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Credit: Philippe Schlienger
Human Age. This is a complex new era in which
companies will have to embrace new work
models, people practices and talent sources to
ensure future success. In order to unleash their
potential, companies will need to engage with
their people on a deeper, human level. Individual
needs will determine recruitment and
development strategies. Companies will need to
provide an environment suitable for collaboration
and to anticipate more precisely the skills that
they’ll need.
When we first discussed these ideas at the
2011 World Economic Forum in Davos, many felt
that they were interesting. Since then, there has
been continued social, political and economic
turbulence. This year in Davos, we noticed that
more and more companies are seeing the impact
of these changes. Business leaders realize, for
example, that there is a shortage of good people,
that they don’t have the right people to develop
the right strategy and that there is skill mismatch
in key markets.
What does the future hold for expatriate
managers?
We see fewer and fewer companies today looking
for expatriate managers. They are not
sufficiently or deeply connected to the markets
in which they operate. The old idea where
managers from developed countries go in and
show the locals what to do is finished.
Increasingly, we see what we call the “reverse
expat” phenomenon. This approach rotates a
local manager, based in the emerging market,
through functions outside the home market. The
manager can then adapt the experiences gained
from this to the local market upon their return.
The reverse expat approach is also a
particularly powerful way to enhance retention
of local talent because it allows employees in
emerging markets to see that the company is
truly global. If you are sitting in a business in
Asia, for example, and you can see some Asian
counterparts who have been promoted and are
now running pieces of the business, it makes a
big difference to the overall level of employee
retention, particularly when it comes to key
talent. Seeing that the top echelons of
management are not just dominated by the
parent country management team provides
reassurance for ambitious local managers in
these markets.
How can companies balance local
responsiveness with global economies of scale?
I think many companies struggle to get a balance
between being aligned globally but also being
sensitive to appropriate local interpretation.
Companies need to have global collaboration but
they also need to be anchored in the local
market. Some company programs will be applied
systematically in all markets; others can be
adapted to the needs of the local environment.
There is a lot of complexity here, and managers
Rise of the reverse
expatriate
One of the trends that
Manpower’s Françoise Gri
is seeing in the market
is the rise of the “reverse
expat”, in which a local
manager from an emerging
market is rotated through
functions outside of their
home market.
have a new level of responsibility to implement
this quickly, efficiently and in the right way.
At ManpowerGroup, we have developed
frameworks to help the company find a balance
between local and global. The framework has two
major components to it: one fixed and one
flexible. The fixed part consists of processes that
are non-negotiable, whether you are in Istanbul
or Buenos Aires. In those instances, the local
company needs to operate according to this fixed
template, no matter what. Then there’s a flexible
component, where managers can localize the
program to the needs of the local market.
Creating those frameworks has increased our
speed tremendously because it has taken a lot of
the mystery out of who’s accountable for what.
Is technology changing the nature of work?
It is difficult to understate the likely impact of
technology on the workforce. Technological
developments allow new ways of getting work
done, which increase the importance of
co-ordination and collaboration. Rapid
communication via online networks, for example,
is changing organizations’ choice of where, when
and how work is performed. Social networks are
pervasive, but research suggests that only 30
of executives understand the implications of this
new, data-intensive, social network-intensive
world. This is a big challenge. We have had waves
of technology before, but I think the impact
today is much more subtle, while no less
important. It has therefore become crucial to
understand the human dimension, to adapt and
respond to this changing technology.
How important is diversity?
I am a strong believer in diversity. It isn’t just
about hiring on the basis of gender, religious
persuasion or culture. Without genuine diversity
of thought and representation, you’re not going
to come up with the right answers. It’s just too
complex to have a purely British team, for
example, running a global company.
As part of that drive for diversity, we need to
have more women involved in business,
particularly given the talent supply challenges
and talent mismatch problems we see. The
female talent pool is still largely untapped. I think
involving women more in the labor market and,
in particular, at senior leadership level, will help
companies to access the right talent to succeed.
In addition, female executives can bring new and
valuable perspectives to the leadership team.
This kind of change does not come about on
its own, however. You have to fight for it. I think
companies are slowly making progress on this
front, but not enough. Much more still needs to
be done. Looking to the future, I think the
companies that will do best in the new and
evolving workplace of tomorrow are those that
have dealt with diversity for a long time
and that have embedded it into their values and
culture.
Ernst & Young Issue 07 T Magazine 21