Having lagged behind other industries, agency groups in
Asia-Pacific are now putting regional human resources chiefs in place to
handle critical people management issues that have emerged amid the
changed business climate.
Grey Worldwide recently appointed Ms Martha Collard as its first
regional human resources director, and Saatchi & Saatchi has recruited
Ms Lavina Mehta to take over from Mr Milano Reyna, who relocated to New
York a few months ago.
At Ogilvy & Mather, Ms Beth Ronsick has joined as training and
development manager, the agency's equivalent of an HR manager. With O&M
set to increase resources in HR in the future, Ms Ronsick will work
alongside the agency's training and development director, who has been
in the role in Asia-Pacific for the past 11 years.
"HR is now becoming an important function in the communications industry
as talent acquisition, people development and retention have become
crucial issues," said TMP Worldwide eResourcing HR recruitment team
leader Madelyn Lip.
But, with the industry's limited HR history, there is now a dearth of
suitable candidates to meet growing demand.
In the three latest appointments, the agencies either looked beyond Asia
or the industry itself for suitable candidates.
Both Ms Collard and Ms Mehta came from outside the ad industry.
Ms Collard has extensive HR consulting experience in the region, having
worked for such companies as the Bank of Boston and Manulife Insurance,
while Ms Mehta was previously with Andersen Consulting.
Ms Ronsick relocated to Hong Kong from O&M's New York office, where she
was director of organisational learning.
Leo Burnett's regional HR director Nadia Pan believes the changing
business environment - with increased mergers and acquisition activity
and localisation - is pushing people management issues to the
forefront.
In particular, the dotcom exodus of the past 18 months brought HR issues
into sharper focus for agencies.
"The ad industry has lagged behind other industries on this issue and we
have lost talent to client companies as a result," said Ms Pan, who has
been with Burnett for the past three years.
TMP handled three of the recent HR appointments, including Ms Catherine
Tam, a local position at Euro RSCG Hong Kong, which was filled late last
year. The company said it had several requests from leading agency
groups on file.
"While we have had to look outside, it has not been difficult to find
candidates who are willing to join the industry," said Ms Lip. "They are
attracted by the vision and type of people running agencies, since HR
can only succeed if there is buy-in at the very top."
