外企如何应对人才流失？

    去年，肯特•凯德尔接管了伦敦管理咨询公司控制风险集团（Control Risks）的亚洲业务，他知道自己肯定会遇到大麻烦。在前六个月里，凯德尔坐在位于上海的办公室里，至少听四位高管讲过同样的故事：竞争对手打算以三倍的薪酬聘用他们。

    这四位高管后来都离开了公司，这让凯德尔不堪重负。他不得不寻找熟悉当地市场的合格人才来填补这些领导职位。凯德尔说道：“每周都会有猎头给这些人打电话，是否跳槽是每个人首要考虑的问题。”

    美国的就业市场仍不景气，但在中国等新兴市场，招聘和留住高层管理人员仍处于卖方市场阶段，这和金融危机之前的美国很是相似。据安永会计师事务所（Ernst & Young）2011年对992名高管进行的调查显示，42%的公司领导者表示，在海外招聘优秀的人才是最艰难的挑战。例如，全球人力资源机构万宝盛华公司（ManPower）进行的另外一项调查显示，在印度，67%的雇主表示，他们很难在当地建立一支高效的管理团队，而在2010年这一比例仅有16%。

    印度受益于其惊人的GDP增长速度，并且在过去二十年里， 印度IT行业蓬勃发展，已经达到1,000亿美元的规模，然而，该国对于培养工程人才的重视，却使得具备领导与管理能力的印度人才匮乏，美国加州费利蒙市外包软件开发商iGATE的人力资源副总裁斯瑞尼•坎杜拉说，这家公司在班加罗尔有28,000名员工。

    坎杜拉表示：“所有人都喜欢有过跨国公司工作经验的领导者，结果导致人才供不应求。”于是便出现了来自各个行业的公司争抢一个人的局面。

    在俄罗斯，来自纽约律师事务所Rheem Bell & Mermelstein的爱德华•默梅尔斯坦花了六个月时间，对负责运营事务所莫斯科办事处的高层高管进行培训和职位调整。但在过去两年间，当地的竞争对手以接近两倍的工资挖走了他的两名高管。默梅尔斯坦表示，同样的事情，在事务所的大银行客户那里也在上演。

    律师事务所的合伙人默梅尔斯坦称：“竞争非常残酷，他们根本不会提前两个星期通知你。只要他们做了决定，二话不说就会离职。”

    面对劳动力短缺的局面，常见的应对措施是空降外派高管，然而，这一策略并不总是有效。安永调查的高管中，仅有29%认为公司做到了在没有造成重大损失的情况下有效调整员工的工作地点。

    如今，美国房地产市场仍不景气，外派员工便更具挑战性。因为，购买和出售员工的房子，把他们送到国外去的代价高昂。而且，亚特兰大调查与管理咨询公司Leadership IQ的CEO马克•墨菲认为，这些高管通常也并非理想的人选：对于当地的文化、市场和员工心理这些大多数公司保持长期稳定不可或缺的方方面面，当地管理团队通常有更深的认识和了解。

    Kent Kedl knew he had big problems last year when he took the helm of the Asia practice of London-based management consulting firm Control Risks. In his first six months, Kedl sat in his Shanghai office and listened to the same story at least four times from top managers: A competitor offered to hire them away for three times their salary.

    All four people left the firm, handing Kedl the daunting task of filling those jobs with qualified leaders who had knowledge of the region. "These guys are getting calls every week by headhunters, and it's problem No. 1 on everyone's mind here," says Kedl.

    Hiring in the U.S may still be sluggish, but when it comes to finding and keeping top management in emerging markets like China, it's a sellers' market akin to pre-financial crisis America. Some 42% of company leaders say filling jobs with good people abroad is one of their toughest challenges, according to a 2011 survey of 992 C-level executives by Ernst & Young. In India, for instance, 67% of employers say they struggled to build effective management teams in that country, up from 16% in 2010, according to a different survey by global staffing organization ManPower.

    While India has benefited from impressive GDP growth and watched its IT sector blossom into a $100 billion industry in the past two decades, its focus on developing engineering talent has left the country dry of Indians with leadership and management skills, says Srini Kandula, vice president of human resources for iGATE, a Freemont, Calif.-based outsourced software developer with 28,000 employees and operations in Bangalore.

    "Everyone prefers leaders who are exposed to global business practices, and supply is limited," says Kandula, so companies across a broad array of industries compete for the same people.

    In Russia, Edward Mermelstein spent six months training and relocating top-level executives to run the Moscow office for Rheem Bell & Mermelstein, a corporate law firm based in New York. But in the past two years, local competitors poached two of his executives, offering them nearly double their salaries. Mermelstein says the same scenario is playing out with many of the firms' other big banking clients there.

    "The competition is cutthroat, and they don't give you two-week notices. If they leave, they just leave," says Mermelstein, the firm's principal.

    Confronted with these labor shortages, the typical response has been to parachute in expatriate executives, but that strategy is not always successful. Just 29% of executives surveyed by Ernst & Young said their companies effectively relocate employees without big disruption.

    Moving those expats can be even more challenging with the U.S. housing market still in a slump. It's a costly endeavor to buy -- and then sell -- an employee's home to send them abroad. And these execs are not always the ideal hire: Local management teams often have deep knowledge and understanding of national cultures, markets, and worker psychology that most companies need for long-term stability, says Mark Murphy, CEO of Leadership IQ, an Atlanta research and management consulting firm.