How do nations attract the talent they need to succeed?
As appeared in October's issue of The New Yorker
Who you employ is often the difference between success and failure. That is why companies, cities and even nations are increasingly changing their mindsets and methods to atttract, groom and retain the talent they need to increase their commercial profitability. But will investing and cultivating in this unique pool ultimately make them winners? In this round of Singapore Sessions, we investigate with The New Yorker and four C-level executives on the challenges and approaches in attracting and molding the perfect T-shaped talent.
The Session
Click on the sessionists to find out more about their perspectives or read the full session.
Valerie Germain — Changing the cultural mind set
"It doesn't matter", Valerie Germain replied, "whether you are a country, whether you are an organisation, whether you are non-profit", in response to whether specific abilities are needed to build talent capital. "Building talent capital is a long term investment that companies and entities need to be able to understand", said Valerie Germain.
However, she emphasises that Rome, like talent building, wasn't built overnight. "It is a cultural mind set. This is not an event. You can't decide that you are going to build talent capital and you want a country to be viewed as having the best talent. You can't do that once. You need to do this successively over time".
Yes
NoAbout the sessionist
Valerie Germain
Managing Partner of Strategy and Business
Development & a partner in Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc.
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Sai Sireesh P — The importance of culture and its experiences
Is culture an important factor to attract talent? Sai Sireesh seems to certainly think so. "It really depends a lot on the right culture - as well as having the right policies to attract the right people."
Sireesh also believes that on top of culture, having a good environment quickens the process of getting talent. "Best educational environments are environments that help bring people from all over the world into one single place, which means that you get a good blend of interaction with people - strong analytical types in business as well as realising the importance of the soft skills as well."
But how about talents themselves? "To be talent that is demanded, one wants to build up a portfolio of experiences that can be leveraged on". Because after all, he said, "these are the highly skilled workers that will be in demand".
About the sessionist
Sai Sireesh P
Global Head Value Chain Operational Risk,
Global Risk Management, Russell Investments
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Professor Arnoud De Meyer — T-shaped and globally ready
Professor De Meyer believes that the current companies, cities and even nations look for in talents are "T-shaped" personalities, which he explains as "somebody who can go deep into a particular topic but also has the horizontal part of it - in other words can look in different areas".
And how do we retain or attract this unique talent pool? Three main factors. First, he believes a country that has "a fairly high quality of life - which has good medical facilities, good schools for children, cultural events and activities". The second, based on the professor's different travel experiences is that a city should "offer prospective for growth, economic development".
And for a city to attract the talent that it needs, he sees that "a certain open climate for debate and discussion, a climate that is open to criticism and that can see different opinions" is a good magnet.
About the sessionist
Professor Anound de Meyer
President,
Singapore Management University
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Eric Lesser — Capitalising on innovation
How can one cultivate and attract top talent from around the world? By maintaining the innovative edge it seems. Only then can companies "fully capitalise on the collective capabilities, experiences and knowledge within their organizations, especially as employees increasingly work across borders - whether physical, institutional or generational", said Eric Lesser.
In fact, in 2010, IBM Global Chief Human Resource Officer (CHRO) Study outlines several recommendations on how "companies can cultivate creative leaders and build the skills necessary to prosper in today's virtual and globally distributed world", said Lesser.
First, "look beyond headquarters to identify and cultivate rising stars regardless of their location". Second, "use global issues facing the organization as the basis for real-life learning experiences". Last but not least, "offer short-term, focused opportunities for employees to work in new markets or geographies", only then can companies better tap into collective ideas of their employees, commented Lesser.
About the sessionist
Eric Lesser
Research Director, North America Leader, IBM
Institute for Business Value
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