The War for Talent in Romania
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Martie 2008 |
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RADU FURNICĂ - President
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS |
Adresa
Strada Alexandru Constantinescu, Nr. 47
Bucureşti, Sector 1
Telefon
+40-21-224.71.24
Website
www.kfi.ro
RADU FURNICĂ
President
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS S.R.L.
Introduction - freedom has arrived; therefore, war has arrived
Freedom has finally arrived in what we can call the new Romanian economy, where competition transcends the national borders and capital is abundant, due to a considerable increase in foreign direct investment. Capital dances, indeed, as Kjell Nordstrom says, and this is nowhere more visible than in countries like Romania, where it seeks fresh ideas and projects, juicy bits of business which are developed quickly, while life of technological innovation grows shorter all the time and people are willing to change jobs much more often. For Romanian professionals as well, freedom has arrived, and freedom brings an abundance of choices. Loyalty has not the same meaning anymore, or at least it does not appear to imply long term commitment, as it did not so long ago. Even if the employee does not feel unsatisfied he/she will not hesitate to ‘reward’ the employer by ‘voting’ with his/her feet and will move to the highest bidder.
On the other hand, corporations are opportunistic creatures, by definition, which is not necessarily a bad thing. But, nowadays, corporations understand in an increasingly painful way, that opportunism in as far as its most precious component is concerned – the talent they need - can be extremely damaging for its business objectives. Companies must fight for the talent they need, because talent is becoming much more difficult to find then it was the case not very long ago. No matter what the definition of the word civilization was for the last one hundred years, the word war was included in it. It does not come as a surprise then that the increase in economic activity in Romania has also brought with it a new kind of war, a struggle to attract, grow, and retain the most talented people in this economy – a real War for Talent.
This article tries to give corporations an improved clarity over this imperative issue on their daily agenda: how to go about finding the most precious ingredient of their success in Romania – the talent they need.
What is talent, after all, and how different it is in Romania?
There are three different perspectives that one might consider relevant for the Romanian environment: the way talent is perceived by (i) future employers and their advisors (people like us), (ii) how young professionals could be benchmarked against each other and (iii) how real talent sees itself.
How talent is seen by employers and executive search professionals
The most wanted type of professional has to have a complete education, including – ideally – a business post graduate program, as well as various trainings and development programs. No need to say, proficiency in English and one or two additional international languages is an absolute must. Then, we need consistency in professional development (function wise: i.e. constancy in finance, for example), while a broader exposure to several industries would also be very valuable (especially for the executive level). We then look at the track record of successful assignments. Next phase is the assessment of the individuals’ personal abilities in dealing with problem solving, management of people, coping with difficulties of day to day executive life, how much initiative the individual proved in the previous roles, etc., etc. We do ask a lot from a person before we accept this person in this most wanted professional elite, the talent pool.
Because we ask a lot from talented professionals, the more we ask, the more we condemn ourselves to this ever increasing scarcity in supply of such high quality professionals. Such individuals are the result of a tremendous amount of exposure to various business contexts, on top of having been put through multiple educational churning machines. Talent does not have now the meaning of ability that one is born with, but the meaning of brainpower - the ability to solve complex problems or invent new solutions. Is our modern society able to ‘deliver’ to us more such individuals? What do we need to do in order to achieve this? These are questions that will not find their answers in articles such of these, but asking them here will help the readers understand at least intuitively, where the root of the problem is, and, ultimately and more importantly, will help them realize how serious the problem is and how difficult to solve will it be for us, who have at our disposal only our limited means, in the business world.
Corporations are not supposed to develop such people, because the aim of corporation is to make profit by serving its customers, isn’t it? Or is it? Well, we are not so sure anymore… What we can say is that we have witnessed how some corporations, confronted with the absence of consistent and timely contributions from the political world, the educational system and the civic society, decided that they cannot wait to receive such support anymore because if they will do so, their businesses will be affected substantially, at their very core: the bottom line. And, the first thing they did was to devise a plan on how to deal with this new, major threat to their future by tackling it head on. From here on, the smartest corporations understand that planning ahead the corporation’s needs for talent is an activity that not only no one can avoid but that any corporation must embrace as an important, constituting part of their mainstream business strategy.
How young professionals could be benchmarked against each other
There are basically two categories of young professionals, which we can differentiate after the way each category has succeeded to use the recently obtained freedom in order to develop themselves, through education and hard work.
a. The high flyers
If freedom is the result of an effort to acquire it, then freedom is used responsibly
In the early 1990s there was an explosion of interest on behalf of the Romanian students for international opportunities. Such people were ‘hit’ by the newly found freedom of the early 1990’s in an amazingly benefic way; they wanted this freedom, they cherished it and they valued it as a precious thing. They are the Romanians that seized the chance to grow with both their hands (and their teeth) and used it to its maximum. By now, they themselves are amazed with how much they succeeded in the last ten years.
Note: I cannot forget a young fellow, who entered my office ten years ago. He had, at the time, only a couple of years experience as a merchandiser with an FMCG multinational company, where he earned something around USD 150 per month; he asked for my help then and, with much regret, I could only offered him an advice on how to focus further on his development and sent him away (we are a top executive search firm and he was just a junior for me at the time). The young fellow produced though a very strong impression on me. Ten years later, in spring this year, I saw him again: he wants to come back home, because his mother is sick. Where is he now? He is Vice President in a high-class, investment banking institution in London, where he brings home more than £ 300.000 a year.)
I cannot stop myself thinking: “So much growth on such young shoulders..... One must be strong enough in order to bare it all without bending, because wealth and luck cannot be put up with by just any young stem.” I have a lot of admiration for such young, ambitious people, who took their destiny by storm and forced it beyond what anyone expected. The 1990s ‘produced’ a wave of such tough professionals, who either through hard work in international companies in Romania, or through international assignments, succeeded to ‘raise’ their standards to international ones.
I was so happy for the young investment banker (and, of course, I will be able to help him this time) but I also know that such cases are not very abundant, because most young Romanians of the 1990s did not succeed to ‘turn’ themselves into success stories.
b. The no-flyers
If freedom is not the result of an effort to acquire it, then freedom is used foolishly
Most of the young Romanians, however, did not ask for the newly received freedom and did not really know what to do with it. For them, freedom became a ‘burden’, too much to shoulder. Regrettably enough, this is true for most of the young people of the Romania’s late 1990s and early 2000. They are the ones that make me remember the words of Mihai Eminescu, the national poet of the Romanians: “Our youth have learned in Paris, how to twist their tie a knot...” This is so true about this second kind of Romanian young people, even after 150 years... These young, aggressive, self-centered, over-demanding, embarrassingly superficial and even arrogant individuals are absolutely sure they deserve a better future, but when asked what they have to offer in return, they cannot give a credible answer. In a way, they are just victims of an educational system that was diluted and depleted of its credibility while it was turned into a lowquality – high-volume business. Romania is said to have no less than 296 universities (!), at the moment, with a little less than 60 institutions being licensed by the Ministry of Education. With no connection between the content of the education and the business world outside, with no competent career guiding expertise available, with virtually almost no communication between the real economy and them, no wonder they are so lost.
We insisted to have the distinction made between these two very different categories of potential future employees, because most of the problems our clients encounter in their talent acquisition efforts are related directly to the fact this distinction is so difficult to make, especially in the early phases of the recruitment process, in the absence of a direct connection to the talent market. The selection process becomes extremely inefficient and companies become desperate interested to find the correct pathways to the talent pool.
c. How talent sees itself
The best professionals, the high-flyers, decide themselves where they want to go. What do they look for? “A great company and a great working atmosphere. Challenge. Satisfaction.“. This is the short answer that these smart, technologically literate and operationally agile businesspersons will give to this question. No mention of money. Not yet, at least. They qualify a company as great when they perceive it as being well managed, with a set of values that are reflected in the company’s day to day business conduct; a company that manages to ensure the development of individuals’ talents along with a fair remuneration of these talents. A great job is always about them: about their aspirations, their desires. People that rise to the top are people that love challenges. They want responsibility and the independence that comes with it. They also want to be able to make decisions on their own, without having to go through a bureaucracy. Ultimately, it is all about the level of identification they are being offered with what they love to do.
Ultimately, with Romania’s entrance to the European Union, the best Romanian professionals have become international executives, sought after by a global market and not by a local one alone. They are mobile, competent, strong willed and demanding. They will deliver, but they need to be paid in a currency they consider to be most desirable: satisfaction.
