Where are emerging markets and what are the key challenges to recruiting talent in them?

20 January 2009:

At Alexander Mann Solutions we have created internal mechanisms and infrastructure to ensure we can provide recruitment support to markets anywhere in the world, emerging or established.

Four to five years ago emerging markets were areas in which companies could reduce their cost base through wage arbitrage. Today, most global companies are looking at these markets as opportunities to secure innovative talent. This change of focus has changed the game for recruiting, and we can now see four main areas classified as emerging markets:

Companies are vying for position to enter Eastern European countries such as Hungary and Romania etc. especially since the EU accession has provided additional accessibility.
For different reasons, every global company is trying to increase their foothold in the BRIC (Brazil. Russia, India and China) countries. Russia largely due to oil, gas and the energy sector. India is driving innovation and business processing. China has large areas where cash is more freely flowing than other areas in the world. Brazil is a major economy set to become even bigger in the next few years.
In the Southeast Asian economies such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Cambodia we are seeing companies just start to dip their toes into the water.
In Africa recruitment is still very localised. However, as the economies of African countries grow in the next ten years we will see a recruitment explosion demanding national and international recruitment.
Company culture

Adoption of the company culture in a new location is essential to the success of the brand and companies that achieve this are those truly able to globalise. The key is for an organisation to create a distinctive employee value proposition, which can work in any location, whether it is in a London HQ or a small office in Vietnam. Further to this, the company culture needs to blend with the local culture to ensure that the company fits with the locality, but employees also felt part of something bigger than just their local economy.

Local roots

Taking the example of my previous employer, at IBM there was such as strong culture across the company regardless of the location which was continued through everything from the branding of the company, the look and feel of offices, the values, appraisal system and base compensation processes. It is recognised and respected as a company with very deep local roots for example religious differences are not just tolerated but are respected and employee are encouraged to participate in local holidays and festivals.

Prepare when entering an emerging market

When entering an emerging market the key element is preparation. When Alexander Mann Solutions is recruiting on behalf a company, before we recruit the first priority is to really understand its culture and what is the most important message to get across to people irrespective of where they are in the world. From here we first act as an adviser on their company culture versus the local culture, following this we are then in a strong position to start recruiting. Regardless of the country we almost always advise an onsite local presence to help understand the local culture, market and legislation.

Even within a single country different locations can need an alternative approach. For example China is a massive country but it has very localised differences and even in the UK different local regions need differentiating between. Without preparing and understanding these recruitment mistakes are easily made.