Although the country has been affected by recession, Brazil is still reaping the rewards from its previous rapid growth, though skill shortages abound

When Recruiter’s Global Spotlight last visited Brazil in November 2011, it was about to overtake the UK as the world’s sixth largest economy. Recruiters queued up to reel off lists of sectors hiring strongly.

However, Michael Page director Paulo Pontes noted at that time that since October 2011, global recession had reached Brazil’s shores, with clients “putting their positions on hold and being more cautious about starting new projects”.

A more muted 2012 followed — but muted only by Brazil’s own high standards. Things were still “much better” than in Europe, Pontes noted – and still are.

Raquel Cunha, a senior talent acquisition adviser for computing giant Dell in Brazil, says the previous rapid growth is still being felt. “The positions available grew and we faced a talent shortage in certain areas,” she says. “This seems to be the trend that we will face in the short term.”

This, she says, means a recruiter “can no longer be a person that only searches… [but also] shows the candidate their career’s perspectives for the future” and in general, must become “more strategic”.

With opportunities still plentiful, firms are adopting “really aggressive retention strategies”, says Eva Piqué, a senior Latin America life sciences consultant at recruiter Antal International.

High turnover is “one of the most important challenges within HR departments in Brazil”, Piqué says — an issue made more important given bureaucratic difficulties importing overseas talent. The other side of the coin, though, is that “access to candidates is easier compared to other countries. They are more open to changing jobs”, she explains.

Roberto Spuri, managing director — Latin America at talent solutions firm Futurestep, agrees that “talent management becomes very strategic” with Brazil’s “very aggressive and competitive labour market”.

On Spuri’s agenda for 2013 is bringing innovations like talent mapping, recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) and social media to the market.

Something else he would like to see introduced is more investment in trainee and internship programmes “to prepare the new generation of professionals”, as the lack thereof is only adding to labour market competitiveness.

While Spuri finds that work equates to bringing new methods to the market, Joel Stern offers Recruiter a unique perspective. An experienced corporate recruiter in the US, Stern is now working as an independent consultant in Brazil.

In every market, Stern acknowledges, “people appreciate referrals… but what I’ve seen here is that it goes a step further. It’s a very tight-knit culture and generally it appears that Brazilians prefer to work and socialise with the people that they know or are referred to”.

Stern adds: “I don’t think some of the traditional channels like a job board and mass broadcasting are as effective here, because relationships matter. So I’ve used that to my advantage to go through some contacts to get interest from people.”

While Stern looks to make inroads in Brazil, Amy Bush, the head of Americas at talent acquisition firm Alexander Mann Solutions (AMS), also says that the firm views Brazil as “one of the emerging markets that we see as critical to our success”.

Bush says that high employment tax and high salaries in Brazil, alongside social unrest across the continent, are among the barriers to entry into the market, which Bush sees as relevant to AMS clients. But as with all the ‘issues’ in Brazil, these pale into insignificance against the market’s undoubted potential.

Key indicators

Major events coming up: FIFA Confederations Cup (June 2013, nationwide), FIFA World Cup, (June-July 2014, nationwide), Olympic and Paralympic Games (August and September 2016, Rio de Janeiro)

79% of Brazilians are currently seeking or considering additional training or education to further their career — the fourth-highest rate globally after Russia, Thailand and Mexico

Source: Kelly Global Workforce Index

Brazil has a “terrible supply” of leaders today, ranked 24th out of 25 major global markets, but is more promising on leaders for tomorrow, sitting in fifth place

Source: SHL Talent Report

Sam Burne James