CEO Survey : Talent still important
A new study conducted by PWC found CEOs across the world are currently, and understandably, concerned about ‘survival’ as opposed to ‘growth’. But make no mistake ‘talent’ is very much on the agenda. In fact an overwhelming 72% think that talent is a ‘source of competitive advantage in sustaining long-term growth’
Asked the question ‘Considering the talent required for the success of your business, what are the key challenges you face?’, a majority (69%) think skill shortage is the biggest challenge.
Ralph Norris, CEO of Commonwealth Bank, was quoted in the report:
“Clearly, we’re going to see a situation where the war for talent is only going to increase in intensity…As a result, we’re doing a lot of thinking at the moment about how we handle workforce flexibility and the different requirements of the various generations that comprise our staff. At the moment, we have four generations of people working in our organisation: those born during the Second World War, the Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y”
Don’t be sidetracked by the alarmists or short-term recessionary bumps. Talent recruitment and management will be an enduring challenge for organisations in the future.
The report is a must read, it can be downloaded here. (warning large file)
This is a great topic and post however the reality is that CEO’s and Boards have been going on about this same ‘talent’ spiel since I have been in HR, so well over 12 years. They can be ‘concerned’ but where is the action to drive change on the topic of talent attraction and retention? They should be more than concerned as most organizations success is dependent on having top talent.
Where are leaders and innovators out there in the talent space? Who is driving change when it comes to workforce planning, developing a more contemporary and relevant recruitment process for the information and technology age? Yes, some are using new media and better databases to manage people and resume – however it is not enough and is the easy part of the process to bundle them into a system. The hard part is the workforce planning, building relationships with prospective talent, developing existing staff, succession planning. Who is doing this well?
Unfortunately too many still don’t have the basics in place, so whatever they do beyond this will be adequate at best. It is a challenging issue that CEO’s face and realistically not many are taking real steps to address it. See ‘Getting Talent On Board’ http://anthillonline.com/getting-talent-on-board as a starting point.
Hi Kelly,
Good point. I liked your ideas http://anthillonline.com/getting-talent-on-board, . Perhaps, the current downturn is a good time to work on a strategy.
Cheers
Phillip
@Kelly..I agree with your points. Besides, building relationships, developing existing staff, there is something more important, that is talent assessment part, because a company may have have to pay-off in the future for hiring unsuitable talent. For a successful, talent assessment, a company must look into the relevancy of the job description and also design a test meticulously regarding teh KSA of a job to thoroughly gauge a talent.