NATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6, 2012F I N A N C I A L P O S TFP8

S TA F F I NG FOR C ANADA As temporary workers across Canadacelebrate Staffing for Canada Week, theAssociation of Canadian Search, Employ-ment & Staffing Services (ACSESS) an-nounced the winners of the Staffing forCanada Essay Contest, which drew closeto 50 submissions from Vancouver to St.John’s. Candidates submitted an essay thatdescribed their personal experience with a

staffing or recruitment firm and outlinedwhy they considered it to be a truly “ex-ceptional experience.” First place went toVictoria Thomson, About Staffing, Alberta,followed by Morgan Meredith, Peapell &Associates/Supertemp, Nova Scotia, andLisa Park, TAG Recruitment Group, Cal-gary. Winning essays can be read at acsess.org. Financial Post

Winning essaysoutline ‘exceptionalexperience’ withrecruitment firms

F P CAREER S : P RO FE S S I ONAL S TA F F I NG

Standup comic proves recruitersaren’t cut from the same cloth

Recruitment is NO JOKEBY DENISE DEVEAU

A n executive recruiter and astandup comic walk into abar…

That ’s pretty muchhow Chris Garvin landed a job as aresearch associate with executiverecruitment firm Waterstone Hu-man Capital. A part-time standupcomic and a bartender by trade, Mr.Garvin’s outgoing personality so im-pressed David Kinley, president ofWaterstone, that he was offered achance to join the firm.

Having worked in the field for ayear now, Mr. Garvin feels he hasfinally found his calling.

“I did a lot of things before get-ting into this,” he says. “I studiedgeography at university, travelled toTaiwan, where I taught English forseven years, then got into standupcomedy andworked as a bartender.”

He contends that diverse back-ground made him the perfect candi-date for executive recruiting. “If youthink about it, all my previous workinvolved connecting with people.At school I had to connect with stu-dents, in bartending there’s a lot ofsocial interaction, and in comedy youhave to connect with an audience.So really, this career makes perfectsense.”

As a research associate, Mr.Garvin’s job is all about people con-tact. He works closely with clientmanagement teams to discuss theirneeds and learn about their indus-try and company culture. “Then, mynext challenge is to find people thatfit those. It’s a lot of detective work.But that’s whatmakes it so exciting.”

Successful executive recruiters arenot always cut from the same cloth,says Marty Parker, chief executiveand founder of Waterstone HumanCapital.Waterstone’s 28-person teamcome from a broad spectrum of busi-ness backgrounds, frompharmaceut-ical tomedia to professional services.

“Where they come from is notas important as the attributes theybring. What we look for first andforemost are people that love andappreciate business, like learningabout how their culture and how

they work, and have great customerservice skills,” Mr. Parker says.

They also need to have great judg-ment. “That’s one of those thingsyou really can’t teach anyone. And asense of humour is a great attribute,because it helps you to break downwalls with people and make themfeel comfortable through the pro-cess.”

Executive recruitment is dividedinto two main segments: contin-gency recruitment, where the job isto find someone as quickly as pos-sible and fees are paid upon place-ment, and retained recruitment, inwhich they work on a consultativebasis with clients to manage theirrecruitment processes. Waterstonedoes the latter.

Given the importance placed onindustry experience and maturity,executive recruiting is typically a sec-ond or third career choice,Mr. Parkersays. “There are very few 20-some-things in this business. You’re work-ing a lot with senior executives, soyou have to have the sensibility andexperience to deal with them.”

In most cases, executive recruitershave been in the business a long timeand/or come out of organizationswhere they may have had operationsor human resource backgrounds,says Philip Wilson, vice-president,human resources and business de-velopment in Eastern and North-ern Ontario for Felix Global Corp.,an Ottawa-based strategic businessconsultancy. “These are people withindustry-specific knowledge and tre-mendous networks.”

Mr. Parker warns that executiverecruitment is not a job for the faintof heart. “This is a very labour-inten-sive business that demands an enor-mous amount of drive and energyto succeed. Sometimes you have topush through difficult circumstancesor findways tomake something fromnothing.”

And while Mr. Garvin does the oc-casional standup gig, he says execu-tive recruitment is where he wants tobe. “When I can help companies findcandidates that fit with their needsand culture, it gives me a big sense ofaccomplishment,” he says.

Postmedia News

HUGH WESLEY FOR POSTMEDIA NEWS

Chris Garvin says his diverse background is perfect for his career as a recruiter atWaterstone Human Capital.

VAN ZORBAS

Guest Column

T o succeed in today’s globalmarketplace, you need em-ployees with international

experience. But a truly global work-force doesn’t just happen; it needs tobe nurtured and developed as part ofa systematic, well-planned humanresources strategy.

Setting up that strategy can beparticularly challenging for Canad-ian companies that have not hadas much global exposure as theircounterparts. But with innovationcentral to Canada’s future competi-tiveness and prosperity, having em-ployees who can understand othercultures and ways of doing businesscan be the difference between suc-cess and mediocrity for a company.This is especially true at a time ofcritical labour shortages — particu-larly in oil and gas, mining and util-ities — where the competition forscarce talent with specialized skillsknows no borders.

Companies planning an inter-national assignment program, orlooking to ramp up existing pro-grams, need to perform an initialbusiness assessment, an important

step that is often overlooked. Man-agers should consider how the com-pany’s investment in such assign-ments aligns with the expected busi-ness benefits and the effect on eachemployee’s career development.

Start by articulating your businessand talent management goals, thentailor your investment in each globalassignment to the value it is expectedto generate for the company and theemployee. One way of doing this is tocategorize assignments under one offour headings: learning experience,

strategic opportunity, commodityjob and skilled position. Then rankthem according to the degree of de-velopment and business value theygenerate. Truly strategic opportun-ities will have high development andbusiness values. Assignments withhigh development value, but limitedbusiness value, can help companiesacknowledge rising stars and em-ployees looking for diversity in ex-perience and personal growth.

Decide what proportion of inter-

national assignments should fall intoeach category, depending on yourcompany’s current and anticipatedbusiness and talent developmentneeds. Then determine which typesof employees would be best suitedfor a particular type of assignment.High potential performers and em-ployees with deep, specialized skillsets would be ideal for assignmentsthat have high business value butrelatively low development value,while future leaders and superstarswould benefit most from strategicopportunities that let them grow asindividuals and deliver big rewardsto the business.

Getting themost out of your globalmobility program requires some keyelements:Give the full support Employees oninternational assignments can feelisolated from the home office andneed to receive the full spectrumof HR services, as well as help withtheir physical moves to a new placeof work. Also, have a well-thoughtout plan before they go for what theywill do when they return.Integrate global mobi l i ty anddomestic talent infrastructuresHaving the mainstream HR teamserve both domestic and inter-national employees helps the globalworkforce stay connected to thecompany’s talent management pro-cesses. It also allows you to developglobal mobility specialists within theHR team.Have a well-developed, integratedtechnology platform The righttechnology facilitates employee andmanager self-service on HR matters,supports compliance and provides areporting system that measures andcaptures program performance. Italso gives leaders an integrated viewof global talent demand and work-force information, and enables in-depth analysis of expatriate data.Adapt infrastructure as requiredYour HR technology infrastructureshould include the ability to track,manage, analyze and make stra-tegic decisions about your globalworkforce consistent with how youmanage non-global employees. Thatsaid, global employees create addi-tional needs, particularly surround-ing compliance issues, which mayrequire specialized internal controlsand processes.Stay connected Sometimes, out ofsight can be out of mind. Keepingthe dialogue going between those oninternational assignment and theirmanagers and co-workers at homehelps keep global employees pluggedin, but also provides opportunitiesfor the benefits of their experience topermeate the home office.

Financial Post

Van Zorbas is Deloitte Human Capitalleader for Alberta (deloitte.ca).

A talented teamknows no bordersBuilding a successfulglobal workforce

needs a solid strategy

COMMENT

Understandingother cultures canbe the differencebetween successandmediocrity

THINKSTOCK / GETTY IMAGES

Companies planning an international assignment program need toperform an initial business assessment, a step that is often overlooked.

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The latest numbers fromthe Association of Canad-ian Search, Employment andStaffing Services (ACSESS)CanadianStaffing Index revealthat the Canadian economyis on solid ground and grow-ing. Employers are hiring ata pace that is surpassing pre-recession levels. It’s a power-ful good-news story.

Temporary and contractstaffing industry trends serveas an excellent leading indica-tor of the economy, says BryanToffey, president of ACSESSand regional vice-president ofCanada at Aerotek, a leadingprovider of technical, profes-sional and industrial staff-ing services to organizationsacross the country.

“As companies experiencemore robust economic timesyou tend to see an increase inovertime hours of permanentemployees followed by theaddition of temporary em-ployees, and that’s reflected inthe April staffing index,” Mr.Toffey says.

“The index polls some ofCanada’s largest staffing com-panies accounting for one-third of total staffing industrysales and measures the totalnumber of temporary hoursworked month over month.We are clearly back to where

we were right before the econ-omy started to tank into therecession and employers werestruggling to fill posts. It’s verypositive news.”

Temporary and contractemployment is also up in theUnited States according tothe latest numbers from theAmerican Staffing Associa-tion. In fact, the need for con-tract workers has jumped al-most 25% since the start of theyear. What does this mean foremployers and workers? Thewar for flexible talent is on.

Aerotek is in a unique pos-ition to offer a birds-eye viewof the industry and the econ-omy thanks to its nationalfootprint with 12 offices acrossCanada and its niche servi-ces geared to specific verticalmarkets.

“We have specific divisionsthat focus on the energy space,engineering, environmental[and] technical, for example,”Mr. Toffey says. “As a result,we have a broad view of what’shappening on the ground. Theoil and gas sector specificallyin Alberta continues to be verybusy. There are a number ofcapital projects being startedthat require all sorts of differ-ent categories of labour, fromskilled trades all the way up toprofessional engineers. We’veseen significant strength inthe automotive market as ithas come out of the recessionand has experienceed rapidgrowth as automakers rush

to add capacity. Some of theindustries hardest hit by therecession have been the quick-est to bounce back, includingmanufacturing.”

The greatest demand is fortechnical and IT contractors.And this reflects the evolu-tion of the industry and, morebroadly, the shift that hastaken place over the past 15

years in how workforces arestructured. In the early days,industrial and office staffingdrove the business, Mr. Toffeysays. Today, there is a growinglevel of sophistication in theindustry as customers havemoved beyond those trad-itional temporary needs andare now recruiting for profes-sional and technical skill sets

on a contract basis as well.“When Aero tek f i r s t

launched in Canada back in1995, there was little aware-ness both from a customerperspective as well as a can-didate perspective about thecontract staffing market,” Mr.Toffey says.

“Much of our discussionswere around educating peopleabout this market and thebenefits of using a flexibleworkforce and how it can savecosts.”

Employers listened, andtoday the contract staffingindustry in Canada generatessome $9-billion in sales eachyear.

This evolution on the partof employers to a more fluid,cost-effective workforce, onethat can expand and contractwith the economy, has hap-pened hand in hand with agrowing desire on the partof individuals who also wantto build more flexibility intotheir careers.

“Thedemographics globallyand especially in North Amer-ica lend itself to contractwork.As the Baby Boomers are ap-proaching 65, many don’twant to retire. They want tostay in the workforce in somecapacity and contract work isan excellent option,” Mr. Tof-fey says.

“At the same time, thereis much more of a free agentmentality among youngerworkers today. Taking on con-

tract assignments is a goodway for them to gain newskills and exposure to differentcompanies and new industrieswithout making that commit-ment of becoming a perma-nent, full-time employee.”

It’s a win-win. Employersare able to bring in specifictalent to introduce skill setsthey may not have, in orderto build new products or en-ter new markets, for example,and that same talent is ableto sample new industries andgain transferrable insights.

Ironically, that knowledgetransfer from contract work-er to employer often leads topermanent employment.

“This has become a bigtrend. Our customers see theutilization of temporary andcontract workers as a way tohire permanent employees,”Mr. Toffey says.

“It’s a unique value propos-ition our industry offers. Froma candidate perspective, thestaffing industry provides ac-cess to an otherwise hiddenjob market. Many employersgo straight to their staffingprovider because they knowwe’re in touch with the toptalent in the marketplace andwe are able to source that tal-ent quickly and efficiently. Ifyou’re seeking employment ora new career, I would stronglyrecommend working with anACSESS member staffing firmin order to leverage this hid-denmarket.”

S TA F F I NGA J O I N T V ENTURE W I TH AEROTEK

financialpost.comFP9NATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6, 2012

TALENT SEARCH VITAL TO SUCCESS

Aerotek’s Bryan Toffey notes professional staffing agenciesare adept at uncovering hidden talent.

PROFESSIONAL HELP

Why use Aerotek? Let’s face it; you’renot looking for any job. You’re lookingfor the perfect job.

Aerotek goes beyond traditional recruiting by matching your unique skills and personality tothe ideal situation. And, we’re the largest provider of technical, engineering and scientificstaffing in the U.S., with an inside track to Fortune 1000 companies. So, we do more thanhelp you get a job. We help you get the perfect job.

To find out how Aerotek can give you an edge in finding the perfect job,call 1.855.250.6535 or visit aerotekcanada.ca.

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