Recruitment for Effective European Cultural Workforce

Executive Agency, Education, Audiovisual and Culture
Recruitment for Effective European Cultural
Workforce Diversity
Progress Report
Public Part
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Project information
Project acronym:
REDIVE
Project title:
Recruitment for Effective European Cultural
Workforce Diversity
Project number:
528362-LLP-1-2012-1-NL-ERASMUS-ECUE
Sub-programme or KA:
Erasmus Multilateral Projects
Project website:
www.redive.eu
Reporting period:
01/10/2012
30/09/2013
Report version:
1
Date of preparation:
24/10/2013
Beneficiary organisation:
Rotterdam School of Management
Project coordinator:
Ana Barroca
Project coordinator organisation:
Advancis Business Services
Project coordinator telephone number:
+351 93 60 60 613
Project coordinator email address:
[email protected]
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission
cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained
therein.
© 2008 Copyright Education, Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency.
The document may be freely copied and distributed provided that no modifications are made, that the
source is acknowledged and that this copyright notice is included.
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Executive Summary
The forces of globalization and the instruments (e.g. Erasmus, Europass, etc.) set by the EU
are slowly, but surely, driving the growth of workforce mobility across Europe. Workforce
mobility, which naturally induces workforce diversity, is in fact a key element of the European
employment strategy as delineated in the Europe 2020 document, with targets for a
sustainable and inclusive growth.
REDIVE aims at improving the multi-cultural recruitment processes in European companies
to increase the effectiveness of workforce diversity, addressing problems & challenges
previously identified, namely:
1)
Lack of awareness on the incorporation of workforce diversity in corporate strategy
2)
Limited skills and knowledge on culture and diversity by HR and recruitment
professionals
3)
Gap in the market with regard to training on culture and workforce diversity
REDIVE gathers the expertises of higher education institutions, training providers and
software developers from 5 countries to achieve innovative results. The European Level
consortium includes 5 partners: Rotterdam School of Management (Netherlands), Advancis
Business Services (Portugal), LeadersBe (Netherlands), IESE Business School (Spain) and
Danmar Computers (Poland).
REDIVE consortium proposes developing and running an extensive training program for
effective recruitment across cultures. This will ultimately help ensuring the effectiveness of
workforce diversity, enhancing competitiveness and reducing recruitment and retention
costs. REDIVE project can also support the effectiveness of programs like Erasmus and
induce workforce mobility and successful diversity in Europe.
The Project started in October 2012 and due to end by September 2014.
During the first 11 months of the project, the partnership conducted a need analysis to
support the development of the training programme and learning contents and began the
development of the online training course.
The second year of REDIVE will have a strong focus on the completion of the training course
that will enable a pilot testing and later improvement of the learning approach and contents
proposed by the Project in close relation with end users. Valorisation activities will also
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deserve a priority attention on behalf of the partnership to potentiate the future exploitation of
results.
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Table of Contents
1.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES .................................................................................... 6
2.
PROJECT APPROACH ...................................................................................... 8
3.
PROJECT OUTCOMES & RESULTS............................................................... 12
4.
PARTNERSHIPS .............................................................................................. 17
5.
PLANS FOR THE FUTURE .............................................................................. 19
6.
CONTRIBUTION TO EU POLICIES ................................................................. 20
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1.
Project Objectives
REDIVE project aims ultimately at improving the multi-cultural recruitment processes in EU
companies
to
increase
the
effectiveness
of
workforce
diversity,
by
addressing
problems/challenges previously identified:
1)
Lack of awareness on the incorporation of workforce diversity in corporate strategy
2)
Limited skills and knowledge on culture and diversity by HR and recruitment
professionals
3)
Gap in the market with regard to training on culture and workforce diversity
Based on an initial extensive and in-depth research in partnership with several European
Business Schools and HR professionals across Europe, REDIVE proposes developing and
running an extensive training program for effective recruitment across cultures. This will
ultimately help ensuring the effectiveness of workforce diversity, enhancing competitiveness
and reducing recruitment and retention costs. It can also support the effectiveness of
programs like Erasmus and induce workforce mobility and successful diversity in EU.
The specific objectives of the project are to:
•
Understand the extent to which cultural workforce diversity is incorporated in the
strategy of EU Companies
•
Evaluate and map the differences in recruitment practices across different EU
cultures
•
Identify best practices in terms of multi-cultural recruitment and extract main lessons
•
Disseminate results, raising awareness about the importance of culture in recruitment
and effective multi-cultural recruitment strategies
•
Prepare and test a comprehensive Training Program for HR and recruitment
professionals on multi-cultural recruitment across EU
Due to the extensive networks of the consortium and associated partners, including
University/Business School alumni, REDIVE expects to reach a significant number of
executives and HR professionals. Afterwards, REDIVE will enable business schools,
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companies and universities (within and outside the consortium) to incorporate the training
program into their executive training programs, increasing significantly the reach of the
project in the future. As result, the current situation can be considerably improved:
•
Researchers will understand the extent to which cultural workforce diversity is
incorporated in the strategy of EU Companies and know more about the differences in
recruitment practices across different EU cultures.
•
Best practices in terms of multi-cultural recruitment can be disseminated, gradually
helping companies in taking the most of cultural workforce diversity, while reducing the
associated risks and costs.
•
A large number of HR professionals will quickly develop their multi-cultural
competencies and knowledge, through close-to-real simulations.
•
There will be more training offer in the market on culture and workforce diversity.
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2.
Project Approach
REDIVE is based on research and development activities, which are supported by another
set of activities to guarantee the proper management, evaluation (quality assurance),
dissemination and exploitation of the Project.
Partners share responsibilities for these activities according to individual expertises and to
the need to bring different country-based experiences, under an overall coordination.
During the first 11 months of the Project (period covered by this Report), the partnership was
fully capable of reaching the self-proposed objectives for these activities:
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Objective 1: Understand the current situation in EU with regard to workforce diversity and
recruitment
This objective includes:
a)
Understand the extent to which cultural workforce diversity is incorporated in the
strategy of EU Companies
b)
Evaluate and map the differences in recruitment practices across different EU
cultures
c)
Identify best practices in terms of multi-cultural recruitment and extract main lessons
For obj. a) and b), the consortium runned an extensive survey with European executives and
HR professionals using the network of the consortium and associated partners, including
alumni network all over EU to get a large sample (772 responses from most EU). Once the
survey was done and analysed using statistical methods, additional qualitative interviews
(23) with executives and HR professionals helped to validate results and generate anecdotal
data to support the later creation of 5 case studies (to use in training).
To identify best practices (obj. c)), the consortium made use of a panel of experts composed
by senior HR professionals, recruiters and academics. The panel evaluated the reports
associated with obj. a) and b) and extract main lessons and best practices on multi-cultural
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recruitment. Panels of experts were organized by RSM (Netherlands), IESE (Spain) and
Danmar (Poland).
The conclusions gathered with the survey, interviews and panels of experts were presented
in a research report.
The next step was to define the Training Programme that will guide the Multi-cultural
Recruitment Training Program (MRTP) expected to contribute to the development of Key
Multi-cultural Recruitment Competencies (KRC), both technical and behavioural, essential to
enable successful culture driven recruitment.
The programme obeys to the principles of:
•
Relevance to real recruitment situation
•
Problem solving
•
Short duration
•
Flexible delivery
•
Networking
•
Quality assurance
and is comprised of a dossier defining:
• Curricular structure
• Program contents (the contents themselves are deliverables apart)
• Pedagogical methods and techniques – including e-learning
• Program chronogram
EVALUATION (QUALITY ASSURANCE)
The evaluation of REDIVE guarantees the proper assessment of Project’s internal processes
and quality of end results, through an ongoing process involving self-evaluation, evaluation
by peers and evaluation by beneficiaries.
In the initial months, the priority regarding evaluation was to set-up a framework for the
evaluation activities. This required, first, to define an Evaluation Strategy, including
appropriate evaluation tools, binding all partners. Only then evaluation activities were carried
out and will be summarized in a Evaluation Reports.
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For the next months, as the main outcomes and results of the Project become available, the
evaluation activities will focus on the quality of these products alongside the general
functioning of the partnership.
VALORISATION (DISSEMINATION AND EXPLOITATION)
The valorisation activities guarantee the participation of the target groups – Companies
(especially
HR
professionals,
which
include
general
managers
and
recruitment
professionals), Higher Education Institutions (HEI - especially Business Schools), and
Political Organizations- in the research and development activities and potentiate the future
exploitation of results.
Valorisation targets all of the Project’s main publics at the European scale, foreseeing a
continuous dissemination effort that goes beyond the project’s lifespan and involves all
partners in a real team effort.
In the first year of the project, the main objective of the valorisation activities was to raise
awareness about the project next to its main beneficiaries, in particular with the objective of
getting them to participate in research.
For that purpose partners created a website, presented the project at social and professional
networks, and held direct contacts with HR professionals, Higher Education Institutions and
decision makers.
Also to facilitate valorisation activities, the partnership created a visual identity (including a
logo), leaflets and a database of contacts to use in the different dissemination activities.
In the next stage of the project, valorisation activities will be taken to another level, as results
become available and the potential for impact is greater.
MANAGEMENT
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The REDIVE management activities ensure an effective coordination over the work plan and
the budget, by ensuring a continuous communication flow between partners and an effective
decision process.
To ensure the proper management the partnership agreed in a Management Strategy based
on which specific Management Activities were taken into effect.
The Management Strategy defines general principles and establishes the coordination
structure and the tools to exercise an effective coordination of activities.
To ensure the management functions, it was defined a number of management tools and
mechanisms, namely an online project management tool, internal reports, face-to-face
partnership meetings, web meetings, among several others.
The Management Activities included, so far, 3 face-to-face partnership meetings, which
helped to establish a proper mind set for the project development, guaranteeing the focus of
the team members in critical moments of the project. Meeting memoranda were prepared
after each meeting. Alongside these meetings, some web meetings were also held to discuss
particular aspects of the project as they arose. Also internal reports at each 3 month, to
analyse deviations, dissemination activities and general budget issues, were prepared by all
partners to help the partnership keeping track of the Project’s progress.
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3.
Project Outcomes & Results
During the first 11 months, the REDIVE partnership was able to achieve successfully the
main expected results.
MAIN OUTCOMES & RESULTS
The Research Report describes the main findings of a research project into cultural diversity
recruitment practices within European companies. For an in-depth insight data was collected
through three channels. 1) Survey data on the strategic importance of cultural diversity
collected by the CRF institute was combined with survey data on diversity practices
distributed to the network of the project’s partners. 2) Interviews were conducted with HR
professionals in the partner-countries to provide a validation of the survey results and a
deeper insight into best practices. 3) Three panels were organized with HR professionals and
academics where the results were further discussed and validated.
The results show that for a diversity programme to succeed it needs to be an integral part of
the company strategy. Top management commitment is essential. To succeed, diversity
needs to be part of a change management approach with a clear vision that is obvious to
everybody. There is clear that HR professionals throughout Europe are positive and
supportive about building a more cultural diverse organization. They perceive the costs of
diversity as low and the potential benefits as high. It should however be acknowledged that
relative to other aspects of the business, cultural diversity is lower the priority ladder; the
apparent strategic importance is only to a limited extent translated into specific practice. An
HR department that aims to make diversity more important within their organization should
pay attention to the bottom-line. HR needs to be able to argue that it makes sense business
wise, terms of money earned or money saved.
The Report will be available through the project website: www.redive.eu
SUPPORT ACTIVITIES
To support the project’s implementation, some management, dissemination, exploitation and
quality assurance outcomes and results were produced. Among them, some deserve
mentioning:
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Project website
The project Website is the more visible presence of the project in the web and got 551 visits
during the period in appraisal.
Project Facebook page and LinkedIn group
The presence in the social and professional networks is crucial to raise awareness to the
project and to reach the target groups and final beneficiaries of the project.
Initially foreseen only for the second period of the project, the page/group were created to
maximize the project dissemination and, in a short time, revealed strategic to reach the target
groups:
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Project leaflet
The project leaflet is a dissemination support material and presents the project’s objectives,
outline, expected results and team. It’s available in 5 languages – English, Dutch,
Portuguese, Spanish and Polish - and in electronic (download at www.redive.eu) and paper
versions.
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Press
The interest raised by the project among the stakeholders is also due to the efforts of the
partnership to present the project in events, blogs, papers and magazines specialized in
Human Resources Management.
The selection of strategic means of dissemination allowed the partnership to reach,
approximately, 22 000 persons:
- Article at the Portuguese HR specialized magazine “Pessoal” - circulation of 15,000 copies;
- Article at the Global Recruiting Roundtable, international blog about Employer Branding, eHRM, Recruitment and Selection, with approximately 2.000 followers
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- Article at the AEP website (Portuguese Chamber of Commerce and Industry) with more
than 4000 associates;
- Article at the Europe Direct Centre (Porto, Portugal) newsletter with more than 300
contacts;
- Article published at GIVE newsletter with more than 116 viewers;
- Press releases published by all partners;
- Paper presented at the IV Conference on Human Resources Research and Intervention
(Portugal), with 100 attendees.
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4.
Partnerships
The partnerships established within the projects have two levels: at the level of the
consortium and with outside the formal consortium structure.
THE CONSORTIUM
Specific criteria were used for the selection of partners:
•
Level of competence in specific areas of expertise (HRM, recruitment, cultural
diversity)
•
Level of competence in areas necessary to run a complete research and
development project (research, project management, training development delivery)
•
Geographic coverage to ensure different cultural clusters in Europe (South, Central,
North and Eastern Europe)
•
Access to networks of HR and recruitment professionals, for both data collection and
dissemination
The very nature of the project calls of course for an extensive international cooperation with
different European countries (4 countries in the consortium alone, plus several other as
represented by associated partners). Likewise, it is critical to incorporate Business Schools
with a large international reach (like for example IESE and RSM), in order to get access to a
wider range of executives and HR professionals all over Europe through their alumni.
Based on these criteria, the following partners form the consortium:
•
RSM is the primary business school in The Netherlands Its advanced knowledge and
experience with state-of–the-art research published in high-ranking journals, coupled
with access to a large alumni database in HR management across Europe ensures
the quality of the research and the access to critical data from HR managers and
recruitment professionals in particular.
•
ADV is specialized in business consultancy, including HRM supporting human
resources departments, and training in different business related areas. ADV brings
competences in business management and in all training related aspects, besides
generic experience in project management, dissemination and exploitation activities,
to assure support activities and development activities related to training and manuals
development.
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•
L2B is specialized in attracting, engaging and developing young talent, offering
consultancy, training and coaching services in these areas. L2B main contribute is to
provide expertise in the dissemination and exploitation of the project results, in
addition to support for data collection and incorporating the particular needs and
demands of the younger generations.
•
Danmar is an organization providing vocational training in the field of IT and
developing and providing e-learning services from year 2000. Danmar has
experience of many years of carrying out EU educational programs, within the
framework of which it conducts research and educational activities. The main
contribution of Danmar concerns the development of the e-learning platform of the
training program.
•
IESE invests heavily on training and research and development of teaching materials
that increase the skills of the business leaders, entrepreneurs and professionals
around the world to fully address the economic and social realities of present-day.
IESE contributes with its research and training capability, as well as access to experts
and HR professionals.
OUTSIDE THE CONSORTIUM
The consortium actively looked for the establishment of partnership with representatives of
the target groups to guarantee their participation in project activities, to potentiate
dissemination and exploitation of results, and ultimately to guarantee the quality and finetuning of results with end users’ needs.
Partners
established
partnership
with
the
CRF
institute
(Netherlands),
PricewaterhouseCoopers (Portugal), Catolica Porto Business School (Portugal) and ISTUD
Business School (Italy). These partners were critical to the research activities, facilitating
access to the target groups and to similar researches; and were also strategic to maximize
the impact of the dissemination activities.
The consortium also established partnerships with European wide networks, like Europe
Direct and ENTER Network crucial to ensure a wider dissemination of the project.
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5.
Plans for the Future
The second stage of Project REDIVE is still full of challenges.
The priority is to finish the Training Programme and Manual and develop the e-course
allowing for the organization of the pilot training sessions. These sessions will be essential to
fine tune the outputs of the project, ensuring proper fit with the target groups needs and
expectations.
Along the development of these core activities, the partnership will ensure a proper
management, dissemination and quality of the Project. The activities foreseen to present
results and outputs of the project (e.g. final conference, cd-rom with training kit) will create
the basis for the future exploitation of the project by the stakeholders.
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6.
Contribution to EU policies
The forces of globalization and the instruments (e.g. Erasmus, Europass, etc.) set by the EU
are slowly, but surely, driving the growth of workforce mobility across Europe. This is
supported by findings of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and
Working Conditions, which also indicate that highly educated young professionals constitute
the majority of people moving within Europe in search for new employment opportunities.
One other important aspect for the EU is the increase of workforce diversity, which is very
much related to equality in access to employment opportunities. The 2007 “European year of
Equal Opportunities for All”, the Racial Equality Directive of 2004 and the Equal Employment
Directive of 2000 are proof of that concern within the EU.
Workforce mobility, which naturally induces workforce diversity, is in fact a key element of the
European employment strategy as delineated in the Europe 2020 document, with targets for
a sustainable and inclusive growth.
In general, workforce mobility and diversity are positive aspects for competitiveness. For
example, at a macro-scale, workforce mobility allows economies to adjust to new external
market demands, inducing competitiveness. At a micro-level, companies can in theory
benefit greatly of a diverse workforce (qualified resources, innovation and adaptability).
However, as pointed by several researchers and by the European Monitor for Change,
workforce mobility and diversity does not come without challenges and should be seen
carefully. For example, at a macro-level countries or regions can suffer from “brain-drain”,
while at a micro-level, the opportunity costs and risks associated with diversity can be
significant (e.g. costs on poor employee integration). This challenge of cultural workforce
diversity for European companies is the main focus of this Project.
As mentioned before, workforce mobility and diversity are strategic aspects of the EU
strategy for sustainable growth. We expect this project to add value to Europe at different
levels:
1-
By raising awareness about the importance of workforce diversity for competitiveness
and innovation among many executives and HR professionals across Europe, the project
addresses the specific objectives for workforce mobility and sustainable growth set in the
Europe 2020 document and the Lisbon Agenda
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2-
The project links directly to the European directives for Racial Equality Equal
Employment, providing a practical instrument that brings these directives to practice
3-
In a time of increasing unemployment, especially among young generations, in
several European countries, this project can have a direct impact in creating opportunities for
effective integration of a larger number of foreign Europeans in companies, increasing the
employment rate
4-
The project addresses workforce mobility and diversity in a holistic way, aiming at
effectiveness and not only growth. The emphasis is put on impact and the overall systemic
changes across Europe. This strengthens the business case for workforce mobility and
diversity and prevents negative consequences like, for example the “brain-drain” of certain
regions or countries.
5-
Increasing the level of knowledge and skills on culture and workforce diversity by HR
professionals and recruiters, allows international students to increase their chances of being
employed in Europe, making European Business Schools more appealing in attracting
international students from all over the world.
6-
The increased level of knowledge on the strategies and practices related to workforce
diversity across Europe will allow fine-tuning existing European instruments dedicated to
workforce mobility and diversity like, for example, the Erasmus and Leonardo mobility
programmes or eventually lead even to the creation of new instruments.
7-
The project will naturally reinforce the international network of HR professionals
across Europe, allowing for further integration and cross learning.
8-
Finally, the project will help improving the relation between educational institutions
(namely business schools) and the business world, through the development of specific
programs on culture and workforce diversity and the increased knowledge about the
recruitment needs of European companies.
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