Job ads are proliferating on the Internet. Employment agencies and other headhunters do not hide their excitement when recruiting for the watchmaking industry is mentioned. While it is the watchmaking sector’s technical trades that are especially popular, managers active on this luxury market are also finding its music sweet to their ears.

Still, recruiting specialists are unanimous in stating that it is not easy to accomplish a successful hire. For one thing, there are so few people with qualifying résumés: “Generally speaking, watchmaking companies are experiencing such an economic boom that there are fewer and fewer candidates to meet the need created by this growth,” says Alberto Colangelo, head of the technology and industry department for the Multipersonnel employment agency. But it is also difficult because even once the recruitment has been successful, the current economic environment favors frequent changes of partner by the white-collar set. “They are stealing watchmakers—and, what’s more, managers—from each other. That is a problem for the brands, which invest in people who will be leaving them very quickly. Then there is the issue of the increased cost for salaries,” adds Olivier Maillard, the Monster website’s former Vice President for Strategic Partnerships in Central and Eastern Europe.

In such an environment, the watchmaking brands are trying to implement human resources strategies to promote employee loyalty. Recruiting well for greater loyalty… both sides of the issue are intimately related. Yet it is difficult to see any overall trend in this regard, since the typology of the watchmaking companies is far too diverse to allow them to think alike. There is a world of difference between Bertolucci, Rolex and Richemont!

Attracting adventurers
How can a young brand attract competent, dynamic managers? And how can it ensure that such managers will not decide to dance to a different tune after the first year? In this kind of company, rather than citing any particular strategy, those involved prefer to keep things within the realm of passion. Philippe Belais, the Bertolucci President and CEO who started the brand’s comeback in 2006, has no doubts on this point. “Our greatest asset in a recruiting process is that we attract, first and foremost, impassioned people, adventurers, people who want to work independently, who want to work hard and help build a project,” he confides. And the companies want to ensure that the loyalty of their managers will be a logical consequence of recruitment. “The people who join our team—and there are many of them, we had 7 people in 2006 and we have 19 now—know that they will have an opportunity to advance very quickly in a small structure like ours.”

In larger companies, the brand’s image is doubtless the best asset in attracting managers. “For example, a company such as Hublot, since Jean- Claude Biver has been its leader, has a very dynamic and trendy image. As far as recruitment goes, that certainly makes things easier,” explains Olivier Maillard. “But the other side of the coin is not always so shiny, which can lead to disappointment and so to early departures.”

The key: continued high motivation
While salary is probably the most effective short-term incentive for avoiding a brain drain among the managers, it does not solve everything. The loyalty of white-collar employees, who experts say remain with the same company for about five years, seems to be linked more to motivation. “Recruiting well means finding the person with key talent who will be able to adapt to the recruiting company, and ensuring that his or her motivation remains at its peak. That is a manager’s main function anyway,” emphasizes Christophe Pigato, founder and director of Human Asset, a placement company with 65% of its activity in watchmaking. In fact, a study has shown that 95% of voluntary departures are due to a problem in getting along with a direct superior.

Offering prospects for advancement and personal development, or in other words, for an attractive career plan, is one cure for the “blue Monday” syndrome that often prompts managers to look elsewhere. For example, the LVMH group cut in and signed Françoise Bezzola, Zénith’s Director of Communication for five years, offering her a position as Tag Heuer’s Director of Communication when she had just signed with a major fashion brand to enhance her career through a new experience. Additionally, “the manager must not have the feeling that he or she has been betrayed or discredited,” Christophe Pigato adds. “A talented individual can always find a position elsewhere. Unfortunately, especially in watchmaking, where production problems have to be managed, the main concern is not always the human side.” And it is this issue, after all, that is at the heart of this human resources problem otherwise known a little barbarously as the “Talent Wars.”