Prof Dirk Buyens on the search for talent “The new generation of employees makes demands”
27 Jun 2008Fully in line with the philosophy of Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, we now test business practice against an academic context in our magazines. In Connexis you can read an interview with four HR experts and alumni about trends in the HR world, the shortage of talent and the new generation of employees. We discussed what they had to say with Professor Dirk Buyens, the School’s Academic Dean and head of the HRM knowledge domain.
Nowadays everyone’s talking about the shortage of talent in the Belgian labour market. More than 50,000 vacancies in Flanders are left unfilled. Businesses looking to expand are at their wits’ end trying to find good personnel. How can HR people deal with this problem?
Prof. Dirk Buyens: “As an employer, you have to make yourself as attractive as possible in the recruitment market. There are various ways of doing that. Lately there’s been a growing tendency for companies to go all-out to boost their image. Many of our students and managers think it’s important to work for a company with an ethical business philosophy. Companies have to take these sensitivities into consideration.”
Have you also noticed this change in mentality among our own students and executive participants?
Prof. Dirk Buyens: “At the start of each academic year I always ask our international MBA students which of them would never ever consider working for a tobacco company. Ten years ago three out of the fifty students put up their hand and were jeered as the ‘class softies’. This year about a third of the hands went up and no-one said a word. Nowadays the chance that these students will ever be forced to reconsider their point of view is very small. We’re talking about talented people who will be spoilt for choice in the labour market. They’re in the position of being able to make specific demands on their future employer.”
It’s also HR’s job to make sure employees always feel good, to ‘pamper’ them, as it were. How important is this kind of pampering policy in ensuring employees’ loyalty to the company?
Prof. Dirk Buyens: “The generation now entering the labour market wants to be well looked after. They’ve been brought up to expect that. Their parents have always wanted the best for them. That doesn’t mean they’re spoilt, but as far as education, personal attention and personal development are concerned, they lacked for nothing. They expect the same attitude from their employer. You’re not really going to make a difference by offering extras such as gym membership, a shopping service or facility trips. Those are nothing more than nice little sweeteners. The main thing is for employers to make time for their employees. Take their questions, concerns and needs seriously. Work on their personal development. Pay them well, appreciate their efforts and offer them future prospects. Only then will you have a motivated team around you.”
How important is it for the HR department to ensure that the workplace is a fun environment?
Prof. Dirk Buyens: “People have to enjoy coming to work. It used to be that you worked first, then had fun. But nowadays we’re living in a ‘have-it-all’ age. People want to enjoy themselves while they’re working. That doesn’t mean they’re not willing to work really hard for the organisation. As long as they can have a laugh now and then and there’s room for activities that don’t have any direct benefit for the company. A company shouldn’t be regarded as a fun-fair, though. And you should also keep business and pleasure sufficiently separate. Presenting the company as one big happy family is particularly dangerous, because you usually won’t be able to live up to that in practice.”
The current labour market is full of job-hoppers. People no longer offer their employer lifelong loyalty – just a couple of years of their career. Is that a problem?
Prof. Dirk Buyens: “You can easily turn that question the other way round. Employees are no longer offering lifelong loyalty, but are organisations actually doing that? If they’re going through a rough patch, they fire a few employees and watch their share price rise again. Loyalty works both ways, of course. If an employee commits himself fully to an organisation for five years and then decides to take on a different challenge, that’s not disloyalty in my book. Someone who works for the same employer until retirement, but doesn’t do his job properly - that’s what I’d call disloyal.”
Has the shorter duration of an average employment contract brought about changes in the business sector?
Prof. Dirk Buyens: “You notice that companies expect added value from their employees much sooner. They’re not going to invest in people if it takes them three years to start delivering the goods. It’s a risk that’s not worth taking these days. Another trend that we’re seeing is that people often go back to their old employer. They’ve seen the grass on the other side and it wasn’t actually that much greener. Those kind of people often come back even more motivated. They also send out a very positive message to their colleagues, confirming them in their belief that they’re working for a good organisation.”
Orator 28 - June 2008
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