ManpowerGroup: Latin America Must Mine Rich Seam of Talent

PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico, April 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- ManpowerGroup (NYSE: MAN), the world leader in innovative workforce solutions and strategic partner of the World Economic Forum, today advised Latin American countries to leverage its booming youthful populations to improve its talent pipeline. As access to the right skills threatens to become an acute problem, future growth could be jeopardized at a time when the region stands to benefit from the global balance of power shifting toward emerging markets.

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Jeff Joerres, ManpowerGroup Chairman and CEO, and Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum on Latin America, was today interviewed by Robert Greenhill, Managing Director and Chief Business Officer for the World Economic Forum in a one-on-one session titled "An Insight, An Idea With Jeffrey Joerres," on how Talentism is the new Capitalism — focusing on how talent continues to emerge as the key competitive differentiator in the global economy. Also, ManpowerGroup today released its new insight paper, "How to Unleash Latin America's Greatest Resource: Talentism is the New Capitalism," which explores how countries and organizations can unleash human potential to create capital — vital to long-term success in Latin America.

"Latin America is taking on a much stronger role in the global economy as the region's economies grow and the demographics become more powerful, but increasingly talent is the differentiator," said Joerres. "Talent is everywhere within Latin America's large and youthful populations, yet nowhere as employers struggle to find the right skills to leverage growth opportunities. The region must overcome its skills mismatch by developing its existing workforce if it is to truly realize its growth potential."

Employers in the region are having more trouble filling jobs than the global average, with nearly six out of 10 Brazilian employers and 42 percent of those in Mexico having difficulty filling jobs, yet unemployment remains a problem for the region. As Latin America becomes a growing presence on the world economic stage, multinational organizations, particularly those from North America, are no longer just looking East but also South for their next opportunity.

ManpowerGroup advises Latin American governments to shift their mindsets and explore how they can unleash the vast reserves of human potential within their population, upskilling the right workers to fill growing industries and take advantage of interested foreign investors. Just as those countries rich in natural reserves, and with the facilities to leverage those resources, have thrived under capitalism, countries with a large, young population will rise economically — if they can engage and align their country's young workforce with spikes in business demand.

"Brazil and Mexico have relatively young populations representing a wealth of potential talent," added Joerres. "This is the Human Age equivalent of a vast, untapped gold mine sitting under the surface, waiting to be discovered."

Joerres is co-chair of the Forum B20 Task Force on Employment which will culminate in delivering recommendations for focused actions to inspire sustainable employment creation to the G20 group of nations at the G20 Summit in Mexico in June. Joerres chaired a robust track of discussions at the 2012 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in January, generating outputs and core themes to be presented to Mexican President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa at the Latin America Forum before the refined proposals are presented to G20 leaders on 17 and 18 June.

The recommendations include ways to improve collaboration between business and education to achieve better skills matches; improve the image of apprenticeships and technical jobs; facilitate growth of small and medium-sized businesses, which account for between 60 and 70 percent of jobs, according to the Organisation for Economic Development; make investments that contribute to long-term job creation; and labor market reforms that improve labor market access and support "employment security" as opposed to "job security."

One year ago, ManpowerGroup announced at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting that the world has entered the Human Age, a transformative new ecosystem where human potential has become the key driver of economic growth. ManpowerGroup's identification of the evolution of Talentism was confirmed earlier this year by Klaus Schwab, World Economic Forum Founder and Executive Chairman, who noted that the new world model will center on human talent.

ManpowerGroup has had operations in Latin America for 50 years, building up an unrivaled knowledge of regional labor markets and labor issues. During WEF LATAM, ManpowerGroup is drawing on this expertise to discuss critical regional issues with government and business leaders, including unemployment and particularly youth unemployment. ManpowerGroup's two new insight papers, "How to Unleash Latin America's Greatest resource: Talentism is the New Capitalism," and "Wanted: Energized, Career-Driven Youth," are available for download from www.manpowergroup.com/research/research.cfm.

About ManpowerGroup

ManpowerGroup™ (NYSE: MAN), the world leader in innovative workforce solutions, creates and delivers high-impact solutions that enable our clients to achieve their business goals and enhance their competitiveness. With over 60 years of experience, our $22 billion company creates unique time to value through a comprehensive suite of innovative solutions that help clients win in the Human Age. These solutions cover an entire range of talent-driven needs from recruitment and assessment, training and development, and career management, to outsourcing and workforce consulting. ManpowerGroup maintains the world's largest and industry-leading network of nearly 3,800 offices in over 80 countries and territories, generating a dynamic mix of an unmatched global footprint with valuable insight and local expertise to meet the needs of its 400,000 clients per year, across all industry sectors, small and medium-sized enterprises, local, multinational and global companies. By connecting our deep understanding of human potential to the ambitions of clients, ManpowerGroup helps the organizations and individuals we serve achieve more than they imagined – because their success leads to our success. And by creating these powerful connections, we create power that drives organizations forward, accelerates personal success and builds more sustainable communities. We help power the world of work. The ManpowerGroup suite of solutions is offered through ManpowerGroup™ Solutions, Manpower®, Experis™ and Right Management®. Learn more about how the ManpowerGroup can help you win in the Human Age at www.manpowergroup.com.

ManpowerGroup is the most trusted brand in the industry, and was once again the only company in our industry to be named to the Ethisphere Institute's 2012 World's Most Ethical Companies list for our proven commitment to ethical business practices, including an outstanding commitment to ethical leadership, compliance practices and corporate social responsibility.

In January 2011, at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, ManpowerGroup announced the world has entered the Human Age, where talent has replaced capital as the key competitive differentiator. This concept of talentism as the new capitalism continues to resonate and was echoed as a core theme of the 2012 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Learn more about this new age at www.manpowergroup.com/humanage

Gain access to ManpowerGroup's extensive thought leadership papers, annual Talent Shortage surveys and the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, one of the most trusted indices of employment activity in the world, via the ManpowerGroup World of Work Insight iPad application. This thought leadership app explores the challenges faced by employers navigating the changing world of work and provides in-depth commentary, analysis, insight and advice on strategies for success. 

Follow ManpowerGroup Chairman and CEO Jeff Joerres on Twitter: twitter.com/manpowergroupjj. Joerres is one of only six Fortune 500 CEOs who leverages a Twitter account to get his message out.

SOURCE ManpowerGroup