If, just over a year ago, the country welcomed the world to a distinctly spruced up east London, last night witnessed a perhaps more non-descript part of the capital hosting a football match. A rather important football match, if you will. One that saw our plucky boys defeat a game Poland, which secures participation in next summer’s World Cup finals in Rio. (In Rio but probably not with Rio). And if football isn’t already the global game, much of this week’s press involved the potential international allegiance of Manchester United’s starlet, Adnan Januzaj, whose background means he can turn out for Belgium, Albania, Kosovo, Serbia and, if he sits out a year or so, England.
Away from cosmopolitan Kosovans, the world holds its economic breath, as we await resolution of the US debt crisis, the result of current political deadlock between the Republicans and Democrats. A domestic crisis that is having increasing affect and influence on global financial issues.
There have been a whole slew of stories and statements emphasising exactly how joined up the world is – countries, organisations and brands can no longer assume that splendid isolation will be very splendid.
New York’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, was in the press this week suggesting that London’s Old Street Silicon Roundabout is now the major threat to his own city and its attempts to rival California’s Silicon Valley. The number of jobs, start ups and office space emanating from this digital concentration is having an impact not only across London, but on a global basis. This week saw those unlikely bed partners Boris Johnson and George Osborne in China. Both, in their own styles, were praising and congratulating China for its investment and job creation in the UK – it already has interests in Thames Water, Heathrow and nuclear power over here and is looking to increase that level of investment. Osborne has also speeded up Chinese visa applications to the UK, enhancing both employment and investment opportunities.
And if the view is that international employment liquidity touches on just a small number of senior executives, perhaps such an opinion needs revising. The press was full of a fascinating story earlier in the month about NHS trusts having to cast their recruitment net further and further afield. The research, courtesy of Nursing Times, suggested that around 40 trusts in England had actively recruited nursing staff from abroad within the last 12 months and that another 41 were planning to do so during the course of the next year. Of the 1,360 nurses to have been hired abroad, no fewer than 1,000 had come from either Spain or Portugal. Some individual trusts had taken on comfortably over 100 overseas nurses. And don’t plan on being ill from 2016 onwards, the research suggests there will be 47,000 nurse shortage in the country in the next three years.
The talent mobility question was further interrogated in some research TMP has been developing in conjunction with the New Scientist, due to be launched shortly. Amongst some fascinating findings and amidst a growing STEM skill shortage, we found that no fewer than 73% of scientific professionals – in the commercial, public and academic sectors, would be prepared to leave their country of residence in order to fulfil their career ambitions.
On a university campus yesterday, I was struck by just how diverse the student body is at top higher education establishments. Universities are constantly reaching across international boundaries – both to attract overseas students (and their higher fees) into their university and to spread their reach and brand through establishing campuses far from home in countries such as China and India.
There are then some significant learnings for the owners and managers of employer brands. Just how capable is your current brand articulation of crossing national, linguistic and cultural barriers? What sort of reputation does your organisation and your employer brand have in the talent pools, some domestic, some international, you seek to target? Are you seen to be capable of offering careers and opportunities with an international scope and outlook? Can your brand reach out to diverse talent populations? Or are you seen as parochial, limited and inwardly focused?
‘The way you treat your employees is the way they will treat your customers’ – it’s generally advisable not to ignore the words of wisdom of Sir Richard Branson when it comes to engagement and attraction. And with customers – whatever sector you occupy – originating from increasingly diverse sources, how able are you to resource effectively in order to engage with such key stakeholders?
To return to football for a moment. The Welsh manager was recently, with toe-curling embarrassment, unable to join his side for an international fixture having left his travel documentation behind.
Consider this, is your employer brand capable of taking off or will it be left behind?
Getting to the heart of your employee mindset 