d o s s ie r · r h & f o r m atio n
Marie-Pierre Taillandier (Lombard International Assurance) Christiane Deckenbrunnen (Fortis Banque Luxembourg)
Nathalie Delebois (Ajilon)
Eric Guilbaud (BNP Paribas Luxembourg)
C o m p etiti v e a d v a n ta g e
Talent shortage If Luxembourg’s financial market is booming, talent recruitment is shrinking. Personnel shortage might drastically affect companies’ competitiveness and performance. How can human resources departments help resolve staff deficits and bring a competitive advantage to organisations on the employment issue?
talents. They are now key actors in the centre of business challenges. Nowadays, human resources directors increasingly perform both as strategists and project managers within the organisation. They have also developed a tighter collaboration with the company’s management and the members of the board, regarding a large number of strategic stakes.
Accompany the company’s business and activities “One of the main functions human resources departments now assume is providing a strategic support to the objectives the company aims at achieving”, remarks Christiane Deckenbrunnen, Human Resources and Professional Development Director at Banque Fortis Luxembourg. As a matter of fact they have been integrated into the organisation’s executive committees. “Human resources units have become a fundamental socle of the enterprise,” explains Eric Guilbaud, Human Resources Director at BNP Paribas Luxembourg. “They participate in the elaboration of future projects and anticipate the company’s needs in personnel in connection with operational activities.” To fulfil these strategic goals, they also tend to outsource their primary recruitment functions to specialised consultancy firms, in order to concentrate only on potential candidates and clientele. In the meantime, HR departments have reorganised their structure and services in order to
Photos: Blitz
Recruiting employees and retaining them are some of the biggest challenges companies must face nowadays. The main reasons for this actual talent deficit are demographic, social and economic. Therefore, enterprises are developing new strategies to attract people and, most importantly, to retain them. As the main point of contact between the employees and the company, human resources departments must also implement new plans in order to fulfil the firm’s needs. In times of workforce shortages they have to reinforce their presence on the labour market scene. Furthermore, they now tend to play a key part in the company’s performance and competitiveness. “The employment market is favourable for the moment,” comments Nathalie Delebois, Business Line Manager at Ajilon, a recruitment company specialised in managed services and consulting. Indeed, since 2002 and 2003, the recruitment market has been fully expanding, mainly thanks to the increasing demand for talent and the booming financial market. “Our business is getting more and more complex,” says Marie-Pierre Taillandier, Recruitment Officer at Lombard International Assurance, a life insurance institution specialised in wealth management services.� “We face more and more difficulties finding competent personnel.” Therefore, human resources divisions have become inescapable actors of the corporate strategy to attracting, integrating and retaining
158 PAPERJAM JUILLET-AOUT 2007
12_1_Dossier-Avantage.indd 158
22/06/07 20:26:57