Wed, Aug 18, 2010
When Want Ads Won’t Do: Solving Brazil’s Talent Crisis
Posted by Rob Brouwer
Rob Brouwer is the Senior Vice President for Latin America and Developing Markets at Monster Worldwide.
If you’re looking for the frontiers of 21st century capitalism, look no further than Brazil. While most national economies continue to struggle under the strain of global recession, this emerging BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) is enjoying unprecedented progress. Along with projections of 7% economic growth, the country expects a whopping 2.5 million new jobs to be added by the end of this year. With the exception of China, there may not be a better place today to advance a career or launch a new company.
So is Brazil ready to manage and scale this new prosperity? Yes and no. The fast development of the economy has had a direct impact on its job market. There is a formidable talent gap and the demand for qualified people is much greater than Brazil is capable of supplying.
Closing Brazil’s Talent Gap: Obstacles To Overcome
Certain obstacles urgently need to be overcome to help the country maintain its growth trajectory. Here are just a few:
- Lack of Qualified Candidates: With 90+ million people in the workforce, Brazil does not lack for potential. Yet the country is suffering from a substantial lack of qualified human capital, which will impede its impressive expansion. A survey of more than 1,700 industrial firms by Brazil’s National Confederation of Industry found that more than half could not find enough trained workers. Sixty-nine percent of the firms in the study said the lack of a qualified work force resulted in inefficiency; 36 percent said it led to lower quality goods; and 25 percent said it made acquiring or assimilating new technologies more difficult.
- High Turnover: For those who are employed, companies still have to improve their retention strategy to keep them in place. Brazil has one of the highest labor turnovers in the world with an average of 3.4% of employees leaving their jobs every month. This environment of workers who are persistently poised for better job opportunities has triggered a disincentive for corporate training and retention investment.
- Barriers for Entry: Job seekers have to pay to play. Brazil is the only country in the world where job seekers have to pay a fee to apply for a job. At a time when talent is scarce and seekers have all the control, employers must revisit this practice.
- Quality of Education: The government could and should do more to stimulate education and universities are not creating sufficiently qualified people to satisfy the new demand. According to the 2007 Higher Education Census published by the Brazilian Ministry of Education, the country currently has 2,281 higher educational institutions. Not one of these institutions is ranked in the top 100 internationally. And 89 percent of these undergraduate and graduate institutions are made up of private organizations – many of which require a healthy boost in quality curriculum. Consequently, companies are pulling candidates from a limited talent pool.
3 Priorities For Closing the Talent Gap
As quickly as Brazil built its 21st century engine—in a span of a few short years the country established a framework of political, economic, and social policies that allowed it to resume consistent growth—it must now commit just as forcefully to solving the looming talent crisis. Here are three priorities that companies should focus on:
1. Identify and Recognize Key Performers: New and established businesses of all sizes and across all industries must develop – and implement – creative programs and strategies (beyond salary increases) to retain and motivate current employees while ensuring they know how valuable their contributions are.
2. Develop the Employer Brand: Brazil’s current workforce has become confident in their ability to seek and obtain alternative employment whenever they want which has shifted power from the employer to the individual. Companies must make strides to balance the power. As a marketer attracts customers with a compelling product brand, a company attracts candidates with a compelling employer brand. This not only motivates and energizes employees, but it can be used to attract new talent as well.
3. Bring HR into the Management Team: Traditionally, talent management directors in Brazilian companies report to the CFO. This is an incorrect practice. In the future, the positive (or negative) growth of a company will be largely determined by its recruitment and retention strategies. Delegating this important role to middle management devalues a mission-critical organizational function.
Brazil is an innovative, career-minded country – it’s also an entrepreneurial upstart poised to evolve into a mature and developed nation. The transition will require, more than anything else, an investment in people. I’m so excited to be spearheading the launch of Monster Brazil this week. As we set to bring our global expertise to bear on the market, it is our mission to help the country continue its path towards prosperity by closing the talent gap.
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About the Author: Rob Brouwer is the Senior Vice President of Latin American and Developing Markets for Monster Worldwide and oversees all business strategy and execution for Monster’s Global Expansion Program. He’s also responsible for managing Monster’s existing presence and operations in the rapidly growing Latin America region.
Since joining Monster, Rob has spent almost 10 years in a variety of roles focused on Monster’s European markets, most recently as the Senior Vice President, Europe, where he was directly responsible for the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. A native of the Netherlands, Rob currently resides in Sao Paulo.
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