TALENT


Almost two decades after a McKinsey study first coined the term ‘war for talent’, how are the battle lines for global talent management moving amid rising employment, flatter hierarchies, more-international talent pools, growing skills shortages, and multigenerational workforces? Ruth Holmes surveys the scene.


T


he war for talent, as originally outlined in the 1997 paper reporting a year-long McKinsey study, described talent – people who are technologically literate, globally astute and


operationally agile – as the most important corporate resource over the next 20 years, thanks to demographic change and knowledge- intensive work. Nearly 20 years on, these ideas still hold sway. After two


tumultuous decades of disruptive technologies, increasing competition, and rapidly evolving new sectors and economies, people ultimately create competitive advantage. Yet most economies the world over still face a shortage of people with the right skills. Manpower Group’s 2015 Talent Shortage Survey found that 38


per cent of 41,000 hiring managers in 42 countries had problems filling jobs – a two percentage-point rise from 2014 and the highest rate since 2007. For around three- quarters of employers in the survey, the battle to hire workers was due to candidates’ lack of experience, skills or knowledge. Regionally, 48 per cent of Asia Pacific’s


employers have difficulty filling vacancies, versus a global average of 34 per cent. Employers in Japan, Hong Kong and India (83 per cent, 65 per cent and 58 per cent respectively) report the greatest shortfalls. Across the Americas, it is employers in Peru (68 per cent), Brazil (61 per cent) and Mexico (54 per cent) who have the greatest difficulty recruiting. The data for EMEA tells a similar story,


with employers in Romania (61 per cent), Greece (59 per cent) and Turkey (52 per cent) struggling most. Despite the different geographies, the issues are the same: not enough people with the right skills to fill the gaps. It is, therefore, easy to see why talent


management is featuring increasingly in the global mobility sphere. Brookfield’s 2015 Trends and Insights for Asia Pacific, for instance, shows that it has come to the forefront as an issue for employers. Mobility has a key role in addressing global talent shortages, with GM and HR practitioners on the front line of bringing together talent in more-dynamic ways.


Talent: make or buy? Arguably, the issue of the movement of people around the world


has never been higher on either the political or the enterprise agenda. This summer’s migrant crisis in Europe, and the UK’s parallel debate about how the country can bridge its skills gap, is colliding with companies competing hard to attract, recruit, manage and develop a more diverse workforce. The Economist’s New Work Order talent management summit,


which took place in London in June, picked up these themes. Talent management and leadership expert Clare Moncrieff, HR executive adviser at business insight and technology company CEB, presented findings from CEB’s research at the event.


fits-all talent strategies, and instead understand the diverse preferences and expectations of different talent segments to meet current and future business needs. “Finally, talent management is more distributed. The line is


increasingly engaged in talent management, which leads to more- fractured ownership of a function that was already dispersed and disconnected within HR.”


Talent management 4.0 One of the upshots of this shifting context is that half of


HR professionals lack confidence in their programmes for high-potential workers – those traditionally targeted for talent management initiatives – according to CEB’s research, Improving the Odds of Success for High-Potential Programmes. CEB found that half of programme participants dropped out


within five years and 46 per cent of leaders moving into new roles failed in their objectives. The CIPD’s Autumn 2014 Employee Outlook paper echoes this from an employee perspective: one in


Speaking to Re:locate, Ms Moncrieff described the summit’s


four key themes. “First, the work environment is more complex than ever


before. HR leaders agree that the magnitude of change today is greater than just three years ago; organisations face more new and unexpected situations, which have created a moving target for anticipating talent needs. “Work is also more interconnected. As workflows become


more interdependent, employees and business units rely more on each other to achieve their goals. “The workforce make-up is changing. Shifting workforce demographics mean that companies should abandon one-size-


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