Forza International MD Mr Carl Anderson Comments on the International Recruitment Market

Oct. 12, 2009 - PRLog -- Forza International, with head office in Sydney, is an international recruitment firm providing executive search, recruitment, managed services, talent pooling, employer branding and human capital consulting service to many of the well known MNCs in the Asia Pacific region. They established their offices in Singapore and Malaysia in 2005 to cater for the needs of their clients in Asia. As the Asia economy grows, the future is promising for Forza.

In an interview with Eugene Yao from ASA Marketing, Mr Carl Anderson (Managing Director of Forza) shared his insights on the recruitment market in Australia and the Asia Pacific region.

How did the GFC last year affect the recruitment market?

The financial industry has definitely suffered the most. Across the board, companies are also becoming more conservative in their approach toward recruitment. Before the GFC, companies were more willing to think outside the box and more likely to recruit people from a different background in the hope that they can bring in new ideas for the company. Currently companies are more pointed in their approach and less likely to take risks in recruiting. Employees are also more reluctant to change job due to the high level of market uncertainty, but as the economy recovers, it is expected that the recruitment market will consistently increase in activity.  

What are some of the key growth areas for next year in the international recruitment market?

In terms of industry, we see that the financial sector is most likely going to recruit in a large numbers again soon. Many financial institutions have simply found they had cut too deeply during the Global Financial Crisis. To ensure competitiveness, these financial institutions will definitely need to recruit again and find a way to retain their key staff members. In fact, we have been doing a lot of talent pooling and preparation works for many of our clients in this sector for the last half a year.

The IT industry and IT role functionally remain robust. Sales and marketing roles generally are coming back in to the market. Within Australia the mining, oil & gas industries continue to drive salary expectations back upwards.

In terms of geographic locations, we think that there are going to be continued demand in the Philippine and Malaysia markets. Traditionally, India has been the favorite location for companies who want to setup their back offices and call centers overseas. However, as the labor cost escalates in India, we see that many Australian companies are shifting their back offices elsewhere.

We see the growth potential in Philippine and Malaysia. Apart from the fact that most Pilipino and Malaysian can speak English, many Australian companies are choosing these locations because of cheaper labor cost and time zone similarity. Malaysia has the added advantage of pools of talent fluent in Mandarin.

We see cautious hiring out of Singapore and Hong Kong, often on the basis of structural or strategic directives. There is a continuation of the localization of expatriate packages which was in evidence prior to the GFC and has accelerated in the face of the new market conditions.

Thailand has been quite resilient and contains potential for the coming year.

I understand that employee morale and staff retention are probably the most important for MNCs during the difficult time, what is your advice to them?

Companies should be more active in listening and finding out what their staff wants and needs are and act on it. For example, conducting internal surveys more frequently can help companies to identify potential problem earlier and allow them to have enough time to rectify it before it is too late.

Management should engage with their staffs more often in sharing company values, where the company is heading to and making sure the whole team is working on a common goal. Alignment is crucial as a good portion of current staff will look at new employment opportunities as soon as they perceive the market has recovered solidly.

How is Forza different from other recruitment companies?

At Forza, our business model is based on the ability to satisfy the needs of our clients. We follow our clients’ footstep and have set up a number of offices across the region to cater for our clients needs on international expansion. In fact, we are looking to setup another two offices in China and Thailand next year to cater for these increasing demands from our clients.

We generally headhunt appropriate candidates for all levels of roles. This provides our clients with a pool of talent they will not get themselves or from advertising on job boards.

Furthermore, our cultural diversity has helped us to provide some valuable insight for our clients. Our industry knowhow and cultural understanding enable us to attract key talents for our clients both domestically and internationally. We also provide valuable insight to our clients in formulating recruitment strategy and salary packaging.

About Mr Carl Anderson

Carl has been Managing Director of Forza for six years and has presided over its growth in Asia and built its Asia Pacific coverage.

A member of EO (Entrepreneurs’ Organisation), a select, invited group of 100 within Australia, he has developed alliances and additional services to provide for Forza’s clients above and beyond recruitment.

Previously a Director at The Real McCoy’s, a Tokyo headquartered clothing company with turnover in excess of US$250m, for eight years. In this role he established manufacturing sites as well as wholesale and retail distribution throughout Europe and the U.S.



Contact:
Carl Anderson
Email: canderson@forza.com.au
Web: www.forza.com.au

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Eugene Yao, international financial journalist, conducts interviews regularly with listed companies’ management from around the world. His articles can be found on Thomson Reuters, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Google News and finance etc...