Olympic stars get a restart in the race for jobs

Financial Times, May 9, 2005

A joint project by Adecco, the Swiss staffing agency, and the International Olympic Committee is seeking to help sports men and women when stardom fades

By HAIG SIMONIAN

Politicians will know this feeling - especially Labour parliamentarians turfed out by voters in Thursday's general election. One minute you are pursuing a successful, perhaps superlative, career and the next you are out of a job and everything comes crashing down. Once a hero, you are left lost and directionless. What next?

For most people, such nightmares occur only with serious illness, family upheaval or compulsory redundancy. But as in politics, so in sport: this about- turn is part of the normal job cycle of top athletes when they shift from stardom to seclusion.

A lucky few in commercially prominent sports - such as football or baseball - can make millions through sponsorship. But for every sports millionaire, there are a thousand slightly less gifted or less noticed athletes whose most unifying experience at their career's end is despair.

Few know such peaks and troughs better than Olympic contestants. Every four years, some 10,500 athletes from five continents battle it out to win medals and break records. But, having devoted much of their lives to their disciplines, often at the expense of a formal education, the end of a career can mean wrenching psychological and financial change.

Only this year is the problem being systematically addressed. In a groundbreaking partnership, the International Olympic Committee, the Switzerland-based body responsible for the Games, has agreed with Adecco, the world's biggest temporary employment group, to establish a scheme to help athletes rejoin the labour market once their sporting lives are over.

"Athletes dedicate their lives to sports and it is only right sports should give them something back at the end of their careers," says Jacques Rogge, the IOC president. "We believe this is a great step for the Olympic movement."

If successful, the experience could be useful in helping other groups that have traditionally had difficulty accessing the labour market - notably the elderly or single mothers. With birth rates falling, reintegrating such potentially able workers into the labour market could prove increasingly valuable, especially in developing countries where demographic factors are causing a dramatic shrinkage in the workforce and a pensions time-bomb.

The arrangement makes sense for the IOC. "It's a big issue for athletes from all over the world and it was really important for us to do this programme," says Sergei Bubka, the Ukrainian world champion pole vaulter, who chairs the IOC's Athletes' Commission - the influential body representing current and former Olympic contestants.

But what is in it for Adecco? On the face of it, the benefits seem meagre. As part of the scheme, which will help more than 2,000 former Olympic contestants from 17 countries find new careers over the next three years, the group is providing its services free of charge and contributing SFr1m (Pounds 440,000) to help cover the IOC's operational costs. Moreover, unlike traditional sports sponsorship deals, the company is not getting any material commercial benefits, such as marketing rights. There is even an element of reputational risk should the venture prove a flop or only partially successful.

Jerome Caille, the Swiss company's chief executive, says that the group's commitment to corporate citizenship is an important factor. In France, Mr Caille's native country and the favourite to win the IOC's vote later this year to stage the Olympic Games in 2012, Adecco has long been helping to improve the job prospects for handicapped people.

"Instead of talking about corporate social responsibility, we prefer to do it," he says. "It's not for me to solve the miseries of the world, but we can at least help people gain access to the labour market." But, for Adecco, there is more to the programme than just recognition for good corporate citizenship. In many countries, including developed markets such as Germany, "temping", which is the group's core business, retains a poor image. Temporary staff are still largely associated with lower grade clerical or secretarial workers who cannot find "proper" full-time jobs. So something that improves the visibility and reputation of temporary employment has a clear appeal.

Also, Adecco has, through organic growth and acquisitions, changed dramatically in recent times, becoming a company with 6,000 offices in 70 countries and facing the daunting task of placing 700,000 employees every day. In addition to placing temporary secretaries, it now also finds jobs for highly qualified specialist staff and career counselling for executives through Ajilon and Lee Hecht Harrison, two of its three divisions.

Mr Caille acknowledges that the IOC partnership should boost perceptions of Adecco's international coverage and scope. "The athletes' programme requires all three (divisions)," he says. "It will help to broaden understanding that Adecco is more than a leader in temporary staffing."

A further reason is that Adecco is in need of some good publicity. Last year, its credibility was dented with the discovery of procedural irregularities at its big North American operations. This led to an investor relations disaster as the company became a victim of the draconian new Sarbanes -Oxley legislation on compliance.

With so much resting on the IOC scheme, Adecco can hardly afford to fail. The most obvious difficulty - the fact that many athletes lack formal qualifications - may not be too serious, says Mr Caille. Company research suggests that personal attributes such as a willingness to work, motivation, leadership and adaptability, are as important, if not more so, for most employers as academic qualifications or technical skills. "Whether it is setting goals and working hard to achieve them, experience in team building, or knowledge and competence in different cultures," says Mr Caille, "these are all things top athletes have."

The biggest problem, he reckons, will be rebuilding the pride and self-confidence that many athletes say are the first things to go when they realise that their sporting careers are really over. "I felt absolutely lost," says Pedro Garcia, a 36-year-old Spanish silver medallist at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 and winner of gold at Atlanta four years later.

"For 17 years, water polo was my life - like having a job. But, in my discipline, people have to retire between 32 and 34. My problem was that I didn't have much formal education. In water polo, you hardly have time to study."

Mr Garcia, the beneficiary of a preliminary programme between Adecco's Spanish subsidiary and the national Olympic committee, is an early success story. Within three months of joining the scheme, he had found an attractive job in a hotel group. Now, six months later, he is even wondering about branching out on his own one day. Adecco must hope his experience will prove exemplary.

HOW THE ATHLETES’ PROGRAMME WORKS

Many Olympic athletes train and compete while studying for careers or holding down full-time jobs. But for those who have devoted less time to schooling or outside skills, the prospect of securing a job in sports administration, coaching or the media is a distant one.

Another problem is the varying age of the Olympians. Gymnasts typically terminate their sports careers in their early 20s, whereas equestrians often continue into their 40s. It is often more difficult for older sports people to enter the conventional labour market.

Adecco's careers programme is accordingly tailored to each individual. Typically, participants are given an initial twoday "transition seminar" providing support to help them confront their new situations.

After this, there are intensive interviews, with each athlete being allocated an individual "coach". The first session assesses motivation, skills and availability. Later sessions focus on preparing CVs and improving interview technique.