CAREERS MEDIA: Regional agencies plug HR oversight

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."

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