????去年，肯特?凱德爾接管了倫敦管理咨詢公司控制風險集團（Control Risks）的亞洲業務，他知道自己肯定會遇到大麻煩。在前六個月里，凱德爾坐在位于上海的辦公室里，至少聽四位高管講過同樣的故事：競爭對手打算以三倍的薪酬聘用他們。

????這四位高管后來都離開了公司，這讓凱德爾不堪重負。他不得不尋找熟悉當地市場的合格人才來填補這些領導職位。凱德爾說道：“每周都會有獵頭給這些人打電話，是否跳槽是每個人首要考慮的問題。”

????美國的就業市場仍不景氣，但在中國等新興市場，招聘和留住高層管理人員仍處于賣方市場階段，這和金融危機之前的美國很是相似。據安永會計師事務所（Ernst & Young）2011年對992名高管進行的調查顯示，42%的公司領導者表示，在海外招聘優秀的人才是最艱難的挑戰。例如，全球人力資源機構萬寶盛華公司（ManPower）進行的另外一項調查顯示，在印度，67%的雇主表示，他們很難在當地建立一支高效的管理團隊，而在2010年這一比例僅有16%。

????印度受益于其驚人的GDP增長速度，并且在過去二十年里， 印度IT行業蓬勃發展，已經達到1,000億美元的規模，然而，該國對于培養工程人才的重視，卻使得具備領導與管理能力的印度人才匱乏，美國加州費利蒙市外包軟件開發商iGATE的人力資源副總裁斯瑞尼?坎杜拉說，這家公司在班加羅爾有28,000名員工。

????坎杜拉表示：“所有人都喜歡有過跨國公司工作經驗的領導者，結果導致人才供不應求。”于是便出現了來自各個行業的公司爭搶一個人的局面。

????在俄羅斯，來自紐約律師事務所Rheem Bell & Mermelstein的愛德華?默梅爾斯坦花了六個月時間，對負責運營事務所莫斯科辦事處的高層高管進行培訓和職位調整。但在過去兩年間，當地的競爭對手以接近兩倍的工資挖走了他的兩名高管。默梅爾斯坦表示，同樣的事情，在事務所的大銀行客戶那里也在上演。

????律師事務所的合伙人默梅爾斯坦稱：“競爭非常殘酷，他們根本不會提前兩個星期通知你。只要他們做了決定，二話不說就會離職。”

????面對勞動力短缺的局面，常見的應對措施是空降外派高管，然而，這一策略并不總是有效。安永調查的高管中，僅有29%認為公司做到了在沒有造成重大損失的情況下有效調整員工的工作地點。

????如今，美國房地產市場仍不景氣，外派員工便更具挑戰性。因為，購買和出售員工的房子，把他們送到國外去的代價高昂。而且，亞特蘭大調查與管理咨詢公司Leadership IQ的CEO馬克?墨菲認為，這些高管通常也并非理想的人選：對于當地的文化、市場和員工心理這些大多數公司保持長期穩定不可或缺的方方面面，當地管理團隊通常有更深的認識和了解。

????Kent Kedl knew he had big problems last year when he took the helm of the Asia practice of London-based management consulting firm Control Risks. In his first six months, Kedl sat in his Shanghai office and listened to the same story at least four times from top managers: A competitor offered to hire them away for three times their salary.

????All four people left the firm, handing Kedl the daunting task of filling those jobs with qualified leaders who had knowledge of the region. "These guys are getting calls every week by headhunters, and it's problem No. 1 on everyone's mind here," says Kedl.

????Hiring in the U.S may still be sluggish, but when it comes to finding and keeping top management in emerging markets like China, it's a sellers' market akin to pre-financial crisis America. Some 42% of company leaders say filling jobs with good people abroad is one of their toughest challenges, according to a 2011 survey of 992 C-level executives by Ernst & Young. In India, for instance, 67% of employers say they struggled to build effective management teams in that country, up from 16% in 2010, according to a different survey by global staffing organization ManPower.

????While India has benefited from impressive GDP growth and watched its IT sector blossom into a $100 billion industry in the past two decades, its focus on developing engineering talent has left the country dry of Indians with leadership and management skills, says Srini Kandula, vice president of human resources for iGATE, a Freemont, Calif.-based outsourced software developer with 28,000 employees and operations in Bangalore.

????"Everyone prefers leaders who are exposed to global business practices, and supply is limited," says Kandula, so companies across a broad array of industries compete for the same people.

????In Russia, Edward Mermelstein spent six months training and relocating top-level executives to run the Moscow office for Rheem Bell & Mermelstein, a corporate law firm based in New York. But in the past two years, local competitors poached two of his executives, offering them nearly double their salaries. Mermelstein says the same scenario is playing out with many of the firms' other big banking clients there.

????"The competition is cutthroat, and they don't give you two-week notices. If they leave, they just leave," says Mermelstein, the firm's principal.

????Confronted with these labor shortages, the typical response has been to parachute in expatriate executives, but that strategy is not always successful. Just 29% of executives surveyed by Ernst & Young said their companies effectively relocate employees without big disruption.

????Moving those expats can be even more challenging with the U.S. housing market still in a slump. It's a costly endeavor to buy -- and then sell -- an employee's home to send them abroad. And these execs are not always the ideal hire: Local management teams often have deep knowledge and understanding of national cultures, markets, and worker psychology that most companies need for long-term stability, says Mark Murphy, CEO of Leadership IQ, an Atlanta research and management consulting firm.