July 2006

Greetings GAMA Members and Friends

It was nice to see so many of you in Victoria for the Advocis/GAMA conference. Our special guests from GAMA International (Tim, Phil, Mike and Bonnie) certainly enjoyed their time on Vancouver Island (a first for all of them), and their speaking contributions, both on the main-stage and in the management track break-out sessions, are very appreciated. The additional management track sessions, featuring Wayne Cotton, were very well attended and the feedback has been great. Congratulations and thanks to Joe Flynn for his efforts in organizing the GAMA educational content for the conference.

As networking is such an important component of GAMA Canada, I should also report that the GAMA sponsored social activities were almost as well attended as the seminars – and a tad bit more fun. (All except for the whale watching tour: where the attendees – making up for in enthusiasm what they lacked in number – were successfully avoided by the elusive mammals.) Whether drawn by the “networking” or the educational sessions (or possibly Tim’s main-stage presentation and funky “Canada” sweatshirt), GAMA Canada gained a host of new members at the conference and, on behalf of all of the members, I extend a warm welcome to you all: be sure to attend future fun and informative networking activities!

Please read-on to the next article for mangers (below). This piece has been provided by one of GAMA’s educational partners: Self-Management Group. Authors’ John Marshall, Ph.D. (President) and Jason Kipps (Marketing Director & Business Development Advisor) have penned a great and timely article on the topic of recruitment. (See link: “Recruiting, Selection and Self-Management”- on the left for more information).

Good luck to you all!

Rod Burylo,
Editor and Director

Building a Recruiting Culture

By Jason Kipps & John Marshall, Ph.D.

What ever happened to the talent war? Back in the heady days of the dotcom boom, talk of a pending battle for skilled knowledge workers was everywhere. But what the futurists failed to understand was the effect that the globalization of our then new-economy would have on a company’s available hiring pool. As China rises and India’s economy continues to expand at an impressive rate, the emerging Asian powerhouses are beginning to mobilize their huge labor pools and our economy and our workforce is changing. Major advances in communications technology coupled with rapid changes in the global job market have kept recruiters on their toes for the last five years.
Recruitment is no longer just a function of H.R. Managers who recruit have had to acquire additional skills and competencies to attract and retain top workers at home and abroad. The most competitive organizations have begun to create proactive recruiting cultures where everyone in the organization becomes committed to helping attract top performers. Those companies that proactively leverage technology, will be best positioned to ride the wave in the new emerging competition for global talent.
So how do you sort through the flood without swamping your current staff? The first step is to identify your organization’s sourcing strategy. In the recruiting game there are three main sourcing strategies, these are Warm, Neutral and Cold Source Strategies. [more]