Mobile talent Case study
It sounds like a neat equation until you take into account cultural challenges, practical necessities and inter- organisational concerns about balancing resources in different countries and regions. It presents a minefield for employers, but there is a clear shift taking place and answers must be found.
One solution undoubtedly lies in Stockton’s firm belief that organisations’ global mobility functions need to work more closely together and look earlier at the graduate talent pool coming through as emerging leaders: “Do global organisations need to blur the boundaries of their recruitment and think longer term?” asks Stockton.
Surely having an international talent pool of mobile graduates is the holy grail, but aligning mobility strategies across the world is the next big challenge – and companies need to start thinking about it now.
Holly Foot: Merlin Entertainments
Over the past two years, Aecom, which provides technical and management support services to a broad range of markets, has conducted four successful graduate recruitment campaigns in Spain, leading to the recruitment of over 50 graduates to work in the UK. Neil Shaw, Senior Graduate Recruiter, Europe, Aecom, explains how they did it…
Lucy Saunders: Microsoft UK
“We looked at some of our offices and didn’t feel that the background of the grads in those offices reflected the fact that we were an international company with offices all over the world. A high percentage of our projects are overseas projects, so we thought it would make sense – on lots of levels – to make it more diverse.
Neil Shaw: Aecom
Machar Smith: Expedia
“We did a lot of research into what we thought were the best engineering universities in Spain, and we identified Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Cantabria. We carried out presentations involving senior engineers and recent grads, in a mixture of Spanish and English, and we also did various publicity exercises via careers services and alumni, such as email targeting and posters. We already had a small number of Spanish grads in the firm and they were also helpful in getting links with these universities and using themselves as examples of the sort of work people could do. The modern generation really want to hear it from the horse’s mouth.
Sonja Stockton: Kuehne + Nagel
“From this work we received about 1,000 applications and shortlisted 130. I conducted short telephone interviews with the shortlisted people, to gauge their level of English, their enthusiasm for the sort of work we do, and their thoughts about living and working in the UK. We then held assessment days in our Madrid office. These were conducted along the same lines as the ones we hold in the UK, involving a technical problem, a personality questionnaire and an interview based on a mixture of cognitive questions and motivational questions. It was all carried out in English.
Where are you finding the best talent and why? Around 35% of my hires year to date have been in the UK. This is mainly for the technology arms of a few of our brands and it is probably no surprise that universities in London lead the way for us. Of course, it cannot be underestimated that the large international student population, based in the UK, will play a large part in our hires across all regions going forward.
What lessons have you learnt from recruiting grads globally? There is huge opportunity at Expedia to work in different countries, across different regions and grow with the organisation. However, we need to temper the expectations of students at an early stage as they vary widely. Being consistent in our messaging across each region is crucial and whilst recruiters are based in different countries, open and frequent communication across the whole team is particularly important to ensure we are consistent locally and globally.
“We made 56 job offers. We have 32 offices in the UK and we recruited the Spanish grads into 13 of those in a variety of locations, from Edinburgh and Glasgow to London and St Albans. The feedback on the people we recruited has been excellent. The positivity and energy they have brought to some of our UK offices has been incredible.
“A lot of our projects are overseas, jointly worked on by different regions, so we have people in the UK, Madrid, Boston and in the Middle East, for example, all working on the same project. By having a spread of nationalities across those offices, cultural understanding is increased and communication is improved, which is so important in a global business.
“Today we are a genuinely global company. There will come a point where some of our Spanish grads will want to return to Spain, and because we have a thriving Spanish office that is a possibility, so we will keep the talent within the organisation.” n
www.agr.org.uk | Graduate Recruiter 11
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