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" Integrated talent management processes can help you quickly find the best people for your business, effectively develop and leverage their talent, align their efforts with your corporate objectives, and retain your top performers.
SAP ERP HCM offers talent management functionality that is fully integrated with other HCM and business processes to help you more effectively manage your talent."
Source : SAP
Winning the Race for Talent in Emerging Markets
Talent Management is also known as :
Human Capital Management,
Performance Management,
Leadership Development,
Talent Marketplace,
Human Resource Management,
Human Resources,
Performance Improvement Plan,
Performance Appraisal,
Talent Management Systems,
Incentive Program,
Personnel Management,
Change Management,
Skills Management,
Training and Development,
Human Resource Development.
The Idea in Brief
What motivates a Uruguayan software engineer
to work for an Indian company in
Brazil? If you don't know, you risk losing the
race for talent in emerging markets. These
new markets are growing so fast, even established
global players aren't recruiting
and retaining enough employees.
How to win this contest? Ready, Hill, and
Conger suggest two strategies:
- Attract talent by making compelling
promises. Center these promises on your
company's brand (does it have a reputation
for excellence that may lead to personal
advancement?), opportunity (will
you provide challenging work, training,
and competitive pay?), and purpose
(does your company have a mission and
values meaningful to potential new
hires?).
- Retain talent by keeping your promises.
Craft a culture characterized by authenticity,
a merit-centered reward system, and
accelerated professional development
for even the lowest-level employees.
By applying these strategies, Standard
Chartered Bank reduced attrition rates in its
China operations by 3% over 2007-2008-
while rivals suffered a dramatic increase in
attrition.
The Idea in Practice
ATTRACT TALENT BY MAKING COMPELLING PROMISES
Make promises about your company's brand,
opportunity, and purpose that appeal to employees
in developing nations.
Example:
TCS Iberoamerica (a unit of Tata Consultancy
Services) provides software and technology
services to clients in Latin America,
Spain, and Portugal, while also contributing
to other TCS endeavors worldwide.
The Tata brand stands for technical excellence.
So, when expanding into Brazil
and Uruguay, TCS Iberoamerica hired local
engineers (not salespeople) and sent them
to India to observe its core strengths and
standards. They returned home energized
and eager to recruit their compatriots.
The company also promised opportunity.
For instance, it hired local Brazilian and
Uruguayan leaders who were admired in
the community to head up operations-
not Indian expatriates.
Finally, Tata offered an exciting purpose-
including making a $2,000 car that would
open up the industry to low-income
consumers.
RETAIN TALENT BY KEEPING YOUR PROMISES
It's tempting to overpromise just to get new
hires in the door. But failure to deliver on
those promises will sour current employees
on the company and ultimately hurt its
appeal for potential new hires. Keeping your
promises is especially crucial in emerging
markets where employees can easily move to
global or local companies that seem to offer
greater overall rewards.
Your company's culture plays a central role in
keeping promises and retaining talent.
Example:
At Standard Chartered Bank's China operation,
many new employees are "raw
talent"-they have great potential, but lack
experience. To back up its promises, the
bank pays careful attention to its culture:
- Induction. SCB offers an intensive induction
program that teaches raw-talent hires
about the ethical management of financial
services, including money-laundering
prevention.
- Technical training. Relationship managers
in SCB's wholesale business must complete
a five-day "boot camp" and pass a strict
exam before they're exposed to customers.
- Professional and management development.
Raw recruits get intensive training in
the English language, communication and
listening skills, and business etiquette. They
also receive career guidance and access to
networking sessions.
- Stretch assignments and deployment.
SCB's recruiting slogan "Go places" tells people
that if they do well, they'll move ahead
in their careers. And talented Chinese employees
are often moved elsewhere, including
to the group head office in London.
With economic activity in emerging markets
growing at compounded rates of around
40%-as compared with 2% to 5% in the West
and Japan-it's little wonder that many companies
are pegging their prospects for growth
to Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC) and,
increasingly, other developing nations. Businesses
based all over the globe are feverishly
competing for people who, often for the first
time in their lives, have numerous options and
high expectations. Not even companies with
established global experience can coast on
past success in meeting their staffing needs.
One might assume, for instance, that Standard
Chartered Bank, whose heritage dates
back to the 1850s in India, Hong Kong, and Singapore,
could easily maintain a lead in the race
for Asian talent. But just a couple of years ago
SCB's China division was unable to find seasoned
managers to lead the bank's retail and
commercial banking operations. In the words
of Hemant Mishr, the head of corporate global
sales, "These people and the generations
that preceded them have known nothing but
poverty and the lack of opportunity. Yet we
expect them to be patient, loyal soldiers, and
to advance at an orderly pace. It is time to get
real. It is their time now."
All three of us have spent decades studying
talent management and leadership development,
but this war for talent is like nothing
we've ever seen before. We recently completed
an eight-month research project that
involved interviewing dozens of executives
and collecting data from more than 20 global
companies. Our goal was to identify the factors
that differentiate the successful from
the less so in emerging markets, and our first
analysis revealed four: brand, opportunity,
purpose, and culture. These may sound somewhat
generic-and logical in any talent
market-but they play out in developing nations
in particular ways.
Employees in the developing world aren't
used to thinking about the future in expansive
terms. Now they can look beyond simply
making a living. They are particularly attuned
to brand, for instance, because a desirable
affiliation may lead to personal advancement-
especially when the brand is associated with
inspirational leadership, the kind that challenges
employees to develop themselves as
leaders and to help build a great company
that plays on a global stage.
Not surprisingly, opportunity means much
the same in the developed and developing
worlds: challenging work, stretch assignments,
continual training and development,
and competitive pay. In emerging markets,
however, opportunity must imply an accelerated
career track to senior positions. Highpotential
employees don't focus exclusively
on climbing the ladder, however; they are
willing to make lateral moves as long as their
skills and experience accrue at a pace that
matches the growth in their markets.
As for purpose, emerging-market job candidates
prize a company with a game-changing
business model, where they can be part of redefining
their nation and the world economy.
They are also attracted by a mission that
focuses on helping the unfortunate-many
have experienced poverty firsthand-and
expresses the value of global citizenship.
A company's culture matters in several distinct
ways in emerging markets. First, its
"story," or brand promise, has to feel authentic.
Second, employees must be rewarded for
reasons of merit; a high potential from Brazil
or Dubai must believe that the executive suite
in China or the United Kingdom is within
reach. Third, although employees want to be
recognized for individual achievements, they
also want to feel a connection with their
teams. Finally, the culture has to be truly
"talent-centric," so that people know they're
critical to the company's success.
A closer look at our interviews gave us new
insights into how these four factors work in
concert. We found that they could be united
under two guiding principles: promises made
(the combination of brand, opportunity, and
purpose) and promises kept (most significantly,
employees' day-to-day experiences within an
organization's culture). All four factors play a
role in all aspects of the talent management
process, but each influences recruitment and
retention in different ways. (See the exhibit "A
Framework for Attracting and Retaining Talent.")
Promises made and kept affect any
quest for talent, but the intensity of competition
in the fast-growing BRIC and other economies
makes strong differentiation urgent.
Most companies continue to believe that a big
salary and a name brand will suffice to meet
their needs, but a local company that creates
genuine opportunities and exhibits desirable
cultural conditions will often win out over a
Western multinational that offers higher pay.
We're not proposing a simple solution to a
complex problem. Company needs vary by
market (see the exhibit "The Talent Market in
BRIC"). Prospective employees don't necessarily
value the same things: Among certain
demographic groups opportunity may matter
more than purpose, for instance, and individual
preferences vary widely as well. But regardless
of any company's strategy for a given
market, the same overarching principles apply.
Attracting Talent: Promises Made
Lenovo is a good illustration of the strong lure
of brand, opportunity, and purpose. Its acquisition
of IBM's personal computer operations,
in 2005, made it the third-largest personal
computer company in the world. In 1994 the
founder of Legend (as Lenovo was then
known), Liu Chuanzhi, forecast that it would
be a great company-an astonishing leap of
faith in the early 1990s. "At the time, there
were very few great Chinese companies, so
Chuanzhi's vision stood out," Chen Shaopeng,
president of Lenovo Greater China and senior
vice president of Lenovo Group, told us. "In
China, the biggest draw is Lenovo's ambition
and vision." The IBM acquisition produced
something of a halo effect for Lenovo, and
Chinese workers felt pride that China had
been able to buy part of an American business
icon. Lenovo's brand was and is attractive to
ambitious young workers with dreams of their
own-people who are building careers and
not simply looking for jobs. Lenovo was an
early standout for these rising stars.
Lenovo also built a global perspective into
its brand promise; to become a great company
it would have to expand beyond its home market.
That meant opportunity. President and
CEO Bill Amelio describes his company as a
"stage without a ceiling for every employee"-
worldwide. In a truly global spirit, Lenovo's
top-team meetings rotate among Beijing,
Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris, and Raleigh,
North Carolina. "Instead of having everyone
travel to me, I travel to them," Amelio says. Lenovo's
brand promise credibly communicates
that nationality doesn't matter; if an employee
demonstrates capability and vision, there are
no limits. The playing field is level.
TCS Iberoamerica, a $160 million unit of
Tata Consultancy Services (itself a division of
the $28.5 billion Tata Group), provides software
and technology services to clients in
Latin America, Spain, and Portugal, while
also contributing to other TCS endeavors
worldwide. It's easy to understand why an
Indian would want to work for Tata Group in
India. But what motivates a Uruguayan software
engineer to work for an Indian company
in Brazil? The combination of a strong brand
and opportunity. TCS Iberoamerica's president,
Gabriel Rozman, told us, "When people
in our region read about Tata buying Jaguar
or making a $2,000 car that will change the
industry...they get excited."
The Tata brand stands for technical excellence,
so when expanding into Brazil and
Uruguay, Rozman started by hiring engineers-
not salespeople-and sent them to India
to observe firsthand the company's core
strengths and standards. They returned energized
and eager to recruit their compatriots.
One Uruguayan engineer saw working at Tata
as an opportunity to help his country make its
mark; he said, "I wanted to work at TCS because
I wanted to show the world what Uruguay
was all about. Even though we're a tiny
country, we have value to add." Rozman also
emphasized the appeal of having local Brazilian
and Uruguayan leaders who are well
connected and admired in the community
heading up operations, rather than expatriates.
Many other managers spoke of the pride
they felt in working for companies with
strong brands that were also contributing to
their countries' economic development. Novartis's
sense of purpose, for instance, is a
major draw for talent. Its Project Arogya, one
of Novartis's socially conscious business operations,
provides services to some 10 million
villagers in 24 territories of India. Arogya's
leader, Olivier Jarry, joined because of the
brand promise to make lives better around
the world. "We improve the health and health
education of the villagers," he says. "We provide
a source of revenue for local talent
working with us on the ground. We are
helping local doctors and pharmacists. This
is a tremendously exciting mission."
How do brand, opportunity, and purpose
come together as a promise made at Standard
Chartered Bank? The company's CEO, Peter
Sands, explains, "We are serious about being a
force for good in the world. It's not an add-on
for us. We are leaders in microfinance, supporting
fledgling entrepreneurs in some of
the world's poorest regions. We seek out, as a
part of our strategic intent, opportunities to
support renewable-energy businesses. By design
we are among the world's most diverse
organizations, so top talents from all walks
of life are attracted to us because they know
they will be embraced as central to our
mission, not peripheral."
Retaining Talent: Promises Kept
Brand, opportunity, and purpose can create
compelling promises, but in such a competitive
market the temptation is to overpromise
just to get people in the door. Failure to deliver
will sour current employees on the company
and ultimately hurt its appeal for potential
employees. That is why keeping promises-
important in any market-takes on particular
urgency in emerging markets, where employees
can quickly and easily move to global competitors
or local companies that appear to
offer greater overall rewards. Many companies
we've studied have experienced extraordinarily
high attrition rates.
Culture, however, can play a central role
in employee retention. Hemant Mishr's team
at SCB sells into several of the most economically
depressed areas in the world;
Mishr joined SCB largely because of its brand
and its purpose, which includes a commitment
to supporting local communities. He
stays, he says, because of the culture: SCB
is a meritocracy that carefully nurtures his
career, and it lives up to the values that attracted
him in the first place. "It's not about
pay," he says. "I could go elsewhere and earn
more-lots more."
Like Mishr, many of the people we interviewed
were seeking a culture that would
support the promise of an accelerated career
path with growth opportunities for everyone,
a commitment to meritocracy, and custom
career planning. HCL Technologies has such a
culture. A global IT company headquartered
in India, HCL employs about 55,000 people in
18 countries. When Vineet Nayar became its
president, in 2005, he knew he had to do
something drastic to turn around the company,
formerly one of India's most innovative,
which in 1999 had been first in the country in
terms of revenues but by 2005 was fifth.
Nayar started with culture. He told us, "I
wanted to create an environment where employee
development and empowerment was
the most important thing, because ultimately
I wanted value-focused employees who were
willing and able to drive an innovative, sophisticated
experience for customers." Nayar
quickly assembled a 20-person team of "young
sparks," an energetic group from among
HCL's top employees; they coined the slogan
that became HCL's strategy for the next two
years: "Employee first, customer second." The
notion is simple-the best way to bring value
to customers is to empower employees.
Throughout 2005 Nayar and the young
sparks unveiled initiatives designed to remove
barriers to employees' doing their best work.
They started by revamping the company's intranet.
Using a software application, employees
can "raise tickets" to report problems with
HCL services and processes. In real time they
can watch the actions taken to correct a problem,
and a ticket can be closed only by the
employee who raised it. By 2006, employees
were raising 30,000 tickets a month. The
site also created transparency: An employee
can pose any question at all to Nayar, who
personally answers up to 100 inquiries a
week. Shortly after its revitalization the
intranet was being visited by close to 25,000
employees every week.
In addition, after a few months in office
Nayar posted his own 360-degree feedback on
the intranet and encouraged his senior managers
to do the same; today more than 2,000
managers publicly post their feedback. Indian
companies traditionally control information
at the top, so the move to public 360s truly
distinguished HCL. In interview after interview
employees told us of the tremendous impact
such transparency has on their career
choices.
In another differentiating move, HCL instituted
"trust pay." Many IT companies in India
offer employees a combination of 70% fixed
pay and 30% variable pay. In practice, high internal
targets make it difficult to earn that
30%. HCL decided to offer 85% of its employees
(mostly junior engineers) a fixed compensation
rate, to be set at the beginning of
each annual cycle. Some new hires actually
thought a mistake had been made in their
offer letters, because they'd never known another
company to offer trust pay. This is very
appealing to recruits from the developing
world, because often their whole families are
invested in their success. Parents, siblings, and
other relatives have worked hard to send
them to school, and once they know they can
support their loved ones, they can focus on
their work.
Because HCL has stayed true to its promises,
its employees are dedicated and its customers
are taking note. The company's reputation
for customer service has consistently improved
over the past four years, resulting in major new
contracts. Nayar, who is now the CEO, says,
"Putting employees first isn't about launching
a few initiatives that make them feel good. It's
about offering a workplace where employees,
no matter their level, can have an impact, can
be a part of something exciting, and can grow
professionally and personally."
Leadership development is another cultural
element that strongly influences retention.
Careers must be carefully nurtured, and finding
the time to do that may seem like a luxury
when the pressure to grow is so great. But
companies can't set such concerns aside, lest
they lose high-potential talent as fast as they
bring it in.
Lenovo very methodically provides accelerated
development opportunities for its employees.
Mary Eckenrod, the head of talent
management, has conducted extensive research
into how leaders learn and the potential career
stages at technology-based organizations
in emerging markets. She has worked with Lenovo's
top team to construct career maps and
pipelines for every member of the company's
pool of high potentials, including the CEO.
All employees are asked to reflect on their
career aspirations, the experiences and education
that have led to their current roles in the
organization, and the development they need
to reach their goals.
What makes Lenovo's talent-tracking process
work, however, is that the career maps
are linked to key slots across the globe and
accountability for the entire process rests
squarely with line leadership, not with HR.
Its employees are ambitious, and Lenovo needs
to demonstrate that it is serious about developing
their careers.
Do SCB, HCL, and Lenovo have a choice
about how they approach development? Absolutely.
They could focus on attracting the small
handful of people with proven experience,
as many companies do, but instead they hire
largely on the basis of potential. They could
enroll in the "cream rises to the top" school
of leadership development, believing that the
best talent will emerge even if the company
fails to provide development opportunities.
But the companies that are winning the talent
race in emerging markets are not only using
brand, opportunity, and purpose to attract
the best people; they are investing heavily in
career planning and professional development
even at the lowest levels, because the workforce
is so young. These companies' cultures
send a powerful message to employees: Your
potential is limited only by your dedication,
effort, and ability to produce results.
The Talent Compact at Standard
Chartered Bank
As China's economy continues to grow at a
breakneck pace, thousands of new businesses
are starting up, discretionary income is growing
rapidly with the emergence of a new middle
class, and wealth is being created as never
before. Trying to recruit and retain highcaliber
talent in the financial services field,
the engine of much of the economy's growth,
can be daunting-especially since April 2007,
when the Chinese government loosened
restrictions on foreign ownership of local
banks. Multinational financial services firms
have since flooded China.
The gap between employee supply and
demand is especially wide when it comes
to candidates capable of moving into senior
leadership roles. Many recruits fresh out of
universities lack the language and other skills
to take on even entry-level positions in global
companies. Nevertheless, salaries in China
have risen out of proportion to the expertise
of the talent pool, creating unrealistic expectations
among potential employees. Moreover,
China's one-child policy has created a
unique problem. As one manager put it,
"Consider that millions of young Chinese
have no siblings and no cousins. It's not too
difficult to see how the child can become the
center of attention for the entire family. It's
not easy giving critical feedback to someone
who is not used to it and who has lots of employment
options elsewhere."
Recall SCB's former difficulty in recruiting
leaders for its banking operations in China.
The company's strategy illustrates our framework
in particularly illuminating ways.
Katherine Tsang, the CEO of SCB China
since 2005, says, "These challenges forced us to
tell the SCB story with passion, but to make
sure that our culture and management practices
matched that story in an honest way. We
tell lots of stories here about our mission, our
sense of purpose, and our brand, and the many
opportunities that young people will get when
they come to work for us. But we need to keep
those promises." Together with Geraldine Haley,
SCB's group head of talent management,
Tsang created what the company calls the "raw
talent superhighway" for SCB China, which is
designed to attract and retain good people.
The bank emphasizes acquiring specialized
skills, followed by broad managerial training
and development, followed by global networks
and leadership development. Several components
went into the highway's construction.
Selection. Tsang's and Haley's teams conducted
extensive analyses of the skills and talents
required by both retail and commercial
bankers in China. Then they investigated nonbanking
industries, such as travel and tourism,
that had developed similar expertise, especially
in customer relations. SCB China set out
to aggressively recruit promising employees
from these other industries; it was able to offer
higher pay and significantly greater opportunities
for career advancement.
Induction and orientation. SCB runs a
standard induction program, but it offers an
intensive version for its raw-talent hires-
employees who demonstrate the desired behaviors
and values but have no skills in financial
services. This program introduces recruits to
the company's culture and values and teaches
them the ethical management of financial services,
including money-laundering prevention
and codes of conduct.
Technical training. SCB's retail division offers
extensive training, and relationship managers
in its wholesale business must complete
a rigorous five-day "boot camp." All trainees
must pass a strict examination before they are
exposed to the bank's customers and clients.
Skilled and seasoned managers conduct most
of these sessions.
Professional and management development.
SCB's raw recruits also get intensive
training in the English language, communication
and listening skills, and business etiquette,
and they have a variety of ongoing educational
opportunities. They receive career guidance
and access to networking sessions, enabling
them to explore different paths at the bank. In
addition, SCB offers the Great Manager Program,
which has won best-practice awards in
China and elsewhere in Asia for its creativity
and effectiveness in management development.
The company has regional learning
centers throughout China and e-learning platforms,
so development is accessible to all. SCB
is forming strategic partnerships with Chinese
universities, both to strengthen relationships
for recruitment and to offer those who join
the company ongoing professional development
at those schools.
Stretch assignments and deployment. One
SCB message to recruits is captured in "Go
places...," which has a double meaning: It tells
people that if they join the bank and do well
they will move ahead in their careers, and it
reminds them that SCB is a global company
with opportunities around the world. Chinese
talent is often moved elsewhere, including to
the group head office in London.
Personal development and performance
management. SCB employees explore their
passions and strengths, with coaching and
guidance, to find a starting point for their careers.
Although the SCB environment is nurturing,
Tsang and other leaders don't hesitate
to give regular and often tough feedback. "We
deal with problems openly and honestly, and
that has led to the creation of an authentic
and trust-based culture. People know we are a
straight meritocracy, and that motivates them."
CEO Peter Sands says, "We have an exciting
growth story, but more important, people can
translate that story into growth opportunities
for themselves. We have 25-year-olds looking
at 32-year-olds doing big jobs. These young
people see who they can become, and that
they don't have to wait 30 years to do it."
Through these efforts the bank was able to
decrease attrition by 3% from 2007 to 2008.
That may not sound like much, but consider
that SCB is bringing thousands of people on
board every year. What's more, most companies
in these markets are experiencing a dramatic
increase in attrition.
Thoughtful Execution
We have described principles that any company,
in any market, would probably do well
to heed. But emerging markets pose some special
challenges worth noting. First, beware of
exporting your domestic talent strategy to
emerging markets. Even if that strategy is
highly successful at home, it will probably
need extensive tailoring to succeed in the developing
world. Second, it's critical to establish
a core of local talent (or of outsiders with a
long history in emerging markets) that can
guide you in understanding the region. Sending
in a talent officer from the corporate
center is unlikely to do the trick; despite the
pressure to bring people on board quickly,
investments in talent take root only with patience.
Third, keep in mind that an overreliance
on English as the "official language" of
the business may prove an impediment to
spotting talent. Some of your most promising
people may not speak English fluently.
Finally, it's not easy to embrace and leverage
diversity; companies struggle with this in the
developed world, too, and very few demonstrate
much diversity at the top. In emerging
economies, companies have no choice but to
nurture local talent, because that's the pool
available and because those bright young recruits
want to see others like them in positions
of power. A truly merit-based company will
stand out to them-particularly in hierarchical
societies where getting ahead has often relied
on family connections and other relationships,
social status, age, or length of tenure.
People in different cultures want and expect
different things from their work. Gabriel
Rozman, of TCS Iberoamerica, reminded us
that leading a team in India is not the same as
leading a team in Brazil or Uruguay. He recognizes
that his company must develop people
who can lead diverse teams in various settings.
Of course, this makes a commitment to
keeping promises made all the more daunting,
because companies can't implement onesize-
fits-all processes. First figuring out which
aspects of the strategy can be standardized
and executed at scale and which must be
sharply tuned to local needs and then coordinating
implementation takes some effort-
but it delivers payback. Over time, global
companies may even be able to bring home
some lessons about meritocracy and diversity.
As global companies are well aware, winning
the race for talent in emerging markets is
hard work. It requires both the explosiveness
of the sprinter and the determination of the
marathon runner. The framework we have outlined
here should help companies assemble
the workforce they need to compete on a
world-class level.
Further Reading
ARTICLES
Winning in the World's Emerging
Markets, 3rd Edition
HBR Article Collection
November 2008
Product no. 12182
Developing countries are the fastest-growing
markets in the world. Yet many multinational
companies, nervous about the unique challenges
of doing business in these nations,
have qualms about tapping their markets.
While they waffle, local companies are grabbing
market share. Some of these domestic
dynamos have even started challenging global
leaders on their turf. Meanwhile, other
MNCs have plunged into developing markets
assuming (wrongly) that the strategies that
made them leaders at home will secure their
success abroad. Ill prepared, they're getting
ambushed in overseas markets by locals who
use different (and more potent) tactics. You
can't avoid investing in developing countries.
But don't do so before analyzing how local
firms operate. To succeed in these nations
while protecting your own turf, you need a
savvy blend of strategies. This HBR Article collection,
focusing on how to work around weak
institutions in developing nations and co-opt
local contenders' playbooks, helps you get
started.
What It Means to Work Here
by Tamara J. Erickson and Lynda Gratton
Harvard Business Review
March 2007
Product no. R0703G
What distinguishes a company that has
deeply engaged and committed employees
from another one that doesn't? It's not a certain
compensation scheme or talent-management
practice. Instead, it's the ability to express to
current and potential employees what makes
the organization unique. Companies with
highly engaged employees articulate their
values and attributes through "signature
experiences"-visible, distinctive elements of
the work environment that send powerful
messages about the organization's aspirations
and about the skills, stamina, and commitment
employees will need in order to succeed
there. Whole Foods Market, for example, uses
a team-based hiring and orientation process
to convey to new employees the company's
emphasis on collaboration and decentralization.
Companies that successfully create and
communicate signature experiences understand
that not all workers want the same
things. Firms that have engendered productive
and engaged workforces address those
preferences by following some general principles:
They target potential employees as methodically
as they target potential customers;
they shape their signature experiences to address
business needs; they identify and preserve
their histories; they share stories-not
just slogans-about life in the firm; they create
processes consistent with their signature
experiences; and they understand that they
shouldn't try to be all things to all people.
BOOK
Offshoring: Understanding the Emerging
Global Labor Market
by Diana Farrell
HBS Press
November 2006
Product no. 1007
The range of tasks that can be done offshore
has ballooned to encompass activities critical
to company performance, such as research
and new product design. This 10-article
collection offers suggestions and facts key to
understanding the potential of the emerging
global labor market-including assessing the
size of the global talent pool, choosing an
offshore location, and interpreting the implications
of offshoring policies.