January saw over 250 HR directors and HR managers in attendance at the latest of HR Magazine’s renowned HR conferences. The event, held at Cliftons in Quarry Bay, looked in detail at staff recruitment and succession planning strategies. We bring you distilled highlights from each of the keynotes on the day.
Allesandro Paparelli, Regional Human Resources Director, Asia Pacific, Ferragamo Hong Kong Ltd.
Topic: Recruitment strategies at Ferragamo
Paparelli kicked off the day in style, literally, drawing a metaphor between a beautifully dressed teen queen at a graduation ball, and a company’s recruiting practices. With this image firmly in place, he went on to highlight numerous similarities that prom queens and companies face:
- They are desired by many
- They are still in competition with all the other potential queens out there
- They have to master gossip and rumours
- Intermediaries can be key
- The ‘chosen one’ can be very different
Similarity one—desired by many: using a funnel as an illustration for the process of filtering CVs during recruitment, Paparelli noted, “Look at how your filters are working— how do you deal with the quantity at the top of the funnel, while retaining quality at the narrow end of the funnel?” Among the many other valuable suggestions, he stressed, “Reference checks are critical, and to me the most important part in this space.”
Similarity two—competition with the multitude: on the subject of employer branding, Paparelli explained how the multitude of social networking and career search websites can dilute a company’s brand. He suggested a number of ways HR managers could improve a company’s brand, including the use of interviews and recruiters.
Similarity three—masters of gossip: HR managers should be aware of all that is going on around them, and use many different channels, including recruiters and top management, to increase market knowledge.
Similarity four—intermediaries: suggesting the use of recruiters he said, “Recruiters are the ones that should allow people to make the jump to the next levels of their career; they also allow companies to make a jump to the next level in terms of quality of their teams.”
Similarity five—the chosen one can be different: Paparelli suggested that HR managers should always be prepared for diversity, and know how to nurture it in the different cultures present within a company.
Paparelli finished his presentation by pointing out that being the queen of the ball is not an easy job, and there is a balancing act of all different aspects. He concluded, “With some good recruiting strategies and some luck, every company can find a perfect match for both parties involved.”
Chris Frost, VP, SHL Hong Kong; and Alistair Lamont, Senior Consultant, the alphaeight institute
Topic: Identifying and developing your future leaders in Asia Pacific
Frost and Lamont shared the second presentation of the day highlighting key ways in which HR could identify and develop both current and future high-potential employees (HiPos).
Frost said, “Asia is becoming an economic power, and with change comes different requirements and styles of leadership. Most of which are not available in the market today.” He went on to list some simple initial steps to increase HiPos’ capabilities:
- Link any steps taken and programmes implemented to the business strategy.
- Build greater internal awareness: who are your HiPos and what do they need to do in order to improve their capabilities?
- Audit your teams, their capabilities and how they contribute to the business strategy.
Lamont then stepped in to highlight exactly what future HiPos need, “They need to have competencies and skills that can be adopted by any markets, not just the current markets they are operating in.” These skills include:
- self-awareness;
- self-intelligence;
- social skills;
- optimism;
- self-control and motivation;
- cultural adaptability; and
- knowledge of the organisation.
Once HR managers have identified who their HiPos are, they need to ensure that what they learn, and possibly teach, is ‘good learning and teaching’. This philosophy includes:
Creating long-term comprehensive learning programmes that are fun and cater to developing the competencies needed.
Getting your senior HiPo leaders involved in the development, this can be done through mentoring, or workshop design and development.
Creating challenges, and defining the right behaviours
Lamont offered a great piece of advice to all HR managers and HiPo leaders in any company, “It should be the leaders who pick the people.” This is especially important for identifying your HiPo employees, as it is the leaders who have day-to-day contact with the employees, and who are the ones who need these competencies to create and nurture HiPo employees.
Mathew Gollop, Group Managing Director, ConnectedGroup
Topic: Insight into current recruitment trends, and what HR needs to do in order to attract key talent to their organisations and tips on exactly what questions to ask recruiters
Gollop described the different recruitment market trends such as talent shortage and employability. He said that talent shortages in the Asia Pacific region are actually higher than the global average. During the economic crisis, the employer had the advantage, however now that Asia has recovered rather quickly from the crisis, it is currently the employee that is in the ‘driving seat.’ With a trend towards a 3.5% increase in salary forecast for Hong Kong in 2011, Gollop stated, “There is going to be a lot of change in the market and we all need to be ready for that. Organisations need to use every tool at their disposal in order to attract the right kind of talent. I think over the next three to five years Asia needs to undergo a radical and fundamental change in how it does business because staffing functions are becoming much more sophisticated in the ways that they handle recruitment internally, therefore the outside recruiters need to be much more focused for the future.”
Gollop then stated that three key issues in recruitment firms need to be addressed:
- The lack of cohesiveness on how their staff engage with their accounts
- The amount of information lost when a recruiter leaves a recruitment company
- The lack of inherent accountability on how to engage with corporate accounts
He continued by saying there is a very high-turnover rate in the recruitment business and when a recruiter leaves a company, very often the client follows. He stated that the amount of recruiters that you may use does not necessarily increase the chances of filling a position and said, “I tell my clients that if you have five recruiters, don’t expect them each to give you 20% to get to your 100%. Expect them to follow the path of least resistance. It is much more beneficial to drive accountability through a smaller number of vendors.”
Gollop said the biggest complaint he gets from clients is the lack of quality of recruiters. He therefore provided the following advice for selecting a recruitment firm: choose well, demand accountability, promote loyalty and drive change and development. “For busy HR managers, the cost in the long run will be significant, so by actually just going to their office you will experience a more beneficial process. Externally the agencies all look the same, but the culture is very different and not every organisation is going to fit what you need and suit your culture.”
Steve Chow, Director of HR, Hsin Chong Construction Group Ltd/Synergis Management Services Ltd
Topic: DIY—Talent management—recruitment, performance management and succession planning
With more than 30 years working experience in both HR and operations, Steve Chow, Director of HR for Hsin Chong Construction Group Ltd and Synergis Management Services Ltd, shared his advice on recruitment, performance management and succession planning.
Chow started by asking, “Why doesn’t HR get respect?” and, “What is the role of HR?” He suggested that from an operational perspective, respect is not given because the traditional HR processes—placing recruitment ads and then asking typical interview questions as they ‘escort’ the interview—do not add value to the process. He said HR needs to be able to, “Guarantee in the recruitment process that the person you recruit can perform in the office the next day.”
Next he asked, “So what can HR do better?” Chow, through his contact with the HKMA Training and Development Awards, had accumulated strategies to do just that. He said, “For the last 14 years I have been stealing people’s property and turning it into my own.”
In terms of recruitment, Chow offered a lot of advice such as, updating job descriptions every year and involving the line director in the process. He noted, “Job descriptions help us to find the right person.” Identify critical tasks, and how to measure them, for each job. Then use the job descriptions and critical tasks as a guide to ask the right questions in the interview—not ‘I see you got married last year; can you work overtime?’ In the interview, give each candidate a rating on the most critical tasks and be sure to ask for the line managers’ perception, as it is good evidence for the recommendation. “This is the only way forward to recruit the right person.” He added, “That training can then focus on these critical tasks...Don’t waste money on what is popular.”
For performance reviews, Chow suggested reviewing the ratings system. “Ideally, it should be a random distribution curve, showing who is in for succession planning.” He added that very specific comments regarding achievement should be included in the, usually blank, comment boxes. He concluded, “If you don’t start with recruitment, you won’t end up with good succession planning.”
Jennifer Van Dale, Partner, Baker & McKenzie
Topic: Update on recent legal changes regarding staff employment contracts and the implications for HR when taking on new recruits
Jennifer Van Dale pointed out that the Minimum Wage Ordinance (MWO), effective 1 May 2011, is a major change to legislation, setting the minimum wage at HKD 28 per hour. She advised to keep a record of hours worked for all employees earning less than or around HKD 11,500 per month and to pay close attention to those with variable incomes, either high commission or low salary base, and those that travel to a location that is not the usual place of work, as travel counts as hours worked.
Van Dale then explained the typical workplace pattern in Hong Kong: an employee may arrive at work around 9 am and after ordering take-out or socializing, may not end up leaving work until 8 pm. In regards to this pattern, Van Dale agrees that this is ideally resolved through communication, but notes that criminal penalties can be imposed for the breach of MWO and therefore this is very much a legal issue. She also noted that she had frank discussions with the Labour Department because, in her view, this puts pressure on employers to force their employees to finish all work before they can socialise, or alternatively to not allow employees to work past standard office hours. This, Van Dale suggests, is likely to make workplace relations more strained.
Van Dale reported that the Labour Department is of the view that these difficulties are not a legal issue, rather a workplace relations issue. She believes the message they are trying to send is that employers need to discuss this with their employees and then establish a policy. She said she has seen a ‘crack down’ on employers who have not complied with previous wage rules and an increase in inspections of wage-related records among her clients. Penalties for not complying with the minimum wage include a HKD 350,000 fine and three years imprisonment. Failure to comply with record keeping requirements is a HKD 10,000 fine per offence, and this could amount to a substantial sum for large organisations. She warned that if you are using an Excel spreadsheet to do payroll, then most likely your system is not going to be compliant with these new regulations—especially if someone overseas is doing your payroll.
Anthony Williams, Director of Talent Acquisition, Newell Rubbermaid
Topic: Proactive recruitment strategies and candidate relationship management (CRM)
Anthony Williams, Director of Talent Acquisition, Newell Rubbermaid introduced the difficulties that the organisation has had in attracting candidates. While some brand names were familiar with consumers, the name Newell Rubbermaid did not conjure up much excitement from candidates. Williams noted, “The name Newell Rubbermaid is not as sexy as Ferragamo, but from talent perspectives, we do have champagne tastes.” Additional challenges, specific to the Asia-Pacific region included covering multiple countries, a lack of interest from candidates and a very competitive market. Williams explained, “We would need to spend 10 to 15 minutes explaining who we are before we got any interest.” All of this affected recruitment. He went on to say, “The hunt for candidates was very labour intensive. We needed to educate candidates on who we were first.”
Three changes in the recruitment approach were made in the last year, all with good results: recruitment and business operations planning, the pre-recruitment process and candidate management.
Recruitment and business operations planning included HR and talent acquisition partnering with the business operation leaders to forecast hiring for the year. This involved budget management and analysis and ensuring the talent acquisition team had a full understanding of the positions that would be available—for both succession planning and talent acquisition. This enabled a ‘pipeline of candidates’ to be built through networking.
The pre-recruitment process involved planning activities that would support networking—through industry events, referral programmes and social networking—to build pipelines for when the positions opened. These changes ensured that efforts were not duplicated and were more efficient. Williams added that it even enabled the team to find perfect candidates early so they had candidates ready when the jobs opened up.
The Candidate Relationship Manager (CRM)—different to the applicant tracking system—is the database of contacts enabling Williams and his team to understand the market. Williams stated that when networking and building the pipeline, “You meet people in the industry that are not necessarily looking for a job.” When a position becomes open, Williams’ team is able to target a very specific audience and turn those contacts into a viral marketing strategy. He said, “It is not necessarily headhunting, as that is a dirty word, but we are doing much more than networking.” Through this network, “We have very qualified, champagne taste candidates coming to us. We don’t have a very sexy name, but our team has amassed an amazing number of contacts to get attention with a very specific audience.”
Dr Frankie Lam, Executive VP—HR, Oregon Scientific
Topic: Insights into recruitment and succession planning strategies at Oregon Scientific
Dr Lam described the current challenges that Oregon Scientific faced in human resources, namely global people resources and management succession, and offered solutions to address those issues.
To the issue of global people resources, the solution was to use external resources and adopt an Executive Associate Programme in order to, as Dr Lam said, “Build a strong leadership bench for future global leaders.” An intensive three year programme that includes on-the-job development, 70%; mentoring and feedback by senior management, 15%; learning and development programmes, 10%; and company activities, 5%. Lam said that 27% of high potentials are at risk of career derailment, with one out of every four never reaching their potential. Characteristics of derailers include not being a team player, defensiveness, arrogance, being overly ambitious, hurrying to move ahead and a having sense of entitlement. Dr Lam said that effective mentoring is the key in order to prevent derailing of employees. Ideal mentors should be experienced and respectful senior management personnel, who are able to commit their time, be passionate, and possess coaching and mentoring skills. He added that the right pairing should also have chemistry.
The second solution that has been implemented, to address management succession issues, is a management development programme. The programme includes executive leadership forums for senior managers, I-MBA programmes for selected managers and I-Engage and Management Essentials programme for all managers. The I-Engage programme is a two-day ‘boot camp’ for mid-level managers that addresses their supervisory skills, work engagement and team effectiveness. The I-MBA programme addresses succession planning and is designed to accelerate selected talent to see if they are capable of senior level management. Dr Lam advised to conduct a people and organisation review in order to agree on and select high potential talent, the back-bone talent as well as the bottom 10% and then provide specific plans in order for performance improvement or exit.
After one year of implementing these strategies Dr Lam provided his guidelines:
- Link talent and critical competencies more explicitly to company strategy
- Be more strategic about where, why and when people
- are rotated throughout the organisation
- Manage talent earlier or the competitor will
- Address performance issues and create more candid dialogues
- The bottom 10% cannot remain at the bottom time and time again
- Share talent and capabilities across business units
- Share leadership development and accountability between senior executives and HRD
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
