Paul Golden finds out what the
industry is doing to attract, retain and develop
staff.
Go deeper with GlobalData
There is no common approach to
employee recruitment and retention in the leasing sector. However,
what does emerge from conversations with companies at all levels is
that many were able to maintain headcount over the last couple of
years.
For example, Five Arrows Leasing Group human
resources manager Sarah Cowper says the recession has had little
impact on the number of people employed by the company, with staff
numbers increasing marginally to 25 from 24 this time last
year.
It is a similar story at SEB Leasing &
Factoring, according to syndication manager Stefan Jonsson, with
staff numbers showing no significant change since the start of 2009
although the company did increase the percentage of its staff
involved in collections or recoveries.
This was also the case at ING Lease UK, which
has released five people over the last year. This was the result of
a review undertaken 18 months ago “to determine whether we had the
right people in the right place” rather than a consequence of the
recession, explains CEO Chris Stamper.
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By GlobalData“In the first half of last year there was an
increase in the number of accounts in arrears and we moved some
people from new business to collection to address this, but we are
now back to business as usual,” Stamper adds.
Where people have asked for reduced hours the
company has attempted to accommodate their requests, but this has
not been a conscious strategy or part of any wider drive to move
employees to short time working or employ higher numbers of
contract or freelance staff.
De Lage Landen also experienced a temporary
increase in collection activity, which was covered by a combination
of internal staff and some temporary outside resources, explains
senior vice-president of global HR development Arjan van den
Biggelaar.
Developing
talent
Many leasing companies have formal
structures in place for developing employee skills. Gary Dawson,
commercial director of Pitney Bowes Global Financial Services
(GFS), a captive leasing business employing 25 people in the UK,
says his company conducts employee engagement surveys, using the
feedback to inform its improvement programmes.
Personal development and improvement programmes
are commonplace across the business and there is a particular
emphasis on succession planning, with senior staff tasked with
identifying potential succession candidates.
More than 70% of De Lage Landen’s appointments
on key positions come from internal talent and the company is
developing individual learning plans, explains van den
Biggelaar.
“We have a strong commitment to our
international management trainee programme,” she adds. “Other
companies pulled out of such programmes, but we consciously
continued this long-term investment because it has proven to be
successful.”
As the economy recovers and the company may
experience shortage of talent in some of its markets, she
acknowledges that emphasis will have to be placed on recruiting and
retaining the right people.
“The best way to retain and attract the right
people is by focusing on employee engagement. This is driven by
factors such as company pride, company culture, company reputation,
opportunities for personal development and providing meaningful
work,” van den Biggelaar says.
“Financial incentives tend to have a short-term
effect – the compensation needs to be competitive in the market but
it does not make a real difference in terms of retaining and
attracting the right people.”
The recruitment emphasis for ING Lease UK
remains on back-office staff, given that the sales side of the
company’s leasing business is relatively modest in scale.
Overall staff turnover is very low, which is
attributed to various factors including the fact that ING has been
a consistent player in the leasing market over a number of
years.
The company is more proactive than most when it
comes to finding new people. CEO Stamper says referrals are very
useful, with staff incentivised to introduce potential candidates
to the company. The company also works with recruitment
agencies.
This proactive approach extends to the next
generation of workers, he adds.
“We do a lot of work with a local school and in
the community, so the brand is well known and becomes an attractive
place for people to work,” Stamper adds.
“Last week, for example, we had 14 people in
from the local school on work experience, which is a good way for
them to learn about the company.”
ING Lease UK receives what Stamper describes as
a steady trickle of speculative applications. However, he believes
many people have now realised that speculative CVs have little
impact because human resources staff are so busy that they only
look closely at CVs when they are filling specific vacancies.
Social media sourcing
All recruitment for Pitney Bowes GFS is done
through agencies.
“Leasing is a specialised field and there are
recruitment agencies that serve this market,” says Dawson.
“One interesting development is the rise of
social media sites such as LinkedIn and the opportunities they
afford for networking.”
De Lage Landen is also exploring the
recruitment potential of such networks, says van den Biggelaar.
“We started using social media sites for
recruitment activities and recently developed our own community on
LinkedIn, although it is too early to share results on this,” she
says.
“In addition, the company visits career events,
presents business cases at universities and offer internships.
Pitney Bowes GFS has a relationship with the
University of Hertfordshire and currently has an MBA student from
the university doing project work and research on a part-time
basis.
“As a comparatively small operation – and one
that is not necessarily looking to recruit – we only get a handful
of applications each year,” says Dawson.
“These tend to be from people looking to get
into new business development and accounting.”
