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 The Year In Review
Looking at 2008 and beyond: "the war for candidate skills is in its final stages, and the candidates clearly have won".
In 1997, a landmark McKinsey & Company study exposed the "war for talent" as a strategic business challenge and a critical driver of corporate performance. Here we are 10 years later and only now have government and the public at large grasped the urgency. However to put this issue in the context of the BC tech industries we need to add the need for specific skills in addition to talent. In other words for small entrepreneurial tech companies smart well educated people with outstanding technical, sales or management skills may not be enough for a company where success or failure will be defined by getting it "right" as quickly as possible. Often key hires must also bring domain or application expertise. Therefore it is not surprising that we are seeing CEO's, boards and investors putting greater emphasis on making sure their company's can satisfy the following 3 questions:
1. How are we going to recruit the skills we need?
2. How are we going to retain key talent?
3. How are we going to motivate and compensate employees in an environment of declining loyalty and increasing ease to move elsewhere?
More and more experts are predicting that talent will soon be a bigger challenge than capital to building successful technology companies. Winning this battle goes beyond having a great HR strategy or using tier one recruiters. Government and industry will have to come together to figure out how to be globally competitive against many other countries facing the same challenges. New immigration policies, recognition of foreign training and new education education strategies will just be some of the outcomes.
2007 was another strong year for BC's technology industries and 2008 will begin with a lot of positive momentum. As was the case 1 year ago the US economy looks vulnerable but most experts predict slower growth and not a recession. The Canadian dollar reaching $1.10 gave exporters a significant haircut but hopefully the dollar will settle at par or slightly under. For BC the triple whammy to the forest industry of a strong dollar, weak US housing starts and the pine beetle infestation will impact the provincial economy to some degree and some local communities to a significant level, although the tech sector is largely insulated.
Based on our internal stats including number of active and anticipated searches plus feedback from industry leaders all indications are that 2008 will be another terrific year for BC's technology community and will continue to be inceasingly important to BC's and Canada's economic engine.
By Don Safnuk, President & CEO, Corporate Recruiters Ltd. He can be reached at don@corporate.bc.ca
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