�s age is not a negative factor in hiring decisions.

For more information on these topics and others including executive tenure trends, the fastest growing functions, and most effective job search strategies, a free summary of the 2008 Executive Job Market Intelligence Report is available at http://www.execunet.com/MarketReport. For more detail on candidate sourcing, compensation packages and the market outlook, recruiters can access the talent market summary at http://www.execunet.com/TalentMarketReport

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China Most Likely to Succeed U.S. for International Assignments

Research finds that China is poised to replace the United States as the most frequent international relocation assignment destination; meanwhile Singapore drops off the list and Germany emerges.

Published on: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 Comments (0) Category: Global Mobility & Security, Human Capital, Organization & Logistics,

Posted by: Robyn Greenspan

In a presentation at a Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) regional conference, Sue Evens, director of Cartus Consulting Services, identified the top three global mobility policy and program trends—assignment volume and destinations; demand for flexibility and emerging policy approaches; and talent management—and underscored the shift toward China as the primary location for international assignments.

Driven by robust business growth and activity, China will outpace the United States in 2009 as the most frequented location, capturing 31 percent of international assignments, however the HR practitioners who responded to the Cartus survey indicated that China would present the biggest challenge for them. Among the chief concerns: infrastructure and security; living conditions; compensation and high costs; compliance; and cultural adaptation/language.

2004

United States.......34%
United Kingdom....28%
China...................19%
Singapore.............19%

2007

United States.......30%
China...................23%
United Kingdom......8%
Germany................5%

2009 Projected

China..................31%
United States.......25%
United Kingdom.....4%
India.....................4%

Source: Cartus, 2007

Growing Business Finds Retention Gold in Virtual Workforce

ERE.net, a company that combines the best characteristics of a trade association, publisher, user-generated content community and event planning, has found the key to growth is hiring the best people, no matter what their location and using communications technologies to propel the business forward.

Published on: Monday, March 31, 2008 Comments (0) Category: Human Capital, Managing,

Posted by: Lauryn Franzoni

When David Manaster, CEO, ERE.net, founded the firm in 1998, he was living with his parents in Brooklyn, NY, and while he had a business concept that was building steam in the marketplace, he didn’t have a lot of office space to spare. ERE, which began as the Electronic Recruiting Exchange, provides an online destination for corporate and third-party recruiters to gather, post their blogs and view the posts of industry recruitment and retention analysts.

The company produces three physical conference events each year that draw upwards of 1,000 international participants each, and the buzz continues online in webcasts, discussion groups and blogs and in print in a quarterly journal or recruiting. And while today there is a small physical office in New York City, for the most part, the key team members are located around the country from Albany to Orlando to Washington state to California and parts in between.

“The first two employees I had wanted to work from their homes,” Manaster recalls, “and from there it became a matter of preference.” ERE operates in an industry well-known for retention problems. Most B2B media companies replace at least a third of their staffs each year. “It’s become a competitive advantage,” Manaster notes. “We’ve had people who wanted to move to new cities for family or lifestyle reasons. If we insisted on a physical location, we’d have lost crucial employees. To be able to keep them and to attract others with special skills, we have a lot more to offer because we don’t insist on relocation.”