Battle For Talent Now Prime CEO Role, Says Cap Gemini Ernst & Young'S Geoff Unwin
Career Choices, not Cash Bribes, Will Win Best Graduates, Student Forum Told
31 August 2000
Recruitment and retention of talent must now be put at the top of any boardroom agenda, an international student forum was told today by Geoff Unwin, Chief Executive Officer of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, one of the world’s largest management consultancy and IT services companies.
The topic is set to become an even hotter one over the next five years, he said, because rising demand for executive and specialist talent, combined with falling birth rates, is resulting in fierce competition for the best graduates. Cap Gemini Ernst & Young recruits some 4,500 new and recent graduates per year worldwide.
Geoff Unwin currently spends 60 per cent of his time on winning the battle for talent.
But he rejected the idea that cash inducements are the sole or even the best solution to the hiring challenge.
‘Today’s streetwise young graduates are hugely better informed about what’s on offer from would-be employers than ever before, partly because of the internet culture and its power to spread awareness, and partly because they are - quite rightly - ready to challenge and question what those in authority tell them,’ he said.
‘They are well aware of the solid commercial benefits to employees of working for companies like Cap Gemini Ernst & Young that are able to offer many career choices, challenging assignments, who invest in them by giving access to a huge range of learning options, and of the excitement and satisfaction that comes from working at the leading edge of new ideas, new technology and new ways of working with other talented professionals across the world”.
‘We also have the world’s best travelled generation in human history, and they are looking to work across national frontiers with clients and colleagues from around the world.’
Above all, Geoff Unwin stressed, the new generation of young graduates now entering business or industry must be given plenty of choice and flexibility at every stage of their career, with manifold opportunities for retraining, for switching between specialisms, for community activities and for taking career breaks.
Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, as the only European player of major status in a consulting/IT world dominated by US firms, was taking the lead, he said, in generating new and more flexible career paths and in actively encouraging multicultural teams in all three of its main geographical spheres of operation – North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.
‘We have broken the button-down shirt mould created by US consultancies 50 years ago’ he said, ‘and as a result can offer careers to fit people rather than forcing people to fit careers - an employer of choiceS as well as an employer of choice.
However, he added that all employees were expected to live key corporate values, and this rang true to his audience who are actively involved in developing value-driven youth leaders. Geoff Unwin gave the example of the underlying principles of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young: ‘we say what we do and do what we say’ .
Geoff Unwin was addressing 600 young delegates from 84 countries at the International Congress in Edinburgh of AIESEC, the world’s largest student organisation and the facilitator of thousands of international exchange each year for students and recent graduates.
Notes for Editors
AIESEC is a unique and growing network of some 50,000 students, typically of business and technical degree disciplines from 800 higher education institutions in 84 countries and territories. We are non-political, non-profit, independent and entirely student-managed. Our membership is drawn from every race, colour, sex, creed, religion, and national and ethnic origin.
We develop young people by providing a series of learning experiences through a diversity of activities in fields such as IT, sustainable development, education, enterprise and social responsibility. A major component of these activities is international exchange, facilitating an intense intercultural and practical experience in another society, exposing the trainee and those they meet to an entirely different culture, community and its issues.
Cap Gemini Ernst & Young is one of the largest management and IT consulting firms in the world. The company offers management and IT consulting services, systems integration, and technology development, design and outsourcing capabilities on a global scale to help traditional businesses and “dot companies” continue to implement growth strategies and leverage technology in the new economy. The organisation employs more than 55,000 people worldwide and reports global revenues of 7.7 billion euros (1999 pro forma).
More information about individual service lines, offices and research is available at www.capgemini.com
Caroline Peyrat
CAP GEMINI ERNST & YOUNG
Corporate Communication
Tel: +33 (1) 47 54 50 76
