How can businesses motivate and develop the leaders of tomorrow?
Jul 24, 2023
Social purpose, authenticity, and ‘intra-preneurialism’ are all vital to attracting next-generation top talent, according to world-leading recruitment and HR professionals. Renowned workplace experts addressed our Centuro Global Expansion Conference in May, sharing their thoughts on ‘Leveraging remote-first to win the race for global talent’.
Insights included widening the talent pool, protecting leadership’s mental health, and skills development. Five key themes were also touched upon:
Purpose
Businesses need to decide, define and then deliver on a mission that drives good outcomes for global communities if they want to become an employer of choice. Florida-based Nicole Anderson, Founder & CEO of MEND LLC, said: “The younger workforce is more socially driven. They are more driven towards purpose, they are more driven towards companies and organisations that have this community involvement, that have these philanthropic avenues that they are looking for… [and] they are going to work harder for an organisation that they believe in.
“If you haven’t set your organisation up for ‘belief’, and with a purpose and with a mission, then those individuals are not going to work. The statistics don’t lie… employees who aren’t passionate about what they are doing work less.”
Nicole Anderson, Founder & CEO, MEND LLC
Mobility
Both locational mobility, where employees have freedom over where they work, and internal mobility, where employees feel empowered to work on different projects in different departments, is key. Kobi Ampoma, a Global Talent Acquisition Leader based in the Netherlands, said: “What they [talent] looks for is to learn as much as possible in different disciplines… [because] they don’t always get the opportunity to star in a role that evolves.
“Leaders need to help … talent to move around… especially if they know there’s a possible gap for a skill set within those organisations.”
Ann Ellis, CEO and Co-founder of The Mauve Group said: “It’s essential that people get the opportunity to work in different departments and learn from each other.” Ann described her own methods in motivating employees, which include creating a family atmosphere, offering flexibility on working hours, and ensuring work is ‘never boring’.
Offering remote work can attract more candidates. Ann said: “It’s important that companies are flexible in how they allow and where they allow their employees to work.”
Chris Watson, Partner, CMS UK, stressed organisations should consider different options for employees, including locations. He said a lot of the ‘deadweight cost of moving someone’ had gone. “Thanks to lockdown, you can move people around much more easily than you used to be able to,” he said. “They can continue to be just as effective from another country.”
Chris Watson, Partner, CMS UK
Empowering and motivating employees
New employees should feel they can grab new opportunities and try new approaches if they are passionate about them. Moderator Mina Wasfi, Head of Career Development, Qureos, spoke about enabling ‘intra-preneurialism’ — the ability to think like an entrepreneur while being part of an organisation.
Chris said: “It’s important for people to be expressing themselves in what they do; that allows them to be authentic, to have enthusiasm, to have energy, and it gives pride and focus to the whole organisation when somebody really wants to do something. A volunteer is worth ten people pressed into doing something. “There are limits of course, you can’t always give everybody everything in a complex organisation as you have to manage resources, but in principle, a culture of entrepreneurialism or ‘intra-preneurialism’ is for me a culture of success.”
Mina Wasfi, Head of Career Development, Qureos
Searching for talent
Employers should cast their nets wider to capture the attention of high-potential candidates. Kobi said: “We see a lot of young talent in Africa, but also in Europe, who are not getting the opportunities at companies, and nobody understands the reasons why… I believe there is an educational part that needs to happen, but I believe companies need to tap into different communities to have an advantage when it comes to talent.”
Nicole bemoaned ‘lazy hiring’, where an employer specifies a set requirement – for example, seven years experience – and refuses to countenance hiring somebody with colossal potential, which requires some training.
Loyal employees who had been with a company for 10-plus years may provide reassurance but might only be working at 50-60%, Nicole said. Conversely, a motivated, 100% committed young employee who stays for two years might deliver revenue generation more effectively. Organisations also need to demonstrate clear paths to progression. Nicole said: “Besides the social and philanthropic, [candidates] are going to want to know ‘how am I going to move within your organisation?”
Ongoing development in the form of training is crucial but should be considered in detail before being deployed. Chris said: “Hard skills can be taught remotely; soft skills are tough to teach remotely.”
Kobi Ampoma, Head of Talent Acquisition, The HEINEKEN Company
Authenticity
Organisations needed to live their promises when it came to purpose. Chris said: “They [talent] have a very, very, high sensitivity to bullshit. They can detect it extremely fast.
“You’ve actually got to find an authentic expression of what the organisation is doing, what its objectives are – if it doesn’t sound perfect, then they will run away,” Chris explained that we are now in a situation where people no longer stay in the same job for 30 years. “You have people who want to change the world, and you have to give them the feeling that that can be achieved,” he concluded.
Nicole added leadership had a crucial role to play, but leaders had to check in on their own mental health so they could lead effectively and with authenticity. “If you say you’re DE&I focused, but you’re not, they smell the bullshit… you’re going to hurt your reputation. “As a leader, you have to be at the top of your game in order to lead effectively. The next generation is looking to you to help them facilitate a change that they want to make in this world.”
Ann Ellis, CEO and Co-founder of The Mauve Group
Zain Ali, Centuro Global’s CEO, said: “There’s much talk of a global talent shortage, but there are also many opportunities for businesses that are willing to ‘walk the walk’ on workplace flexibility. “Younger employees want to work from anywhere and to be empowered to pursue the tasks they are passionate about. Companies must respond with culture policies and technology that enable this. If they don’t, they’ll be left behind.”
++ You can watch the whole panel discussion below.
