IDRC Abstracts

Remaining competitive in the global marketplace requires a company to hire and keep the best workers, says Jacques Gordon of LaSalle Investment Management. “The real war is the war for talent,” Gordon told IDRC attendees. “And there is no greater source of job growth than the group of workers who just got laid off.”

       
Gordon advised IDRC members to increase their access to knowledge workers by locating facilities in the markets that offer the best supply of high-tech talent. “Atlanta is one of those markets that is winning the war for talent,” he said. “The game now is about access to knowledge workers, and the process of creative destruction — which includes failing companies and laid-off workers — actually helps our economy in the long run.”

       
Bill Luttrell of the World Bank Group said that things will get worse before they get better in the United States. “Our macro-economic forecast calls for a sharpening of the slowdown, especially in the U.S.,” he said. “There will be diverse performance in developing economies, but the trend of global foreign direct investment is still upward. Total global FDI increased from US$200 billion in 1991 to $1.2 trillion last year.”

       
Luttrell added that a global economic recovery would begin in the second half of 2001 and continue into 2002. “Our forecast at the World Bank is for sustainable growth of 3 percent-plus in 2003,” he said. “Developing countries will play a contributing role in the global recovery, with a growth rate of 5 percent in 2003.”

Competing for high-tech labor these days means offering more than free coffee and an in-office bike rack. It means staying ahead of your competition on labor practices, says John Rhodes, senior vice president of Moran, Stahl & Boyer.

       
Rhodes told IDRC attendees to pay attention to the five C’s of labor competition: company image and culture; compensation and benefits; career opportunity; community quality of life; and commuting times within the metro area.

       
“Competing for labor is a game we are playing with very high stakes,” he said. “And creative talent is the scarcest resource on the planet. The good news is that young information technology workers are less likely to leave established firms for startups these days.”

       
Winning the labor war starts with scouting your competitors, said Matthew Szuhaj, senior manager of Deloitte & Touche Fantus Consulting in Chicago. “Whenever you consider entering a market, you must ask yourself, ‘Who are my competitors for labor?’ Benchmarking your competition for labor means looking at your competitors’ tenure in the market, their turnover, corporate culture, compensation policy and facility locations,” he said. “The key is to conduct a potential share analysis, and it starts with stratifying your competition and comparing your company employer to employer.”

       
Lucy Allard, director of global research and consulting for CB Richard Ellis, said that employers must not overlook trends in worker demographics and social values. Employers must get to know workers’ expectations and meet them.

       
“One thing our research reveals is that the importance of the physical environment of the workplace is greater than ever,” Allard said. “Young knowledge workers have shown they will leave your company over dissatisfaction with your building.”