People Matters column

Did you miss the talent opportunities offered up during the recessionary market – or did you manage to land some competitive advantage in the topsy-turvy global talent market of the last few years? Craig Coverman, CEO of executive search firm Eutopia, explores the realities for organisations operating in the telecom arena today – and how the market for talent has developed during this period

Three years ago, I wrote an article for Comm. discussing the relative ease (or rather difficulty) in hiring top talent in a recessionary market.  A couple of short years on, and the market has changed again – with many industry commentators now stating that a completely different set of ‘rules’ apply to the talent markets. 

So – looking back at that article, were our original predictions correct?  And, looking forward, what is the state of play for hiring top talent in today’s continually evolving and complex global market?

Past tense: Upgrade and re-engineer

When we wrote the original article in 2009, the recession was truly beginning to bite – and bite hard – with job losses across most operators and across most geographies. No more was this true than in the mature European and US markets, accounting for some 84 per cent of the 100,000 job losses in telecom that year.  As consumers became more and more demanding, never before had the hiring of true talent been more important. The expression, when the going gets tough, the tough get going, summed up the moment.

Given the mass releasing of people onto the markets in this period, there was never a better time to pick up key players from competitors and use it as an opportunity to raise the talent ‘quality bar’.

However, whilst the quantity of candidates was there, perhaps the quality wasn’t – with many ‘superstars’ keeping their heads down, biding their time and waiting for less volatile moments to make career moves.  Also, with the increased likelihood of ‘talent buy-backs’ by companies (when their strong performers went to resign), the hiring situation was not as easy as one would have thought – even given the tight recessionary times.

Our advice at the time was (as it always is) to focus on best practice in all ‘people’ related aspects of the business – including examining the organisation’s own employer branding and implement/re-engineer best practice in all aspects related to hiring and retention of talent.  Of course, given everything else that was going on in an organisation during these uncertain times, we recognised that it would be easy to forget such issues and find that they had slipped down the list of priorities.  However, we suggested it was vital to put people issues first – if the organisation had any aspirations to move forward. 

To do nothing during this period, we suggested, was a recipe for moving backwards.

Current tense: It’s all gone commercial

Three years on and the telecom market has changed – and has definitely improved. The sector since 2009 has proved to be resilient during this period, demonstrating its underlying importance to commerce and the global ‘community’.  Looking at the world in 2012, operators’ coffers appear relatively full, projects are coming off hold and everyone seems to be hiring again for key positions.

Market developments that were only on the horizon or being discussed in 2009 have really come through in 2012 including the outsourcing of technology (including the networks and IT platforms), passive infrastructure sharing (see the changing ‘towers’ business) and a huge rise in investment in sales, marketing and all aspects of the customer ‘experience’.  This last piece has partly been driven by the dramatic increase in portable devices – who would have predicted the inexorable rise of ‘app’ – and the delivery of TV, movies, music and content to all manner of mobile device.  In fact, these days, this convergence has completely blurred the lines between the traditional markets for fixed and wireless operators – including cable companies.

Add to that the rise of mobile broadband, money, data (e.g. cloud for the enterprise) and you can suddenly see how the market has evolved since 2009.

Chris Gabriel, ex-CEO, Zain Africa, puts this all in context.  He suggests that “the sustainable play” for operators is “to own the customer, deliver a differentiated product/service and optimise costs on a variable rather than fixed basis.”  Many operators, he suggests, “are making the mistake of competing on price – only succeeding to shrink the market and spoil the game for all.” 

However, given the market opportunities presented, is everyone taking advantage and moving ahead? Well, clearly not.  According to recent studies by Blycroft Research, there continue to be winners and losers in each geographic market.  For example in Saudi, Mobily is achieving a 9.5 per cent year-on-year increase in the number of subscribers, whereas other competitors are losing a similar percentage of subscribers year-on-year.  In another example, Orange in Jordan is achieving a whopping 25 per cent subscriber increase – again, with other competitors rapidly losing ground.

So – what’s the difference?

Future tense:  Buy talent, not experience

As we said three years ago, it’s people that make things happen – and you need to make sure that your talent is up to the job in this ever-increasingly competitive market.  This is especially true at the mid-to-upper levels of the management structure, where individuals have the ability of make more strategically important decisions and influence change.

The firm’s that have focused on attracting and retaining the best talent are the ones that are adapting and developing to the changes in the market – and continue to get the mix right in “owning the customer” as Chris Gabriel puts it.  We would argue those are the companies whose businesses have moved forward since 2009, versus those that are struggling to maintain market share.

Tying into this, the biggest demand we are seeing (which was definitely not a hiring priority in 2009) is the demand for tier 1 operator experience in the commercial space.  Almost every client we speak to has needs in this area and views it as its strategically most important hiring focus.  The good news this time around, is that the skills are generally available.

However, due to the volumes of candidates now on the market, Chris Gabriel is seeing “employers being very choosy with who they hire, focusing on resources with an exact skill set match and a strong network of contacts directly relevant to the specific industry/market in question. Cultural fit seems to be taking second place”.
Given such choice, employers seem reluctant to take a leap of faith and hire candidates from other related industry sectors – the perception being that such resources have a ramp-up time.  The sad news is that this flies in the face of all business logic – which is to buy talent and potential instead of experience. Talent can always learn quickly from experience – experience doesn’t always learn from mistakes (often just keeps repeating them).

So – what does the future hold?  What we can say with great certainty is that the same rules apply now as did before this recessionary madness started – that it’s all about, and will always be about, your people.  You need to review your hiring and on-boarding processes – and ask yourself, do your recruitment policies and processes help you or actually hinder you from attracting the very top talent you proclaim to want in your business? Do you have proper development, retention and succession plans in place – or, again, do these hinder you from retaining the very top talent that will help drive your organisation forward? 

Get this right – and you’ll own the customer – your talent will make sure this happens.