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Features

Is the war for talent over?

Rick Bertasi As global conditions become more competitive, businesses see the need to focus on core activities and leave their workplaces in the hands of experts. For those operating in an expanding sector such as workplace services, skills and experience can be in short supply. And talent management becomes a board issue which is crucial to business success.

Historically, growth is supported by searching the marketplace for talent. As a company needs an increased supply of talent it looks outside. And in the majority of cases recruits externally. The logic is that you bring in new talent to help take your business forward. But this approach is no longer delivering what businesses need. Business strategy leader, McKinsey, highlights the problem in a recent bulletin:

“Companies like to promote the idea that employees are their biggest source of competitive advantage. Yet the astonishing reality is that most of them are as unprepared for the challenge of finding, motivating, and retaining capable workers as they were a decade ago…the problem remains acute – if anything has become worse………question marks remain over the appropriateness of the talent in many emerging markets”.

McKinsey also outlines that the problem of recruitment is even more acute in growing markets. In continental Europe, the Middle East and Asia, for example, the real estate and facilities management market is in its infancy. It has huge potential for continued development but is without a commensurate supply of industry professionals.
Having a limited pool of external talent to add value to your business is a challenge faced by the entire industry in which we operate. From corporate real estate and facilities management, to energy and workplace performance, there exists a lack of qualified, experienced and available people to take on key leadership roles. In the face of global growth this is a real and present danger to future business success for both service providers and their clients alike.
 

Gaining competitive advantage

The industry recognises the issue. The recent CoreNet global summit in Mumbai, India, spent three days focusing solely on talent – from the viewpoint of the enterprise, the real estate industry, and the individual. It was clear that competitive advantage has shifted from technology or even strategy, toward talented people and a corporate culture that enables them to innovate at a greater rate than the competition. For corporate real estate, increasing demand from the business or clients for more and better solutions results in fierce competition for the best talent – and battle fatigue is finally setting in.

So what’s the answer to the exhaustive repetitive cycle of searching, hiring, developing and replacing people?
 

Johnson Controls’ approach

In Mumbai, Johnson Controls Vice President Facility Management for Asia, Deborah Roberts, led a session on Developing Talent within the organisation. As a global business, Johnson Controls Global WorkPlace Solutions has to continually evolve its offer to stay ahead of the ever changing needs of our customers.

So what is our biggest challenge if it is not our ability to deliver value or attract customers? To do this we must find, hire and retain the right people. It is a challenge that we have recognised early and one to which we have a clear response. The harsh reality is that the market is no longer delivering the supply of talented professionals that we need to sustain our committed growth.

Our approach is simple. While our competitors may continue to struggle to find new talent, we are executing a strategy that develops and builds our own pool of talent. We are proud of our employees and the ability that lies within our own business. And we are therefore driving increasing and significant amounts of investment into our own people.

In terms of leadership, we have programmes in place to identify and select executives at all levels of our global business that we believe have potential to be high-achievers. In the first annual wave, some 220 of our 1,000 global managers were selected to be the first participants in a programme that creates specific development and investment plans to accelerate their professional talent development.

Another strategic investment is the creation of new development leadership roles, the Talent Managers who work with our executives to advise on strategies that get the best out of our people. They assist in on-going assessment of capabilities and contribute into the development of individual plans, which the participants themselves are accountable to execute.

In addition to these executive programmes, we’ve also created an internal learning institute – the FM Academy© - winner of the 2007 PFM ‘Partners with People’ Award.(make link to http://uk.johnsoncontrols.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=1281&item=1277&printable) The FM Academy was created to support the growth of our employees internally, by providing participants with the expertise and capability to excel in their professional careers.

The programme has three increasing levels of targeted development. It also aligns with the British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM) (make link to http://www.bifm.org.uk/bifm/home )qualifications, allowing participants to gain additional external recognition if desired. As well as providing our employees with technical skills, it is a positive indicator to both existing and future employees that we value, and are committed to, developing their talent when they join Johnson Controls.

Our strategy of internal investment also helps protect us against the loss of our people to competitors. While it is highly complimentary to know that the competition believes our people are excellent leaders and innovators, on the other hand, they continue to try and poach them. Investing in our people helps them choose to stay an active and increasing part of the global business we are building.

Retaining talent

But it’s not just about personal development. Working cultures and environments also have a significant role to play in employees job satisfaction. Flexible working is one example. Employees increasingly prefer to have control over how, where and when they work. With the growing distributed nature of their responsibilities, direct team mates and clients, and the use of ever advancing connectivity tools, it’s easier than ever for businesses to accommodate this. And, by meeting these requests, the company benefits from a more satisfied and motivated workforce. At Johnson Controls we have a very flexible and agile workforce.

Working environments are another key element to the long term retention of staff. Providing a collaborative, well lit and comfortable workspace and with links to amenities is important to giving staff satisfaction when at their workplace. This is something we are increasingly being asked to advise our clients on, to help them develop long term workplace strategies that meet the expectations of their people and help them with their productivity and retention objectives.

Novartis is another company that has recognised the role the workplace has to play. They are currently working to create multi-space work areas that enhance communications and effectiveness. They are using best-in-class architecture and design to create a state-of-the-art workplace that attracts and retains the best talent worldwide, and Johnson Controls is supporting them in the development, building and management of these important spaces.

The workplace services marketplace is changing. It’s growing and evolving and the result is an extremely competitive search for talent. As external recruitment is difficult even in the best of cases, Johnson Controls has chosen to expand our people focus inwards. By investing in our people, helping them learn new skills and take on more responsibility, we give them the opportunity to grow and prosper as we do. As a result our business is smarter, faster, more agile and able to deliver more innovation and value than ever before. It's a good time to be on the Johnson Controls team.

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