Executive Meeting with Aurora Catá

Attracting and retaining the best talent, the key HR strategy

• For companies to make a difference and adapt to this volatile environment, the recipe is to have the best professionals, the best talent, says our guest.
• According to Aurora Catá, "Digitalisation is a revolution that has a very important impact" in reference to the changes in some jobs due to technology.
• "We are transforming business models," said the President of the Barcelona Global Association.

We present the third interview of the 2022 Executive Meetings, in which Dr. Casilda Güell, Dean of the school, interviewed the President of Barcelona Global, Aurora Catá, a professional with an extensive career linked to the management of people talent. Barcelona Global is a private non-profit association that develops proposals for the development of Barcelona, promoting and leading projects that aim to make Barcelona a magnet for talent and economic activity.

During the conversation, different questions were addressed in relation to talent and the new management of human resources. For Aurora Catá, talent has always been a driver in her career.

"People have always been the most important thing. I've sometimes had the opportunity to accompany them, but at other times it has been they who have accompanied me to do great projects"

In the current environment characterised by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, the most important thing for companies to be able to adapt is undoubtedly human talent. In this scenario, it is the teams that make all the difference: "the best recipe is to have the best professionals, the best talent", says the President of Barcelona Global, who has clearly expressed the power of people within a company.

"In a Formula 1 race, with two identical cars, it's the driver who wins," said the human resources expert

Today's entrepreneurs have a clear objective: they are focusing on how to retain human talent in their company and how they should attract it, but most importantly, how to develop it internally. "The Human Resources area is putting people, and their careers, at the centre of every decision", said Aurora Catá about the weight and importance that this area is gaining in companies.

The guest speaker believes that one of the opportunities to internally develop the human talent of companies, which is becoming increasingly competitive, is collaboration with internship agreements; large companies go to the cradle of human talent - universities - where they can recognise which students might be interested in working in their companies.

"As companies and as individuals we have to have an approach to continuous training, permanent knowledge, courses, degrees..."

The President of Barcelona Global wanted to make it clear that training is not only a seasonal period, training is a lifelong learning that must be permanently linked to one's professional life, "you have to keep updating yourself, not only in content but also in skills", said Catá in order to keep up with digitalisation.

For Aurora, "digitalisation is a revolution that has a very important impact on companies: technology is a fundamental tool and a lever for training" and although it changes and it might even cause the disappearance of some jobs, others are created that require different skills. It is through this training that these recent needs in the market can be covered."

Through Barcelona Global, the speaker works daily to improve the city and attract the best people. Barcelona has several advantages over other cities due to its privileged location and its ability to connect with other cities in Europe. "Barcelona has many advantages, so we have to work to generate the best options and thus become the city of talent," said the guest, who in turn called on the universities located in Barcelona: "Universities must be convinced of the importance of attracting talent, training locals and attracting international professionals to generate the necessary diversity and richness in the experience," concluded Aurora Catá.

Find out more about human resources and talent management with the videopodcast of this interview with Aurora Catá here: