MALTE VON PUTBUS has a mission. As global recruitment manager for the International Finance Corporation, the investment banking arm of the World Bank, he oversees efforts to find new employees around the world.
But successfully recruiting, say, a senior investment officer in Rio de Janeiro, an operations analyst in Cairo or an investment analyst in Riyadh can sometimes feel close to impossible. That’s because the I.F.C. is facing stiff competition for the most qualified job candidates in many emerging markets.
Investment banks are vying for local talent to help them win lucrative corporate finance and merger work. Manufacturing and consumer products companies are also recruiting in rapidly expanding emerging markets. And as these economies develop, local companies are looking for people as well.
“There’s a general shortage in the emerging markets,” Mr. von Putbus said.
The I.F.C. is not alone as it hunts for recruits in developing economies. Many companies also believe that their best chances for growth lie in these markets. But in many countries, onrushing capitalism is colliding with educational systems and cultures that are still struggling to adapt. As a result, there are simply not enough qualified candidates to go around.
“It’s very challenging to attract and retain talent in emerging markets,” said Douglas R. Conant, chief executive of Campbell Soup, which is expanding in China and Russia. “You’ll hire someone, you’ll train them and then someone else will offer them twice as much money to join them. There’s a limited supply, and there’s explosive growth. It’s all supply and demand.”
True, developing countries produce millions of college and university graduates every year. But many of the top graduates choose to emigrate. And many of the rest are not fully prepared to work for multinational companies and organizations, several recruiters and executives said.
A report by McKinsey & Company found that in 2003, China had a total pool of 9.6 million young professional graduates with up to seven years of work experience. But then the firm surveyed 83 human-resources professionals who said that fewer than 10 percent of those job candidates, on average, would have all the necessary training, language skills and cultural awareness to work for a large foreign company in nine categories it studied.
When asked about India, human-resources professionals said they would consider hiring only 10 to 25 percent of the country’s roughly 14 million university graduates, for largely similar reasons.
Local business schools are ramping up, Mr. Conant said. But for now, some managers are going beyond traditional recruiting tactics and looking for creative ways to land qualified candidates.
I found dozens of executives circulating at a project competition held in New York last October by Students in Free Enterprise, a group that promotes socially responsible business leadership. Teams from universities around the world had developed and put into motion community outreach projects, like teaching Tibetans in remote villages how to participate in ecotourism. Then the organization held a competition, known as the World Cup, where the top projects were judged by a panel of corporate leaders.
The winning team got the limelight, but all the contestants were able to meet with at least one senior executive. I listened to two students from the National University of Malaysia describe to Michael Polk, president for the Americas at Unilever, a plan for educational day care centers in Kuala Lumpur.
William V. Hickey, chief executive of Sealed Air, which makes Bubble Wrap and other packaging, said that his company has had students from the program working as interns in Shanghai and in Mexico, and that some of the Shanghai interns are now candidates for permanent jobs there.
“When you’re doing business around the world, it can be hard to find free-market-oriented recruits,” he said. “These kids will be talented people in their own countries. Even if they are not working for us, they will be customers or suppliers.”
For its part, Campbell is working closely with members of Students in Free Enterprise at a Chinese university, said Mr. Conant, who is chairman of the organization’s board.
Another strategy is to hire people who are from developing countries and living elsewhere. Sometimes these people can be found at Western business schools and in economic centers like London or New York.
In response to the hiring challenge, the I.F.C. has introduced a program to reward employees who refer successful job candidates. Mr. von Putbus said that about 20 percent of the corporation’s midcareer hires now come through that program. The corporation has also been trying to differentiate itself from the often higher-paying investment banks by stressing that it is an employer with a social mission.
Mr. von Putbus said he had managed to add roughly 1,000 people to the organization’s staff over the last couple of years. But the need for employees — and the competition for them — remains strong. “I hope recruiting will get a bit easier again with what’s happening in the financial markets,” he said.
“There is no miracle solution.”