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Organization & Logistics

The Global War for Talent

Special report from Hong Kong

Published on: Tuesday, December 11, 2007 Comments (0) Category: Global Mobility & Security, Human Capital, Organization & Logistics,

Posted by: Joseph Daniel McCool

If anyone need further convincing that the Asia-Pacific rim indeed represents the new front in the global war for talent they need only consider the fact that 464 of the Fortune 500 currently do business in China and that five of the 10 largest companies by market capitalization worldwide are indeed Chinese.

Then consider that the expatriate population of Singapore, for example, represents nearly one-quarter of its total population, or that by 2016, the number of people age 60 to 64 will double, creating what will surely become a vacuum for experienced management talent.

You may begin to see why many of the world’s corporate executive staffing leaders are spending much of their time these days here in Hong Kong and deep in the rich recruiting grounds of other booming Asian economies.

One of them is Peter Wright, who, until recently, was vice president of human resources for the 73,000 people who make up the refining and marketing division of energy and natural resources giant BP, plc.

Wright says that corporate talent management leaders would be wise to adopt a systematic approach to their executive-level recruiting process because it can have “a profound effect on both the performance and profitability of your business.”

Key to such a systematic approach, he contends, is changing the mindset within the company from one that views executive hiring as a way to fill gaps in the organization structure to one in which the company’s strategy is the genesis for its decisions about who to hire, what management comptencies they must possess and how they should lead an increasingly global workforce.

“Success in executive hiring,” Wright says, “is about being adaptive and your recruitment profile has to reflect that. If you look at recruitment strategy, you should be able to see the link to recruitment strategy. You should, by looking at the recruitment strategy, know instantly what the [overall corporate] strategy is,” he says.

Wright, who addressed the inaugural Asia conference organized in Hong Kong recently by search-consult magazine, acknowledges that too few hiring organizations around the world can actually put their finger on the cost of their overall recruitment initiatives, let alone the exact return on investment that those activities are driving to elevate corporate financial performance.

“Where are you starting from?” is an important first question to ask, Wright says, before your organization can begin to level-set its recruiting campaigns, link recruiting to strategy and effectively track the results.

The former head of human resources for the BP refining and marketing units also points to the importance of market intelligence to link corporate recruiters to the information and external networks that can point them to global pools of talent to feed Asia’s growing appetite for world-class management talent.

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Mass Career Customization: Customizing Career Paths to Grow Critical Talent

If you had the opportunity to customize pace, workload, location/schedule, and role to match your lifecycle, would you? Let us know how you were able to match your work life to your real life.

Published on: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 Comments (1) Category: Human Capital, Leadership, Managing, Organization & Logistics,

Posted by: Robyn Greenspan

What do you get when you combine: a shrinking pool of skilled labor; non-traditional family structures; an increasing number of women in the workforce; the changing expectations of men; the evolving needs of Generations X and Y; and the increasing impact of technology? You get an antiquated workplace model that can�t sustain itself.

What is the primary issue facing your organization in attracting and retaining talent?

Source: GrowingBusinessLink.com program, Mass Career Customization, 2008

As a result, Deloitte has pioneered the concept of Mass Career Customization, which tackled the question: �If you can customize products and services, why not your career?�

In their book, co-authors Cathleen Benko, Deloitte�s vice chairman and chief talent officer, and Anne Weisberg, senior advisor to Deloitte�s Women�s Initiative, take open-minded organizations through the rationale and steps toward creating work/life and retention solutions that reflect the needs of a new workforce. �The workplace of today was predicated on norms that no longer exist,� Benko told an audience of international professionals in a presentation sponsored by GrowingBusinessLink.com.

�The workforce has changed, but the workplace has not,� Benko continued, and companies currently address the misalignment by offering flexible work arrangements (FWAs). But the response to a flash poll during the presentation reinforced what Benko and Weisberg already found in their research: FWAs are not an overwhelming success. They are often viewed as accommodations and not an organizational standard, and are usually negotiated during crisis. �FWAs are not bad, not wrong, an evolutionary step. It can be a successful arrangement but, unlike MCC, not for all people, all the time,� said Benko.

How successful are FWAs considered within your organization?

Source: GrowingBusinessLink.com program, Mass Career Customization, 2008

The four dimensions of MCC are pace, workload, location/schedule, and role, and the interrelationships between these elements, which can be plotted along a person�s lifecycle. It�s natural to have an ebb and flow to professional productivity and commitment, dependent on personal needs. �There�s typically only been a career ladder model � straight up. MCC allows for a �corporate lattice,� which enables multiple upward paths, directional changes and career-life fit,� Benko noted.

MCC is a measurable, systemic and equitable program that provides more than just flexibility, as Benko said its greatest worth is its option value. �The psychic comfort afforded by the ability to customize the levels of career engagement as priorities change over time.�

What Deloitte found during its two year pilot program and first year roll-out is that most employees don�t want to design their careers very differently than their current schedule. Although the biggest surprise, Benko said, was that there were many who wanted to accelerate more quickly rather than �dial down.�

Looking back, have you ever formally or informally �dialed up or dialed down� your career?

Source: GrowingBusinessLink.com program, Mass Career Customization, 2008

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Trade Logistics

Logistics are best when economic performance is at state.

Published on: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 Comments (0) Category: Organization & Logistics,

Posted by: Economist.com

The ability of developing countries to connect firms, suppliers and consumers to global supply chains efficiently is essential to their competitiveness, says the World Bank in a new study on trade logistics. The study ranks countries on an index which combines seven measures of logistics performance, including the efficiency of customs procedures, costs, and the quality of infrastructure. Developed countries all score highly; Singapore comes top. Those developing countries where trade is central to economic performance, such as China and Chile, tend to be ranked higher than others with similar incomes. Some higher-income countries, such as the oil producers, tend to perform below their peers.